5 Best Breakout Altcoins to Watch

The past two years have been rather excellent for the crypto industry, with multiple massive trends emerging, and eventually becoming entire new sectors of the industry. The most notable ones, of course, include the likes of decentralized finance (DeFi), Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), the metaverse, blockchain gaming, and alike.

During this time, we have seen the rise of many great new projects, as well as major development when it comes to some old, established ones. We have seen the rise of memecoins, and the advancement of Ethereum alternatives that got under the spotlight due to Ethereum’s own high fees and slow network.

It is safe to say that blockchain development is entering its golden age, with countless new opportunities emerging left and right. With that said, there are plenty of cryptocurrencies that show a lot of promise out there, but even among them, there are those that are likely to be bigger than the rest in days, months, and years to come. So, if you wish to know our top recommendations for the best breakout altcoins to watch, here are 5 that we have high hopes for.

1. Cardano (ADA)

The first on our list is Cardano, a development platform and one of Ethereum’s largest competitors as of 2021. This has been a great year for Cardano, as the project managed to reach some major milestones. The biggest of them, of course, is the end of its Shelley Era, which finally brought smart contracts to its network.

With smart contracts finally enabled, Cardano got countless new use cases, and it finally became more than a crypto project for empty buying and selling in hopes of earning a bit of money due to price volatility.

Smart contracts now allow users to build on Cardano’s platform, and that includes anything from dApps to DeFi protocols, metaverses and NFT tokens, blockchain games, and more. In other words, they have turned Cardano into a better version of Ethereum, and while it will likely take years for Cardano’s network to become as big and as busy as Ethereum’s — many believe that the project is on its way to becoming an Ethereum Killer.

Not only that, but it is also worth noting that Cardano has a lot more development in store for the future, as it only completed two of its five Eras, and even that was more than enough to let it’s coin, ADA, become the third-largest crypto by market cap. ADA may have lost this position for the time being, but it can easily return in case of another major breakout, so keep an eye out for that.

To learn more visit our Investing in Cardano guide.

2. Shiba Inu (SHIB)

In the second place, we have Shiba Inu (SHIB). This is a memecoin, and a spiritual successor to Dogecoin (DOGE) — the original meme cryptocurrency that was created back in 2013. Shiba Inu actually emerged back in August 2020, but its anonymous creators had the right idea, as only six months later, in early 2021, Dogecoin received so much attention that it skyrocketed in price and rank, and it became one of the best-performing cryptos of this year.

In doing so, DOGE inspired an entire trend of memecoins, causing many new ones to emerge in search of similar popularity. Meanwhile, SHIB had the advantage as it was already available and rapidly growing. The coin quickly gained a reputation as DOGE Killer, and while it never managed to match Dogecoin in price, it reached and exceeded its market cap earlier this year.

With no real utilities, the fate of memecoins remains unclear, but for the time being, they do still have the attention of traders who enjoy investing in cryptos that are simply there to be lighthearted and fun, which is why we believe that SHIB still has some kind of future ahead of it and that it could remain popular crypto.

To learn more visit our Investing in Shiba Inu guide.

3. Solana (SOL)

As mentioned previously, Ethereum’s slow speed, large transaction fees, and very busy network have led to a lot of disappointment and dissatisfaction this year, causing many in the crypto industry to seek out alternatives. This state of things allowed Cardano to blow up the way it did, but it also did the same for projects such as Solana (SOL), which already offered similarly, but more advanced development platforms even before Cardano onboarded smart contracts.

Solana was not the only Ethereum alternative out there, but it did become one of the most popular ones, functioning as an open-source project that uses the blockchain’s permissionless nature to provide DeFi solutions.

Like Ethereum, Solana is a perfect chain for the development of DeFi protocols, dApps, NFTs, and more. But, unlike Ethereum, it is capable of processing thousands of transactions per second, and it is a lot more cost-effective. As such, it managed to blow up and become the fifth-largest crypto, which is a position that it still holds at the time of writing. But, there is always more room to grow, and we expect that, of all the platforms that aim to challenge Ethereum in 2022 and beyond, Solana is one with the greatest potential to do so.

To learn more visit our Investing in Solana guide.

4. Decentraland (MANA)

Nearing the end of the list, we have Decentraland — one of the first Metaverse projects to emerge in the crypto industry. However, while most other projects of this type emerged earlier this year, when it became apparent that this is the next big trend — Decentraland has actually been around for years, silently developing its world and technology, and offering digital plots of land to those who were interested.

Indeed, the project offers users to purchase digital land, and to do whatever they want with it. You can simply sell it on in an attempt to make profit, or you can build on it. You can rent it to others who have an idea for developing a digital business, or you can develop your own games, protocols, and even create galleries for art and digital collectibles.

Decentraland has already had digital events take place on its platform, and thanks to pure convenience of it — as well as the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic — it is likely that more of them will take place in years to come. In other words, Decentraland (MANA) is the pioneer and leader among the metaverse projects, and that alone makes it more than worthy of being under close watch, especially since the metaverse is likely to be the ruling trend of 2022.

To learn more visit our Investing in Decentraland guide.

5. Axie Infinity (AXS)

Speaking of metaverse, it has turned out to be quite compatible with gaming projects based on blockchain technology, which led to the rise of Axie Infinity (AXS). Axie Infinity has been one of the biggest and most dominant projects of its kind in 2021, offering a vast world available for exploration, as well as countless monsters that users can buy, sell, trade, breed, and upgrade in order to win battles and make profits.

This Pokemon-like game uses NFTs to allow players to become owners of monsters that they can either buy or breed themselves. The monsters can then be upgraded with over 500 different body parts belonging to all sorts of creatures. These chimaeras can then be sold for profit, or used in battles against other players and their monsters. The winner of each battle will, of course, earn some AXS tokens, which they can then use within the game, or for trading, or even convert them into fiat currencies and withdraw them.

We believe that this game has a lot of potential for the future and that all of its success seen in 2021 is only a beginning of its journey, so definitely keep an eye on this one, as well.

To learn more visit our Investing in Axie Infinity guide.

Conclusion

The crypto industry may be struggling with prices right now, but from the adoption and development point of view, it is larger than ever before. Opportunities can be found everywhere you look, and if you are looking for some of the biggest ones, we believe that they lie with the mentioned projects. Of course, there are many others that may offer just as great potential, and new ones that might have the same amount or even more success, will likely launch in the near future.