Top 5 Altcoins to Keep an Eye on Over the Next Three Years

The crypto industry seems to be larger than ever before, and if optimistic views of the future are to be believed, this is only a beginning. The crypto sector is seeing more development than ever, with new projects emerging and the existing ones constantly being improved.

The surging prices, institutional interest, and high adoption rate have forced regulators to start making moves to regulate cryptocurrencies, and many countries’ central banks are working on their own central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

With that said, this is only a current situation, and the best long-term investors don’t focus so much on current events, but on future ones. This is why we wanted to look into the current state of the crypto industry and try to predict which altcoins are going to be the biggest ones in the future, which will, hopefully, help people decide which coins to invest in.

We should point out that this is all pure speculation, based on what is known at this moment, and what happened so far, and is by no means a definitive outcome that can be expected in the next three years. But, it is one possibility, and it is each investor’s individual responsibility to decide on their own whether or not they agree or not.

With that out of the way, let’s check out 5 altcoins that could go big over the next three years.

1) Ethereum

Ethereum (ETH) is the obvious first choice for a variety of reasons. It is the altcoin that brought the idea of blockchain as a development platform, and it has been the birthplace of blockchain products as we know them today. It allowed for the creation of smart contracts, dApps, DeFi protocols, NFTs, stablecoins, and more, and it seems to be the biggest hub of innovation in the crypto industry, despite its shortcomings.

Speaking of which, Ethereum is currently in the process of launching Ethereum 2.0 — its biggest upgrade that will allow it to switch from Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm to Proof-of-Stake, which is much more environmentally friendly, faster, more scalable, and alike.

This will allow its high fees to drop even more than they already have after the recent update that brought token burning. Once Ethereum fully switches to PoS and launches Ethereum 2.0, it will likely continue to be the dominant force in the crypto industry. More than that, its coin, ETH, will have all the same, and potentially new use cases that will make the demand skyrocket, and its price rise to new heights.

2) Cardano

Cardano (ADA) has already skyrocketed enough to be considered one of the best performers of 2021. The project’s developers have been taking things slowly, developing the project silently in the background, not paying attention to trends and price surges, despite their allure which has been the downfall of many other projects that gave in to temptation.

But, in 2021, Cardano started displaying the results of its efforts, and the community definitely took notice. At the time of writing, September 7th, 2021, Cardano is only days away from bringing smart contracts to its mainnet, and the anticipation alone has launched its price sky-high, allowing it to cross the $3 resistance several times in the past few weeks.

The introduction of smart contracts is a big deal for the project, as it will allow it to rival Ethereum. Cardano might ever overtake Ethereum’s position, according to many, as it is much faster, much more scalable, and much cheaper. More than that, the project has further plans to improve and bring new features and functionalities, while the expected surge in development is going to increase demand for its native coin, ADA.

3) Chainlink

Chainlink (LINK) also has great potential for the future due to its oracle network. Chainlink’s oracles have been extremely popular among various projects, and as of late, especially among DeFi protocols. Their ability to bring off-chain data to the blockchain and directly feed protocols information in real-time has near-limitless uses and applications.

And, while there have been several projects that have started offering the same features after Chainlink, this project still does it in the best way. Chainlink has been partnering with firms left and right throughout the year, and longer even. Since it is currently pretty much unchallenged, it is likely that it will manage to collect a large share of the market before any similar project starts moving towards the same goal, which will cement its leadership in this area.

At the same time, its native token, LINK, will see great demand as the project gets more adopted, which will push its price further, making it beneficial for early investors and adopters.

4) Polkadot

The crypto industry is currently still mostly a bunch of isolated ecosystems that are working on their own developments and improvements. However, experts believe that someday, all of these ecosystems will be combined into a massive crypto network, which will be the next stage of the internet. With development platforms offering anything, from gaming, dApps, financial products and services, streaming services, social networks, and more — web 3.0 is already in the making.

That is why projects such as Polkadot, which are working on making cross-chain transactions possible, are likely among the most important ones for the future. While individual projects are going to form the body of Web 3.0, projects like Polkadot are going to connect them into a network that will actually create the decentralized internet.

Of course, Polkadot is not the only one doing this, but it is one of the best and most advanced ones when it comes to this initiative, which is why we believe that it has a good chance to be one of the top-performing altcoins for years to come.

5) Solana

Last, but not least, we have Solana — a highly functional, open-source cryptocurrency project that uses the permissionless nature of blockchain technology to offer DeFi solutions. Similarly to Cardano, Solana is considered to be a better alternative to Ethereum, simply because it is faster, cheaper, easier to use, and overall, developed with existing Ethereum issues in mind.

The project was specifically designed to facilitate dApp creation, offer scalability through a unique consensus called Proof-of-History, which it combines with Proof-of-Stake. It is a hybrid model that makes Solana and its token SOL attractive and useful to retail and institutional players alike.

Its processing times are incredibly short compared to most other projects, and it has great potential to be one of the most advanced development platforms out there. And, while Cardano will be its direct competitor, Solana has the advantage of being much faster when it comes to development. While Cardano has yet to introduce smart contracts, Solana already has a major head start, and it is attracting a lot of attention from developers and traders alike.