What Cryptocurrencies Have Proven To Have A Long-Term Future?

The four cryptocurrencies below have proven themselves over time

Last Updated January 17th 2022
10 Min Read

If you want to invest in cryptocurrencies with a long-term proven future, you need to focus on fundamentally strong cryptocurrencies. Essentially, do away with meme coins and the idea of doing 1000x overnight.

There is no doubt that the world is embracing decentralization, and Web 3.0 is already gaining traction. This means cryptocurrencies that have good fundamentals will thrive. In the long run, it is not the hype that will win, but rather cryptocurrencies fundamentals – technical capabilities and adoption.

Using these metrics, the four cryptocurrencies below all have the potential to perform well in the long run. All four have performed well in the past, and based on their growing adoption; they have a bright long-term future. 

  1. Bitcoin (BTC)
  2. Ethereum (ETH)
  3. Binance coin (BNB)
  4. Chainlink (LINK)

 

Bitcoin (BTC)

Bitcoin has proven to be a cryptocurrency with consistency in returns. While it has had a volatile time since it launched, Bitcoin (BTC)’s smoothened curve since it launched points upwards. 

Back in 2009, Bitcoin was trading at under a dollar. As of its most recent highs, Bitcoin was trading at $69k. This makes it one of the best-performing assets in recorded history. 

Based on history so far, Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that has proven to have a long-term future. Multiple factors could drive Bitcoin (BTC) to keep giving investors consistently high returns long term. 

One of them is the scarcity aspect of it. There is only 21 million Bitcoin can ever exist. That's a pretty low amount for a cryptocurrency that is gaining in adoption at a global level. While Bitcoin is yet to hit the 21 million Bitcoin mark, even the process of getting to that number is a difficult one.  

It was easy to mine Bitcoin using an ordinary laptop when it first launched. Today, the process needs complex equipment worth 10s of thousands of dollars. Rewards from mining Bitcoin have also been shrinking by 50% every 4.5 years. This has ensured that the rate of new Bitcoin coming into existence slows down as the network gets bigger. Applying the laws of demand and supply, growing demand against low supply could see Bitcoin trade at 100s of thousands of dollars in coming years. 

Institutional adoption has been growing over the past two years, a factor that could drive growth as well. Among the major companies that have taken an interest in Bitcoin are Tesla, Block, and Microstrategy. Perhaps the most significant pointer to institutional Bitcoin adoption is Microstrategy, which now has a Bitcoin portfolio of over $7 billion. 

Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor is so bullish on Bitcoin that he believes that Gold should be scared of it. Saylor said that Bitcoin is a real threat to Gold in a recent interview. He added that one way to avoid being obsolete would be selling all $10 trillion worth of this precious metal and purchasing BTC instead, which has been on an upwards trajectory, with many people switching over from fiat currencies. 

Saylor is not an outlier, though, when it comes to the improving institutional outlook on Bitcoin. Cathie Wood of Ark Invest is also pretty much bullish on Bitcoin. Cathie believes that Bitcoin could trade at upwards of $500k in 5-years. Her price prediction is dependent on the continuing diversification of balance sheets into Bitcoin and whether institutions will allocate 5% funds towards cryptocurrency. With the optimism around Bitcoin at the institutional level on the rise, Cathie's price prediction for Bitcoin could come true.

However, the best bet for Bitcoin's future is the fact that it has the potential to replace fiat currencies. Its appeal on this front comes from the fact that no single country has control over BTC, which means no country can use it to intimidate another. El Salvador became the first country to experiment with Bitcoin as a currency. If the El Salvador experiment turns out to be a success, more countries, especially those in heavy debt, could turn to Bitcoin as a currency.

A combination of scarcity and adoption both by institutions and countries make Bitcoin an excellent investment if you want to invest in a cryptocurrency with a good long-term future.  

Don't Miss: Bitcoin Price Predictions

Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

Ethereum (ETH)

Like Bitcoin, Ethereum is a cryptocurrency that has proven to have a long-term future. Since it launched in 2015 trading at pennies, Ethereum has gained by thousands of percentages, hitting highs of $4800 towards the end of 2021.

Ethereum owes its success to being the first programmable blockchain ever developed. This gave it market dominance in smart contracts, and today, it anchors most of the cryptocurrency market, from DeFi to NFTs. 

Looking ahead, there is every reason to believe that Ethereum has a bright future ahead. For starters, the Ethereum blockchain is continually improving, which is good for its long-term adoption. 

One area that is set to unlock Ethereum's true power is the end to the scaling problems that it currently faces. Ethereum is solving this problem by transitioning to Ethereum 2.0, which is a shift away from Proof-of-Work to a Proof-of-Stake algorithm

The way Ethereum 2.0 will work is simple. It will take the load off Ethereum's mainnet and transfer most of it to layer 2 solutions such as Ethereum Optimism, and Polygon. This will increase transaction speeds and cut costs by reducing gas demand on the mainnet. 

This will, in turn, make Ethereum attractive to developers who are increasingly looking for alternatives due to Ethereum's speed and cost bottlenecks. 

One question that may come up is why those looking to other networks would look back to Ethereum when the alternatives are already working fine. The long, and short answer to that is security. 

Most of Ethereum's competitors, in a bid to compete effectively, have prioritized speed and scalability over security. The result is evident in the fact that some of them are faced with repeat network attacks that threaten everyone building on them. Imagine running a world popular Dapp on top of a network that could shut down at any time due to a hacking attack. 

Ethereum, while slow, does not have such problems. That's because as a Proof-of-Work network, Ethereum has a wide and globally distributed network of miners, pretty much like Bitcoin. This means trying to do a 51% attack on Ethereum at this point may pretty much be impossible. 

Ethereum is carrying the same advantages over, even as it transitions to Proof-of-Stake. For instance, since Ethereum staking started in December 2020, the number of nodes staking Ethereum has been on a consistent uptrend. At the moment, $29.3 billion worth of Ethereum is staked, and the number of individuals and pools staking Ethereum is a growth trajectory. Essentially this means even as a PoS network, it makes little economic sense to try a 51% attack on Ethereum, even by a state actor. 

The same cannot be said of Ethereum competitors, most of which have very few nodes, and the amounts staked are an incentive for any bad actor to try their luck. For this reason, once Ethereum sorts out its scaling issues, it could make most competitors obsolete. The result could be significant value growth going into the future. 

As part of the shift from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake, Ethereum has also introduced a deflationary feature. This was introduced in August 2021 through the London fork. Thanks to this fork, Ethereum is burned with every transaction. Essentially, the more Ethereum is adopted, the higher the price could go, its economics 101. 

This then brings another important point, Ethereum adoption. Ethereum adoption has been going up since it launched and became most memorable during the ICO bubble of 2017. Going forward, there are many areas that could easily push Ethereum to heights it has never reached before. Key among them are the Metaverse and DeFi. Some analysts, for instance, believe that the Metaverse could become an $8 trillion market by 2030. Such growth would trigger Ether burn that could easily push Ethereum to 10s of thousands of dollars a token. 

Similarly, there is a lot to look forward to in DeFi. Billions of dollars are flowing into DeFi daily, and with regulations becoming clearer, DeFi could give centralized finance a run for its money. This further cements Ethereum's position as the second-best cryptocurrency, one with a good long-term future. 

Check Out: Ethereum Price Predictions

Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

Binance coin (BNB)

Binance coin can't miss among the best cryptocurrencies with a good long-term future. Since it launched in 2017, Binance coin has emerged as one of the best performing assets ever moving from a few pennies at launch to over highs of over $686 in 2021.

Binance coin is also one of the cryptocurrencies that have held value pretty well, especially in market downturns. Essentially, anyone who has held on to Binance coin since launch is in a better position than those who held on to other altcoins. 

The main factor that makes Binance coin tick is that it powers the world's largest exchange. Since transaction fees on Binance coin are paid in BNB, demand for BNB will always be strong regardless of the market conditions. The best part is that the Binance ecosystem is ever getting bigger. When Binance launched in 2017, it was just another exchange. 

As of 2022, Binance has everything from a launchpad for new projects to a fast-growing DeFi and NFTs ecosystem through the Binance Smart Chain. With such growth, the odds are high that Binance will keep gaining in value for many years to come. 

The best part is that Binance coin is a deflationary cryptocurrency. Since launch, Binance has been burning BNB, and this is expected to continue for many years to come. Since coin burns mean lower supply relative to demand, there is a good chance that BNB will not just hold value better but outperform most cryptocurrencies. It definitely has a provable long-term future ahead of it.

Read Also: Binance Coin Price Predictions

Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

Chainlink (LINK)

Chainlink has been around since 2017, and in this period, it has proven its worth as an investment. It rallied from under a dollar at launch to hit highs of $50 during the 2021 cryptocurrency rally. 

There are multiple reasons why Chainlink is a cryptocurrency with a good long-term future. The most important one is that it has market dominance in one of the most critical aspects of the crypto market – oracles. 

To understand how important Chainlink is, consider the fact that for any smart contract to run, it needs outside data. That data has to make sense, and be reliable, otherwise, the said smart contract would not be solving any societal need. 

Chainlink is the blockchain that gives such smart contracts the data they need to run as required. In essence, as smart contracts take over pretty much all industries, especially the trillion-dollar finance industry, Chainlink's demand will grow even stronger. 

Besides carrying over 60% of the decentralized oracles market, Chainlink has proven to be quite innovative in meeting the growing demand. For instance, a while back, it introduced hybrid smart contracts. These have been instrumental in helping Chainlink deal with the scaling issues that are guaranteed to come up as usage grows. 

For its innovativeness and its market dominance, Chainlink is likely to keep dominating the decentralized oracles market for many years to come. The odds are in its favour, especially now that DeFi is growing and more industries embrace a more decentralized future ahead. 

Don't Miss: Chainlink Price Predictions

Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

Other Honourable Mentions 

Besides the above, you would also want to consider the Metaverse. The Metaverse hit the limelight in 2021, and it's gaining traction as the world gets even more digitized. You now have companies like Facebook, Microsoft, and Samsung all giving serious thought to the Metaverse. For this reason, Metaverse cryptocurrencies could have an excellent long-term future ahead. 

Some Metaverse cryptocurrencies you would want to consider are:

That said, it is essential to remember that cryptocurrencies are risky assets. It is always best to do your own research before investing. 

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Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

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