12 Best Crypto to Buy Right Now — July 2023

Are you looking to invest in cryptocurrencies but unsure which one to buy? With so many options available, it can be overwhelming to decide how to invest your money. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best crypto to buy now, based on factors such as project developments, price performance, and market capitalization, as well as the overall potential for growth.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the most promising cryptocurrencies, including staples such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, and a combination of several other promising crypto projects. We’ll discuss their features, advantages, and potential drawbacks, as well as provide insights into market trends. Whether you’re a seasoned investor or just starting out, this article will help you make an informed decision about the best crypto to buy now. 

So, let’s dive in and explore the best cryptocurrencies to invest in 2023:

1. XRP – A leading crypto-powered payment solution
2. Polygon – A popular scaling solution for Ethereum
3. Cardano – One of the largest blockchain ecosystems
4. Bitcoin – The world’s oldest and largest crypto
5. Ethereum – The leading DeFi and smart contract platform
6. Shiba Inu – A NFT, DeFi, and blockchain gaming project
7. Litecoin – A P2P open-source project similar to Bitcoin
8. Lido DAO Token – The largest liquid staking provider
9. Kava – An interoperable platform built on Cosmos
10. Cosmos – A leading interoperability-focused blockchain project
11. Arbitrum – A scaling protocol for Ethereum
12. BNB – The native asset of the BNB Chain and Binance ecosystem

Best cryptos to buy right now

The following three cryptocurrency projects highlight our investment selection thanks to important developments and upcoming events that make them especially interesting to follow in the near future. These projects are updated each week based on the most recent developments and trends taking place in the crypto market.

1. XRP 

XRP is a digital cryptocurrency that was created by Ripple Labs in 2012. It is used as a means of payment and transfer of value on the Ripple payment protocol, which is designed to enable fast and secure transactions between financial institutions, as well as individuals.

XRP is unique in that it is not based on the blockchain technology used by many other cryptocurrencies. Instead, it uses a distributed consensus ledger called the XRP Ledger, which is maintained by a network of validators. This allows for faster transaction processing times and lower fees compared to traditional payment methods.

XRP has been popular among cryptocurrency traders and investors due to its high liquidity and clear potential for broader adoption, especially as a remittance solution. However, it has also been the subject of controversy and legal action, with US regulators alleging that it is a security and should thus be subjected to securities regulations. This has somewhat hindered the potential of XRP as an investment, and handcuffed Ripple’s growth as a company.

Why XRP?

Earlier this year, Ripple requested access to the Hinman documents during the legal process including the blockchain company and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which the court granted. The SEC tried to keep the documents sealed, but on May 16, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that they (Hinman documents) should be made public. The contents of the documents could potentially affect the public perception of the SEC and Ripple’s defense.

The latest ruling does not determine the final outcome of the case, but it denied certain motions to seal from both Ripple and the SEC. There is speculation that the court may fine Ripple for its early XRP sales but not consider secondary sales as securities. However, it is still uncertain how the court will rule.

Since the judge’s decision regarding what can or cannot be sealed (e.g. the Hinman emails), many people are discussing a split decision: Ripple gets tagged for early #XRP sales but ODL and secondary market sales are found to be non-securities (and #XRP itself is not a security).

— John E Deaton (@JohnEDeaton1) May 18, 2023

Prominent lawyers and experts in the crypto community have shared their thoughts on the case. John E. Deaton, a lawyer focused on blockchain and the founder of the Crypto Law web portal, believes that a “split decision is likely”.

The markets responded to the latest XRP news positively – the XRP coin gained roughly +8% in the past week, fourth-most out of any coin in the cryptocurrency top 100 in the same time period.

2. Polygon 

Polygon, formerly known as Matic Network, is a Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum that aims to provide faster and cheaper transactions while maintaining the security and decentralization of the Ethereum network.

Polygon uses a PoS consensus mechanism to validate transactions, which reduces the energy consumption and environmental impact of the network compared to the PoW consensus, which is most prominently used by Bitcoin. By using Polygon, developers can build and deploy dApps with lower fees, faster transaction speeds, and a better user experience.

The native cryptocurrency of Polygon is MATIC, which is used for transactions, staking, and governance on the network. MATIC is an ERC-20 token, meaning it runs on the Ethereum blockchain and can be stored in any wallet that supports ERC-20 tokens.

Polygon has gained popularity in the cryptocurrency industry as a solution to Ethereum’s scalability issues and has been adopted by various dApps, including Aave, Sushiswap, and Curve Finance. The network has also partnered with other blockchain projects, including Polkadot and Chainlink, to enable cross-chain interoperability.

Why Polygon?

In June, the Polygon team announced Polygon 2.0, pitching it as “the Value Layer of the Internet” that will “expand Ethereum to Internet-scale”. Among other things, the new version of Polygon will see the MATIC token get replaced by the new POL token.

1/ Polygon 2.0 is a concrete vision to build the Value Layer of the Internet, and expand Ethereum to Internet-scale.

It is a series of proposals for unlimited scalability & unified liquidity.

Why is this such a big deal? 🧵 pic.twitter.com/Jv7PvRfxFN

— Polygon (@0xPolygon) June 22, 2023

On July 13, Polygon Labs published a blog post focused on the tokenomics of Polygon 2.0. According to the official post, POL will be a “hyperproductive token”. This means that POL will not only allow holders to receive rewards in exchange for validating the Polygon chain, but it will also allow validators to validate multiple chains. In addition, “Every chain can offer multiple roles (and corresponding rewards) to validators,” the team stated.

There are several benefits POL is reportedly bringing to the table, including greater ecosystem security, infinite scalability, ecosystem support, less friction, and enhanced governance. In addition, POL will provide three different incentive mechanisms. Here’s how the team explained it:

1. Protocol rewards: The staking protocol continuously emits predefined amounts of POL and distributes them to all active validators as the base, protocol reward. These rewards would replace MATIC protocol rewards that Polygon validators currently receive.
2. Transaction fees: As mentioned above, validators are allowed to validate any number of chains, and they normally collect transaction fees from all those chains.
3. Additional rewards: To attract more validators, some Polygon chains can choose to introduce additional rewards. These rewards can be in any token, including but not limited to POL, stablecoins, or native tokens of those Polygon chains.

In addition to the news surrounding Polygon 2.0 and POL, Polygon saw renewed interest from investors in the past week thanks to the monumental ruling by the US court, which basically stated that the sale of cryptocurrencies on exchanges isn’t subject to securities regulation. Polygon’s MATIC is one of the currencies the US regulator is going after, so its no surprise that MATIC surged over +20% on the news (for additional information regarding the ruling, check the “Why XRP” section above).

3. Cardano 

Cardano was founded by Charles Hoskinson, one of the co-founders of Ethereum, and his team. The main goal of Cardano is to provide a secure, scalable, and sustainable infrastructure for the development of decentralized applications (DApps) and smart contracts.

Cardano’s blockchain is built using a unique layered architecture, separating the settlement layer from the computation layer. This design approach aims to improve the efficiency, flexibility, and security of the platform. The settlement layer is responsible for handling transactions and maintaining the cryptocurrency (ADA) ledger, while the computation layer is used for running smart contracts and executing DApps.

The platform utilizes a consensus algorithm called Ouroboros, which is a type of proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism. This means that validators (also known as stakeholders) are selected to create new blocks and validate transactions based on the amount of ADA they hold and are willing to “stake” as collateral.

Cardano has a strong focus on academic research and peer-reviewed development. The team emphasizes scientific rigor and evidence-based protocols to ensure that the platform is secure, scalable, and capable of handling complex use cases.

Why Cardano?

Cardano is another cryptocurrency that rallied by more than +20% following last week’s ruling of XRP not being a security (in some cases). The reason for the price surge is the fact that the SEC labeled ADA as a potential security back in June lawsuit against Coinbase. Thanks to the favorable ruling, ADA markets exploded with bullish activity, and one has to wonder how long will the positive sentiment last.

In addition to the legal matters, Cardano’s price rally could be attributed to other more fundamental factors as well. One of those factors was Hoskinson’s (likely tongue-in-cheek) proposal of Algorand becoming a sidechain of Cardano. “It might be prudent for Algorand to consider becoming a sidechain of Cardano. Always here to help,” Cardano founder wrote. 

For smaller blockchains, becoming a sidechain of Cardano could help save on operating costs and leverage Cardano’s immense treasury and brand recognition. On the other hand, Cardano could benefit from sidechains thanks to the increased scalability. In any case, it seems that Hoskinson’s proposal wasn’t all that serious, but it still highlights Cardano’s potential of absorbing other chains to rival Ethereum and BSC.

Another encouraging metric that shows increased activity in the Cardano ecosystem is the growing TVL. According to DeFi Llama, Cardano’s TVL grew from $66 million at the beginning of the year to $228 million at the time of writing. 

The best cryptocurrencies to invest in 2023

4. Bitcoin

Bitcoin (BTC) is the original decentralized digital currency, enabling peer-to-peer transactions without the need for intermediaries such as banks or financial institutions. It was created in 2009 by an unknown person or group of people using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin was the first digital currency to eliminate the double spending problem without resorting to any central intermediaries.

Bitcoin transactions are recorded on a public ledger called the blockchain, which is maintained by a network of computers around the world. This means that the transactions are secure and transparent, as anyone can view them but they are also anonymous, as the identity of the participants in the transaction is not revealed.

BTC can be bought and sold on cryptocurrency exchanges, and they can be stored in a digital wallet, which is a software program that securely stores private keys that are required to access and transfer the currency.

Bitcoin is often referred to as “digital gold” or a store of value, as it has a limited supply of 21 million coins, and its value is determined by market demand. Some people also see it as a hedge against inflation or a way to diversify their investment portfolio. It is by far the largest cryptocurrency by market cap in the industry, accounting for the value of more than 40% of all digital assets in circulation combined, making it arguably the most popular crypto to buy.

Why Bitcoin?

Bitcoin has reached a yearly high above $31,000, following turmoil in the markets parked by the SEC lawsuit against Binance and Coinbase in early June. In addition, Bitcoin has been performing better than most major digital assets in the past month, providing an exceptionally robust safe haven for crypto investors that want to safeguard their wealth.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is showing year-to-date (YTD) gains of over +82%, which is more than any other cryptocurrency in the top 20, including Ethereum (+56%), XRP (+40%), Cardano (+17%), and Solana (+74%). 

In addition, the next Bitcoin halving event is approaching and is expected to take place in late March 2024. Bitcoin halving is an event that halves the rewards miners receive for each block. In the next halving, the fourth one in Bitcoin history, this reward will drop from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. It is worth noting that Bitcoin halvings have historically been major price catalysts for BTC and the rest of the crypto market.

Historically, each Bitcoin halving cycle has brought new all-time highs, supporting the argument of those that advocate buying Bitcoin ahead of a halving event. Here’s a quick breakdown of the highest and lowest prices in each cycle as well as the BTC price at the time of each halving:

	Lowest Price	Highest Price	BTC Price at Date of Halving
1st Halving Cycle (Nov 2012 – Jul 2016)	$12.4	$1,170	$12.3 (Nov 28, 2012)
2nd Halving Cycle (Jul 2016 – May 2020)	$535	$19,400	$680 (Jul 9, 2016)
3rd Halving Cycle (May 2020 – Mar 2024)*	$8,590	$67,450	$8,590 (May 11, 2020)

5. Ethereum

Launched in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin and a team of developers, Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that allows developers to build decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts. 

Ethereum has a wide range of use cases beyond just a store of value or medium of exchange. Ethereum’s smart contract functionality allows developers to build dApps that can run without the need for intermediaries, like centralized servers or institutions.

The Ethereum platform has gained widespread adoption and has become the backbone of the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry. DeFi applications built on Ethereum allow users to access financial services without relying on traditional banks or financial institutions. Ethereum’s smart contract functionality has also enabled the creation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which have gained popularity in the digital art and gaming worlds.

While Ethereum has a strong community and has been highly influential in the cryptocurrency industry, it also faces challenges, such as scalability issues and high gas fees. These issues have spurred the development of various Layer 2 scaling solutions. In the long run, future updates are supposed to massively increase Ethereum’s throughput bringing the transaction per second (TPS) figure from 15 to 100,000.

Why Ethereum?

Following last year’s Merge, which saw Ethereum transition from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS), a new major upgrade to hit the Ethereum network went live on April 12th. “Shapella”, as the new upgrade is called, has unlocked ETH locked in the Beacon Deposit Contract, giving validators a chance to withdraw their assets. 

At the moment, there is over $44 billion worth of ETH locked in the contract, which means that the amount of locked ETH increased post-Shapella – on the day of the upgrade, there was roughly 18 million ETH locked in the contract, whereas now, there are more than 23 million. 

The dev team commented on the upgrade, clarifying that partial withdrawals will be available only for active balances above 32 ETH: 

“Full withdrawals will be available for exited validators, whereas partial withdrawals will be available for active validator balances in excess of 32 ETH.“ 

The new update has a different name for each of the layers – it is called “Capella” on the consensus layer and “Shanghai” on the execution layer – and devs combined the two as “Shappella”.

According to a DeFi analytics platform DeFi Llama, Ethereum has a commanding lead ahead of other smart contract platforms. As of June 26th, there are more than 830 protocols running on Ethereum, with a combined TVL of more than $27 billion. Meanwhile, the second place TRON has 23 protocols with a combined TVL of “just” $5.62 billion.

6. Shiba Inu

Shiba Inu is a cryptocurrency that was created in August 2020 by an anonymous person or group of people under the pseudonym “Ryoshi”. It is an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, which means it is a digital asset that is compatible with the Ethereum network and can be stored in any wallet that supports ERC-20 tokens.

Shiba Inu gained popularity in 2021 after it was listed on several cryptocurrency exchanges and gained attention on social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit. In fact, SHIB’s 2021 run is still one of the most impressive runs in crypto history, as the meme coin gained over 430,000x in a span of the year. It is often compared to Dogecoin, another meme-inspired cryptocurrency, as it features the Shiba Inu dog breed as its mascot.

However, unlike Dogecoin, the project aims to create a decentralized ecosystem for a variety of use cases, including decentralized exchanges, NFTs, and more. The development team has also created a Shiba Inu-themed decentralized exchange called ShibaSwap.

Why Shiba Inu?

In a July 6 blog post, Shiba Inu lead developer Shytoshi Kusama revealed that Shibarium is likely launching in August 2023. In addition to Shibarium, Doggy DAO updates and other considerable ecosystem developments will reportedly be announced in August at the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto.

According to the post, Shibarum and related updates will be unveiled throughout Summer, in what Shytoshi calls “Shibarium Summer”. Among other things, changes to Doggy DAO, Shiba Inu’s decentralized autonomous organization, will see different tokens govern different parts of the ecosystem in the following fashion:

• SHIB governs the community itself.
• BONE governs and supports the community’s technology (e.g., SHIBARIUM gas fees).
• LEASH governs the community’s protection and also provides exclusivity.
• TREAT governs and empowers community projects.

With a circulating supply of roughly 590 trillion tokens and a market cap of over $4.5 billion, Shiba Inu is unlikely to reach price milestones many users want to see, such as 1 dollar, 50 cents, or even 1 cent. The reason is simple: if SHIB were to reach 1 dollar, for instance, its market cap would be $590 trillion. That’s just not feasible.

However, with Shiba Inu targeting an August release date for Shibarium, a scaling solution that aims to make transactions cheaper and faster while burning SHIB for each transaction made on the platform, we could see SHIB’s supply drastically decrease going forward. That could have a significant impact on the price of the Shiba Inu coin thanks to deflationary mechanics set to go live with Shibarium.

7. Litecoin

Litecoin is a peer-to-peer digital cryptocurrency that was created in 2011 by Charlie Lee, a former Google engineer. It was designed to be a faster and more lightweight alternative to Bitcoin.

One of the main advantages of Litecoin is its faster transaction processing times compared to Bitcoin. Litecoin transactions are processed in approximately 2.5 minutes, compared to Bitcoin’s average block time of 10 minutes. This allows for faster confirmation of transactions and potentially higher transaction throughput.

Litecoin also uses a different mining algorithm than Bitcoin, known as Scrypt, which is designed to be more memory-intensive and less susceptible to centralized mining. This means that Litecoin can be mined using standard consumer-grade hardware, whereas Bitcoin mining requires specialized equipment and significant energy consumption.

Why Litecoin?

Following the launch of Bitcoin Ordinals earlier this year, the Ordinals (ORDI) project has found its way to Litecoin as well. Ordinals allow users to inscribe audio and images on the blockchain, much like NFTs. However, they don’t require smart contacts. In addition, the recent developments have unlocked the potential for Bitcoin and Litecoin to support the creation of new tokens, under the LRC-20 token standard.

The launch of the LRC-20 token standard and blockchain inscriptions have introduced two completely new use cases for Litecoin, a cryptocurrency that has mostly been used exclusively for storing value and for value transfers up until this point.

In addition, some investors believe that Litecoin’s positive market performance in the past couple of months could be a precursor of things to come as the next Litecoin halving approaches. According to TradingView, previous halvings saw Litecoin rally considerably in the period before and after the halving event, which could be the case again. 

The next halving is slated for August 8th, 2023, and will reduce mining rewards from 12.5 LTC to 6.25 LTC. 

8. Lido DAO Token

Lido is a DeFi project that allows users to earn rewards on their cryptocurrency holdings by staking them on several blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Polkadot, and Kusama.

Staking is the process of locking up cryptocurrency as collateral to help validate transactions and maintain the security of a blockchain network, and in return, stakers receive rewards in the form of additional cryptocurrency.

Users that stake their ETH with Lido receive a tokenized representation of their staked ETH – called stETH – at a 1:1 ratio. StETH represents the user’s share of the total ETH being staked in the Ethereum network, and it can be freely traded on cryptocurrency exchanges. 

One of the benefits of using Lido is that it allows users to earn rewards on their staked ETH without having to run their own staking node, which can be technically complex and require 32 ETH, which is out of reach for most cryptocurrency users. Instead, Lido pools user funds together to create a large validator node, with each user receiving a share of rewards based on their pool contribution. While Ethereum is by far the largest staking pool run by Lido, tokenized versions of other supported tokens are also available (stSOL for Solana, stDOT for Polkadot, etc.).

The Lido project is governed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that is controlled by LDO token holders, and LDO is used to incentivize participation in the governance process. Overall, Lido aims to make staking more accessible and user-friendly for the average cryptocurrency holder.

Why Lido DAO Token?

In February, the Lido developers announced a new version of the staking protocol, dubbed “Lido V2”, designed to allow users holding stETH to withdraw from Lido at a 1:1 ratio. The update rolled out on May 15th, with the final on-chain vote receiving unanimous support. 

— Lido (@LidoFinance) May 15, 2023

The update was initially slated for late April, but “safety measures,” including smart contract audits and testnet testing, delayed it by a few weeks per the team. The team has also explained that 270,000 ETH locked in the Lido vault has become available after the update:

“Post-upgrade, the ~270k ETH in the vault will be available, enabling the fulfillment of initial withdrawal requests without a lengthy validator exit process.”

As of writing, Lido is by far the largest liquid staking solution for Ethereum, accounting for over $13 billion worth of ETH. For context, the total staked ETH amount in the Beacon Deposit contract is just over $43 billion, which means that Lido accounts for over 30% of all staked ETH.

9. Kava

Kava is a cryptocurrency and blockchain platform designed to provide decentralized financial services, such as lending, borrowing, and trading, in a decentralized manner. The Kava platform is built on the Cosmos blockchain, which is a scalable and interoperable blockchain ecosystem. Kava utilizes its own native cryptocurrency called KAVA, which is used as a utility token within the Kava ecosystem to facilitate both governance and various utility use cases.

One of the key features of Kava is seamless interoperability between blockchain platforms, which allows users to share their crypto asset liquidity across different dApps and financial services. This feature enables users to earn interest on their deposited assets and access liquidity without having to swap cryptocurrencies when they want to access protocols across different blockchains.

Kava also supports the issuance of stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies pegged to the value of traditional fiat currencies, such as the US dollar. These stablecoins provide a stable store of value and can be used for transactions and investments within the Kava ecosystem. In addition, decentralized governance allows KAVA holders to participate in the decision-making process regarding platform upgrades and investments in new projects.

Why Kava?

The Kava team has announced that the Kava protocol will become the gateway for native Tether (USDT) on Cosmos, starting July 3rd. In addition, the next version of the Kava protocol, Kava 14, is launching on July 12th.

OFFICIAL: Kava 14 is set to launch on July 12th 🔴 pic.twitter.com/CbWE8NNywp

— Kava (@KAVA_CHAIN) June 23, 2023

Arguably the most important upgrade coming with Kava 14 is the internal bridge, which will allow users to “transfer native IBC assets from Cosmos to EVM ecosystems.” The cross-blockchain feature is set to further enhance Kava’s interoperability capabilities.

The second important announcement for the Kava ecosystem, the ability to mint native USDT on Kava, will enable users to transfer the stablecoin between EVM-compatible decentralized applications (dApps) and Comsos app chains. “Native stablecoins make moving liquidity across blockchain ecosystems quicker, less risky, and an overall smoother experience,” the Kava team explained the benefits of the new feature, and added:

“Native USDt will (finally) resolve Cosmos’ fragmented stablecoin liquidity issue.

USDt is the dominant, trusted value-storing asset for users and dApp builders with ~65% market adoption.”

These developments could further boost KAVA’s already impressive market performance – the currency has gained over +62% year-to-date (YTD), and grew by over +20% in the past month against a backdrop of the broader crypto rally.

10. Cosmos

Cosmos is a blockchain project designed to enable the interoperability and scalability of different blockchain networks, dubbed the “Internet of Blockchains”. The native cryptocurrency of the Cosmos network is called ATOM.

Cosmos aims to address some of the key challenges facing the blockchain industry, including the lack of interoperability between different blockchain networks, scalability issues, and the need for greater efficiency in transaction processing.

The Cosmos network achieves interoperability by allowing different blockchains to communicate with each other through a shared hub called the Cosmos Hub, which acts as a central point of communication for different blockchains, enabling them to transfer assets and data between each other.

The Cosmos network also utilizes a PoS consensus mechanism, which allows for greater scalability and energy efficiency compared to PoW consensus mechanisms. Overall, Cosmos aims to create a more interconnected and scalable blockchain ecosystem, and the ATOM cryptocurrency is used to incentivize participation in the network and facilitate transactions.

Why Cosmos?

After the v7 IBC update earlier in the year, a new release for the IBC interface (ibc-go v7.1.0) went live in the first half of June, bringing several improvements to the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol, one of the most popular interoperability solutions in the industry.

Introducing: ibc-go v7.1.0 🔭

The Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol keeps evolving towards creating a wide set of features that improve the UX and pave the way for new interchain applications to emerge.

The latest #IBC release brings exciting new features that strengthen… pic.twitter.com/o8wIDaXUPJ

— Cosmos – Internet of Blockchains ⚛️ (@cosmos) June 9, 2023

Among other things, the v7.1.0 upgrade introduced support for Localhost clients, which improves the overall user experience and allows users to interact with multiple smart contracts on the same chain via a unified interface. According to the Cosmos team, Localhost clients simplify cross-contracts and cross-chain transfers, making it easier to enable “local transfer with consistent guarantees” (which could improve the performance of the Osmosis DEX, for example).

In addition, the upgrade brought the recording total escrowed tokens functionality, allowing users to rate-limit IBC transfers across different chains. This allows users to keep track of the total amount of escrowed tokens between multiple channels and denominations (for example, when transferring value between Juno and Osmosis).

Another exciting development in the Cosmos ecosystem is the upcoming release of Eden v0.50, which will empower the application layer “to have more control over how the consensus engine conducts state machine replication,” and provide “more flexibility and customization options” to dApps. “This upgrade will not only allow Cosmos to compete with the fastest chains but also unlocks new use cases and applications,” the team explained on Twitter.

11. Arbitrum

Arbitrum is a layer 2 protocol designed to enhance scalability and reduce fees on the Ethereum blockchain developed by Offchain Labs. Arbitrum aims to address the limitations of the Ethereum network, such as high transaction costs and slower transaction confirmation times, by allowing for off-chain computation and scaling the network’s capacity.

Arbitrum achieves scalability by employing a technique known as optimistic rollups. Rollups are a type of layer 2 solution that enables the execution of smart contracts off-chain while maintaining the security and decentralization of the Ethereum mainnet. In an optimistic rollup, transactions are first processed off-chain and later submitted to the Ethereum network as a batch. The batch is verified through a cryptographic proof, which ensures the integrity and correctness of the computations.

By leveraging optimistic rollups, Arbitrum significantly increases the throughput of the Ethereum network, enabling a higher number of transactions to be processed at a lower cost. As a result, users can enjoy faster confirmation times and reduced fees compared to executing transactions directly on the Ethereum mainnet.

In March, the Arbitrum team announced the ARB token airdrop, which saw 1.162 billion ARB tokens distributed among eligible Arbitrum protocol users. The ARB token allows holders to participate in governance, essentially giving them a say in how the project is run. They can also be used for staking and for paying network transaction fees.

Why Arbitrum?

The Arbitrum community has voted in favor of a proposal that will lock 700 million ARB tokens (worth roughly $777 million at current market rates) for a duration of four years. The tokens will be locked into a vesting contract and released periodically.

The move comes in response to community concerns about the allocation of Arbitrum Treasury funds. The community will reportedly have the option to vote on additional proposals that could change the duration of the vesting period, the Arbitrum team noted on Twitter.

Hello Arbinauts! 💙🧡

The Arbitrum DAO overwhelming voted for AIP-1.1:https://t.co/C5xY0MCzVC

AIP-1.1 relates to the Arbitrum Foundation's budget. It states that our treasury of 700m ARB must be locked in a vesting contract. The treasury should be released to the Foundation…

— Arbitrum (💙,🧡) (@arbitrum) July 6, 2023

In addition to the change in ARB tokenomics policy, the native USDC launched on the Arbitrum chain in June. The native support for the USDC stablecoin, the second-largest stablecoin in the crypto ecosystem, replaced the “bridged USDC” used on Arbitrum with the native USDC.

There are several benefits to having native USDC support Arbitrum users can look forward to. According to the team, the main benefits include: 

“3/ Benefits of Native USDC:

✅Fully reserved and always redeemable 1:1 for US dollars
✅Enables institutional on/off-ramps via Circle and other partners
✅Upcoming support by #CCTP to eliminate bridge withdrawal delays”

The price of the ARB token saw positive market activity in the past month, showing a +8.3% monthly change at the time of writing (trading at $1.11 per token). The additional liquidity provided by native USDC and the vesting schedule changes could be a catalyst for extra funds flowing into the Arbitrum ecosystem, which would have a positive effect on the token’s price.

12. BNB

BNB (formerly Binance Coin) is a cryptocurrency created by the popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, allowing users to buy, sell, and trade a wide range of digital assets.

BNB was initially one of the ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain but has since migrated to its own blockchain, known as BNB Chain. BNB is used as a utility token within the Binance ecosystem and has a variety of use cases. For example, users can use BNB to pay for transaction fees on the Binance exchange, receive discounts on trading fees, participate in token sales on Binance Launchpad, and purchase goods and services from merchants that accept BNB as payment.

One of the unique features of BNB is that it has a deflationary model. Binance uses a part of its profits each quarter to buy back and burn BNB tokens, reducing the total supply of the token over time. This mechanism is designed to create scarcity and increase the value of BNB over time, with the end goal of reducing the circulating supply of BNB from the initial 200 million to 100 million BNB.

Why BNB?

A Layer 2 solution for BNB Smart Chain called opBNB launched on June 19. The launch follows a cryptic video announcement last week, which Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao retweeted, saying, “Currently at Layer 2. How many layers do you need?” Most users took the comment to mean that the announcement would be focused on a new L2 scaling solution, and they were right.

opBNB, currently in the testing phase, is a scalability solution for BNB Smart Chain. It is Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible and based on Optimism OP Stack. opBNB builds on BSC’s existing robust computational performance and introduces new features, such as easier access to data, improved cache system, and optimized simultaneous operations. These features allow opBNB to process more than 4000 transactions per second (TPS) at a cost of roughly 0.005 USD per transaction.

As blockchain technology continues to evolve, scalability remains a critical challenge.

But fear not! Enter opBNB, a game-changing Layer 2 scaling solution designed to overcome the limitations of Layer 1 (L1) networks.

Let's discuss opBNB below 🧵https://t.co/irYn1OPtfQ

— BNB Chain (@BNBCHAIN) June 19, 2023

In addition to the exciting news from the development front, BNB has recovered a bit of lost ground in the days after a sharp price drop following the SEC’s lawsuit, rebounding from its multi-month low of $222 on June 12 to $241 at the time of writing.

While Binance has been trying to distance itself from the BNB coin with moves such as the renaming from Binance Coin to BNB and stating that the project is open source and owned by the community, it is clear that the world’s largest exchange still has a large stake and say in how BNB is developed. 

Last year, Arcane Research reported on the extent to which Binance has captured the crypto spot trading market. According to them, Binance’s share of the Bitcoin spot market trading volume surpassed 90% on December 28, more than double what it was at the beginning of 2022 (from 45% to 92%).

Binance’s BTC spot trading share reached 90% in 2022, prompting Arcane Research to state: “Binance is the crypto market.” 

In addition to the exchange dominance, the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) has also seen a considerable rise in popularity in recent months. According to DeFi Llama, BSC is the third largest DeFi ecosystem in terms of total value locked (TVL) with $4.81 billion, trailing only TRON ($5.47B TVL) and Ethereum ($49.08B TVL).

Best cryptocurrencies to buy at a glance

	Native Asset	Launched In	Description	Market Cap*
XRP	XRP	2012	A leading crypto-powered payment solution	$38.2 bln
Polygon	MATIC	2017	A popular scaling solution for Ethereum	$6.1 bln
Cardano	ADA	2017	One of the largest blockchain ecosystems	$10.5 bln
Bitcoin	BTC	2009	A P2P open-source project similar to Bitcoin	$544 bln
Ethereum	ETH	2015	The leading DeFi and smart contract platform	$218 bln
Shiba Inu	SHIB	2020	NFT, DeFi, and blockchain gaming project	$5.91 bln
Litecoin	LTC	2011	A P2P open source project similar to Bitcoin	$6.7 bln
Lido	LDO	2020	The largest liquid staking provider	$1.52 bln
Kava	KAVA	2019	An interoperable platform built on Cosmos	$577 mln
Cosmos	ATOM	2019	A leading interoperability-focused blockchain project	$2.98 bln
Arbitrum	ARB	2023	A scaling protocol for Ethereum	$1.5 bln
BNB	BNB	2017	The native asset of the BNB Chain and Binance ecosystem	$37.9 bln

Best crypto to buy for beginners

If you are just starting out in crypto, it is advisable to stick to cryptocurrency projects that are less prone to volatility and are generally more established. While this approach does have a downside, as it becomes much more difficult to expect triple-digit or larger gains, the major upside is that you are not exposed to projects that have a chance of failing and, thus, losing your entire investment. 

In order to identify projects that are stable and thus feature low volatility, you can start by following the parameters listed below:

• The crypto asset has a market capitalization that places it into the cryptocurrency top 100 (roughly $400 million as of early 2023)
• The crypto asset is available for trading on the best crypto exchange platforms and can be exchanged for fiat currencies
• The crypto asset boasts healthy liquidity ($100M/day and more), which allows you to execute buy and sell orders quickly and without slippage 
• The crypto asset is part of a reputable crypto project with clear goals, a realistic roadmap, and products and services that look to address real-world problems

Some of the best cryptos to buy for beginners are those that follow the above criteria and have earned their standing in the crypto market due to robust security, popular products and services, and clear growth potential. Some beginner-friendly crypto investments are:

• Bitcoin
• Ethereum
• Litecoin
• Cardano
• BNB

It is worth noting that cryptocurrency investments are inherently risky, even if you stick to the biggest and most reputable projects. The reason for this is simple – the crypto sector is relatively new, and the landscape might look completely different in the future.

Best crypto for long-term

When deciding which cryptocurrency to buy for the long term, it’s important to consider projects that are well-established, have a strong community, are highly liquid, have a large market cap, and have a clear reason for existing (such as solving a real-life problem, introducing new functionality, etc.). Without these characteristics, a project might fail to survive in the long term, rendering it a bad long-term investment.

It is worth noting that, typically, most long-term crypto investors are looking for projects that have the potential to generate decent returns, but also provide a degree of investment stability. Roughly speaking, only the largest cryptocurrencies fit the bill, as others have a low market cap and liquidity that doesn’t bode well for a long-term commitment (unless you’re prepared to take on more risk).

In addition to Bitcoin and Ethereum, there are a number of other cryptocurrencies that fit the criteria of being low-risk, long-term crypto investments.

If you are planning to hold onto your digital assets for a longer period of time, it is best to take care of crypto custody yourself. Holding large amounts of crypto on an exchange can be risky, as we’ve seen over the years with the collapse of high-profile exchanges like Mt. Gox and FTX. Use one of the reputable crypto hardware wallets to store your crypto. Ledger hardware wallets, for instance, allow you to manage your crypto holdings easily and provide a much higher degree of security than crypto exchanges or even software crypto wallets.

Best place to buy crypto

One crucial aspect to consider when choosing which platform to use to buy crypto is the range of cryptocurrencies and trading pairs available. Since different exchanges support varying digital assets, it’s important to choose a platform that accommodates the specific cryptocurrencies you intend to trade.

Additionally, assessing an exchange’s liquidity and trading volume is essential. Higher liquidity generally results in improved price stability and faster trade executions. Furthermore, it is prudent to examine the fees charged by the exchange, encompassing deposit, withdrawal, and trading fees. Comparing fee structures across different exchanges can help you identify the most cost-effective option that aligns with your trading style. With that said, here are some of the best exchanges on the market right now:

• Binance – The best cryptocurrency exchange overall
• KuCoin – The best exchange for altcoin trading
• Kraken – A centralized exchange with the best security

By diligently considering these factors, you can make an informed decision and select a cryptocurrency exchange that meets your requirements for security, variety, liquidity, and affordability.

How we choose the best cryptocurrencies to buy

At CoinCheckup, we provide real-time prices for over 22,000 cryptocurrencies, with the list growing by dozens each day. As you can imagine, making a selection of a dozen top cryptocurrencies to buy out of such an immense dataset can be difficult and will for sure lead to some projects that should be featured being omitted. To minimize the chance of that happening, we follow certain guidelines when trying to identify the best cryptocurrencies to invest in.

Availability 

One of the most important factors for any cryptocurrency investment is the crypto asset’s availability, meaning how easy it is to buy and sell it across various cryptocurrency exchanges. We tend to stay away from assets that are not available on major exchanges and require complex procedures to obtain.

Market Capitalization

Another important metric for identifying whether a crypto project is worth covering its market cap. A high market cap means that the project has reached a certain level of adoption from users, making it less risky to invest in.

Growth Potential

While this metric is mostly subjective, it is still an important metric on which we curate our selection. We won’t feature projects that we think are stagnating or have no real upside in the future.

Purpose and Use Case

We consider the purpose and use case of cryptocurrency, particularly in a real-world setting. Some cryptocurrencies focus on specific industries or applications, such as decentralized finance, gaming, or supply chain management.

Team and Development

The team and people involved in the project can tell you a lot about the potential of a particular cryptocurrency project. We examine the team’s experience, expertise, and track record and evaluate the development activity and updates to ensure the project is actively maintained and evolving.

The bottom line: What crypto to buy now?

The decision of which crypto to buy now is dependent on your own risk profile and investment goals. For some, investing in a crypto asset with a proven track record like Bitcoin is the only type of exposure to crypto they are willing to take on.

Meanwhile, those with a higher risk tolerance might see Bitcoin as too stable, looking instead toward newer and smaller projects that carry a higher degree of upside. 

If you are looking for more investment ideas, check out our crypto price predictions section.