The stars have aligned for investors to consider the role they want crypto assets to play in their retirement portfolio to help reach their long-term goals.
Since bitcoin’s launch in 2009, however, plenty of other coins have emerged, some of which have charted their own course in the blockchain terrain. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency, boasting a market capitalization of $877 billion at last check. Bitcoin’s two chief use cases are as a store-of-value to hedge in times of inflation and as a medium of exchange to pay for stuff.
Ethereum is the second-biggest cryptocurrency. Also called ETH or ether, it is the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain used to pay fees to secure the network.
Dogecoin started the meme-coin trend in the cryptocurrency industry. Meme coins are the cryptocurrency version of meme stocks from the WallStreetBets movement, such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment, to name a couple.
Solana is one of those emerging blockchains that have capitalized on Ethereum’s issues. Known as the “Ethereum killer” by some observers, Solana calls itself the “fastest blockchain in the world,” boasting 1,547 transactions per second (TPS).
Avalanche, an Ava Labs project, is yet another competitor to Ethereum, with both projects known for their smart contract capabilities, which are key to supporting DeFi and NFT apps.
Shiba Inu, which was created in the wake of Dogecoin, is another play on the meme-coin market. While this cryptocurrency hasn’t been around as long as its larger peer, having been created in 2020, it is no slouch and has been jockeying for position with Dogecoin on the market cap leaderboard.