5 Best Cryptocurrencies to Invest in for December 2024
From Bitcoin to Dogecoin to Cardano, you will find hundreds if not thousands of potential cryptocurrency projects to invest in. If you’re looking for the best crypto coins to buy right now then here’s a list of my favorite cryptocurrencies to invest in and HODL for the long term.
1. Bitcoin (BTC)
- Market Cap: $1.1 trillion
- Circulating Supply: 18 Million
- Total Max Supply: 21 Million
Bitcoin is the original and oldest cryptocurrency created by someone or a team of developers under the psedoname, Satoshi Nakamoto. BTC runs on a public blockchain that verifies every transaction using a proof of work model to protect the network against hackers and provide mining rewards to Bitcoin miners.
Bitcoin could become the global reserve currency of the future because countries like El Salvador and Paraguay already passed legalization to accept BTC as legal tender.
Bitcoin’s price is up 6,000% over the last 5 years from around $500 in 2016 to around $33,000 right now.
2. Ethereum (ETH)
- Market Cap: $511 billion
- Circulating Supply: 118 million
- Total Max Supply: N/A
Ethereum is another hugely popular cryptocurrency with lots of long term potential due to its scarcity and flexibility. Ether is capable of using smart contracts to power DEfi and NFT projects. It plays a major role in the crypto industry and has nearly 4x the number of transactions daily than Bitcoin.
Ethereum’s price has gained over 22,000% in just 5 years from as little as $11 to around $2,200 currently.
3. Cardano (ADA)
- Market Cap: $43 billion
- Circulating Supply: 66 billion
- Total Max Supply: 45 billion
Cardano is a newer cryptocurrency that’s gained a lot of popularity due to its energy efficient proof of stake consensus and greater total supply. With millions of people around the world lacking a true identity, Cardano can use smart contracts to give these people a “digital identity” to store their information such as health records, school tests, driver’s license, etc.
Right now, Ethereum dominates the smart contact developers but some may shift to the Cardano blockchain due to its lower energy usage and much cheaper transaction fees.
Cardano’s price is up over 1,000% over the last year from 4 cents to around $1.33.
4. Dogecoin (DOGE)
- Market Cap: $37 billion
- Circulating Supply: 130 billion
- Total Max Supply: N/A (5 billion DOGE coins added annually)
Dogecoin is the latest meme cryptocurrency to soar in price after Elon Musk began tweeting about it in 2019. Two developers created DOGE as a joke with an unlimited max supply, which works perfectly for most modern day currencies.
Since last year alone, DOGE is up over 20,000% and there are a number of Dogecoin millionaires in mainstream media due to DOGE’s epic run.
5. Aave (AAVE)
- Market Cap: $4.2 billion
- Circulating Supply: 12 million
- Total Max Supply: 16 million
Aave, formerly known as LEND, AAVE is the leading DeFI token in the decentralized finance industry. Aave allows you to easily borrow and lend crypto using their platform that’s based off the Ethereum blockchain.
Aave also allows its holders to stake the Aave token and earn around 6% interest to provide liquidity to the network in case of an emergency. A large portion of Aave is currently staked, which means Aave could rise in price as more crypto investors buy Aaave to earn interest.
Since its inception in 2017, Aave is up over 10,000% and continues to lead the DeFI market in terms of total value locked.