The fourth Bitcoin halving has come and gone without too much fanfare. On April 20th the 840,000th block was mined. BTC prices were relatively stable despite the fact that scarcity has officially increased for the fourth time. The relative calm has created a scenario whereby cryptos to buy may emerge.
Moving forward, miners will now receive 3.125 BTC for each successfully mined block. BTC is therefore more scarce and thus should increase in value. Prices have historically risen before and after each halving event. Investors should also expect volatility as the market adjusts to a variety of new factors surrounding Bitcoin. Not least of which is Bitcoin ETFs.
The fact that Bitcoin is becoming more tightly ingrained with the current Financial system is one reason to expect further improvements. I’ll discuss that in just a moment.
The overarching point is that investors should expect opportunities across crypto as the sector matures following the fourth halving of Bitcoin.
Cryptos to Buy: Bitcoin (BTC-USD)
Find any list of cryptos to buy and you’re likely to see Bitcoin (BTC-USD). Investors could hardly be blamed for feeling that Bitcoin was doomed following its collapse in late 2021. The beginning of the end for the quantitative easing experiment truly felt like the death of speculation at the time.
Many investors thought the crypto experiment was over. A return to more traditional and time-tested fiat currency was the obvious reaction. Yet, something interesting has happened in the interim between the 2021 collapse and today: Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have instead become more mainstream.
Bitcoin ETFs have been approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), paving the way for mainstream Bitcoin adoption. Demand should rise as mainstream accessibility to bitcoin as an investment increases. Combine that with the fact that supply is now more limited due to the halving, and price increases make even more sense.
My feeling is that investors at large have grown sick of centralized banks. In turn, they’ve grown more accepting of crypto despite its dangers. Bitcoin, as the leading crypto, is well positioned as a result due to the aforementioned combination of factors.
Solana (SOL-USD)
Solana (SOL-USD) is up more than 600% over the past 12 months. Investors like Solana because it offers an alternative to Ethereum (ETH-USD) with lower fees and faster transaction speeds.
That has come with some pros and cons, namely a spike in memecoin activity on the network. That said, I still see a bright future ahead for Solana even as memecoin mania dies down.
It’s also momentarily cheaper as dozens of Solana memecoin pre sales have been abandoned over the past month. It was inevitable that speculative memecoin development would occur on the Solana network given its strengths. The fact that many of those pre-sales have failed to launch is not an indictment of Solana at all. To the contrary, it is indicative of its strength.
The Bitcoin halving will probably pull all ships higher and Solana is one of the most seaworthy. The momentary price drop is an opportunity.
Cryptos to Buy: Ethereum (ETH-USD)
Ethereum continues to serve as the base layer of Web 3.0. The Ethereum blockchain is the layer upon which most DeFi projects, NFTs, and smart contracts are executed.
That isn’t going to change soon and is a great reason to consider investing following the Bitcoin halving. Ethereum tends to outperform Bitcoin during bull cycles. There tends to be substantial bullishness surrounding halvings meaning ETH looks good currently.
Yes, Solana will continue to challenge Ethereum during the coming years. Yet, it makes sense to be invested in both at the moment. Both have risen in price substantially over the past year as Bitcoin pulls everything higher. In time, one will emerge as the clear winner. Investors should take advantage of the lack of clarity at the moment as both rise.
Furthermore, Ethereum has turned deflationary following its shift to a proof of stake model. Investors will need to continue judging the project on its individual merits as well as on the basis of its competitive advantages and disadvantages with Solana. For now, it represents a strong balance of both.
Render (RNDR-USD)
Render (RNDR-USD) will continue to garner a lot of attention for a number of reasons. Those factors boil down to utility and artificial intelligence (AI). Both utility and AI are relevant to crypto now.
Render provides utility in that it allows anyone to sell excess GPU in their devices. Thus, the question of what Render does can be quickly answered. That stands in stark contrast to many other cryptocurrencies which lack utility. Real world utility will translate to long-term success more than any other factor when it comes to separating the crypto wheat from the chaff.
The other point here is that Render leverages GPU which is directly connected to AI. GPU chips are in high demand for their application to artificial intelligence. It is especially relevant to generative AI used to create graphics-based content.
Render doesn’t have any direct connection to Bitcoin. Instead, it’s just a good project to consider as Bitcoin pulls everything higher and demand around AI continues to strengthen.
Cryptos to Buy: Bittensor (TAO-USD)
Bittensor (TAO-USD) has established its strength in a similar manner to many of the most important cryptocurrencies. It’s really about lending individual resources to successful projects and making markets. Those successful projects can then return those resources to the lender with interest. In that regard, it is akin to investing 101.
However, in this case we aren’t talking about lending money to a company that later becomes successful. Instead, we are talking about lending computational power to successful machine learning (ML) based tasks. The project’s overarching goal is to connect machine learning models in a way that creates value. The net result is a ML based network protocol that has proven successful over the past year and beyond.
You, me, and anyone else with excess computational power can lend it to Bittensor. In return, we will be rewarded with TAO. Those who have done so over the past year were rewarded handsomely. While TAO has fallen of late those investors are still well ahead.
Bitcoin has plenty of room to rise again in the wake of the halving and that promises to spike TAO higher again.
Dogecoin (DOGE-USD)
Dogecoin (DOGE-USD) provides outsized returns when the crypto market surges. The crypto market surges on the strength of Bitcoin. Its role as a market leader is well established.
The point here is that when Bitcoin surged above $70,000 in the pre-halving mania of March, Dogecoin surged by nearly 80%. Dogecoin is currently headed down from its peak of 22 cents achieved in early April. However, it has still essentially doubled in 2024.
By now everyone knows what Dogecoin is: a unique asset that captures the spirit of speculation while having almost no utility. Normally, that would and should deter investors. However, Dogecoin is a unique enigma serving as a counterpoint to that idea.
To me it is the epitome of speculation and a relative stability rolled into one cryptocurrency. No other memecoin offers that combination of factors quite like Dogecoin does. So, despite all of the negatives surrounding it, it is still worth considering. Bitcoin rises by X percent, Dogecoin rises by X percent plus.
Fetch.ai (FET-USD)
Last on the list of cryptos to buy is Fetch.ai (FET-USD). Fetch.ai is inherently connected to the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning. AI and ML are two of the most important factors driving markets higher at present. The native token of Fetch.ai, FET, facilitates the decentralization of AI and ML.
I believe it’s particularly relevant because investors have, over the past 3 years, switched from Web 3.0 to AI. My guess is that they will now focus on the combination thereof. Of course, Fetch.ai marries those two factors making it attractive.
The Bitcoin halving has transpired. Historically, there is a period of volatility that creates opportunity following a halving. If Web 3.0/AI/ML projects continue to gain steam it’s easy to see why FET is a reasonable bet.
The project is still up nearly 600% over the past year even after falling nearly $1 to $2.20. If optimism rebounds again it’ll be very easy for FET to reach $3 quickly, providing rapid returns for investors. The wild west of cryptocurrency is still very much a place to make a fast buck.
On the date of publication, Alex Sirois did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
