It’s no secret that Bitcoin is the most traded, most recognized, and most popular of all types of virtual currencies available. But if you have grown tired of the same and want to check alternatives to BTC, where is the best place to turn? The upside of this newfangled trading dilemma is that there is no shortage of competing coins out there, some as established and respected as the leader of the niche, and others not such long histories. Here are four that can serve as a way to diversify your crypto portfolio and liven up daily trading.
Litecoin (LTC)
Litecoin has been around for a decade now and is usually thought of as the second-place crypto for investors, traders, and speculators. One of the unique things about LTC is that it’s based entirely on a worldwide network for payment whose source is 100 percent open. Users who prefer it boast about the coin’s quick transactions and rapid confirmations. Many businesses accept it as a legal tender form of currency, and its recent market capitalization reached the $10 billion benchmark. Litecoin is also popular with CFD (contracts-for-difference) enthusiasts who enjoy the ability to seek profits without having to own the coin outright. Anyone who has dealt with CFDs knows how easy it is to get into and out of any market quickly and not deal with the many headaches of owning the underlying asset.
Ethereum (ETH)
With a platform that is wholly decentralized, ETH pioneered the concept of smart contracts, which have the ability to proceed without any interference, fraudulent activity, or down time. The creators of Ethereum aim to make it the first truly global form of money. With an astoundingly high market cap of around $210 billion, ETH is still only about one-fifth the size of niche leader BTC.
Cardano (ADA)
Cardano is considered a spin-off of Ethereum because its founder was on the original ETH team years ago. He left in order to create a coin where the proof of ownership was highly secure and based on cryptographic, mathematical, and engineering protocols. It’s very complex but the upshot is that ADA is still very new but has already built a reputation as having a secure blockchain. Some of the unique aims of Cardano is to one day help prevent voter fraud in elections, facilitate large bank transactions, and enhance the traceability of legal contracts. Recently, ADA has been trading in the $.31 area, making it a low-cost crypto for traders, even though its market cap is nearing the $10 billion mark.
Stellar (XLM)
Don’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of this cryptocurrency. Currently, it’s mostly used by banks and major financial entities for the sole purpose of streamlining very large exchanges of money. For instance, Stellar excels in a couple of ways. First, it works exceedingly fast. Second, the banks who use it no longer have to rely on multiple parties to verify the movement of funds. Those two benefits are enough to lure many institutions toward XLM. The bonus for its users is that the cost for each transaction is minuscule compared to the traditional way of moving large sums of money.
