With the cryptocurrency markets still in an uncertain position, many crypto traders are wondering if it’s time to sell to avoid further losses or if the market will rebound soon. While crypto markets have always rebounded from bearish periods so far, every bear market has its “losses” that never make a strong recovery. Therefore, it is important to choose quality crypto projects that have a good chance of surviving the bear market and succeeding in the future. Current market conditions present some attractive opportunities for those looking to add some crypto to their portfolio as prices have dropped significantly from all-time highs. So, which are the best altcoin projects to invest in in May of 2023? Analyst Jon Nielsen explained…
Before altcoin projects worth buying, analyst talked about Bitcoin
Bitcoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer crypto first described in 2008 and launched in early 2009. Bitcoin introduced the concept of Blockchain and provided a highly secure, fully decentralized cryptocurrency. It implements PoW to make it very difficult to change the history of transactions or spend coins twice. The network is secured by miners.
BTC can be sent anywhere in the world 24/7 and transactions cannot be blocked by any intermediary. By having their own private keys, users can store their Bitcoins themselves, without the need for institutions such as banks. The crypto markets have been on a bearish trend lately, with many mid-range altcoins experiencing significant price drops. We’ve also seen a few meme coins cool off after last week’s rally. In this market context, Bitcoin is undoubtedly the most interesting cryptocurrency to watch right now.
As far as fundamental developments are concerned, we have recently seen an increase in Bitcoin transaction fees, driven by new uses for the Bitcoin network such as NFTs and private tokens. Both use cases are made possible by the Ordinals Protocol, which allows users to make arbitrary data entries into the Bitcoin Blockchain. While it is not yet clear whether Bitcoin-based NFTs and tokens will survive in the long run, it is encouraging to see developers and users experimenting with Bitcoin.
The first altcoin on the list: SUI
Sui is a layer-1 Blockchain project building a highly scalable platform for smart contracts and decentralized applications. Sui uses a different version of the Move programming language originally developed for the Diem stablecoin project. Sui is the second major blockchain project based on the Move language. Sui Blockchain processes certain transactions in parallel. This results in lower latency and efficient CPU usage for validator nodes. The SUI token entered the market last week, listing on many major cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, KuCoin, OKX, and Kraken.
SUI has been on the market for less than a full week. Therefore, we may still see some interesting price movements before the price of the token stabilizes. Notably, the token is currently seeing much larger trading volumes than most other crypto assets of comparable size. SUI’s price action so far has been mostly negative. However, according to the analyst, it is probably too early to delete the token. SUI is initially distributed through token sales (and a Launchpad program at Binance). Therefore, it may take some time for the trend to reverse. This can happen when token sale participants who are not interested in holding the token long-term stop making a profit.
Recently popular altcoin project PEPE is also on the list.
Pepecoin is a token that was released on April 15. Pepecoin is simply a “meme coin”. The total supply of PEPE is 420.69 trillion tokens; which means that the price of a single PEPE token is very low in dollar terms. This has been a common tactic used by meme coin projects. A coin with a low unit price appears cheap and accessible at first glance, even if it is actually overvalued in terms of market cap.
Whatever you think of PEPE’s long-term prospects, the PEPE markets are definitely interesting to watch right now. Last week, the token was listed on a number of leading cryptocurrency exchanges. This resulted in a huge rally. PEPE market cap fell below $1 billion after peaking on May 5. The process ahead will give more insight into whether PEPE will be temporary or permanent like DOGE and SHIB. Pepecoin’s short-term performance will likely also determine how the rest of the meme coin market will perform. It may not surprise you to hear that Pepecoin’s recent rise has resulted in a large number of projects trying to emulate its success.
What’s next for the leading altcoin ETH?
As Cryptokoin.com also reported, Shapella updated on April 12 in ETH. This enabled the withdrawal of staked ETHs. According to the recent price action in the ETH market, although the unlocking of staked ETH is likely to bring increased selling pressure, investors were not too worried. While we may see a drop in the amount of ETH staked due to unlocking, the upgrade could also enable risk-averse ETH holders who weren’t comfortable staking before, to start staking their coins.
BNB is also on the list
BNB Chain has established itself as a very popular blockchain platform thanks to its fast and inexpensive transactions. While there are concerns about the platform’s effective level of decentralization, many users seem to prioritize convenience. In addition, Binance continues to dominate the cryptocurrency exchange industry, further increasing its market share following the collapse of FTX. According to the analyst, it would be reasonable to expect strong demand for BNB going forward, as Binance is likely to continue to provide incentives for BNB holders. Of course, there are also quarterly BNB burns that will continue to reduce the BNB supply until it reaches 100 million coins. By increasing the scarcity of BNB, quarterly burns work in favor of long-term BNB holders.
Uniswap (UNI) recently broke a record
Uniswap has reached a record daily trading volume of $11.84 billion in recent months. This was almost twice the volume of the protocol’s previous daily volume record. Uniswap broke its record as users rushed to trade major stablecoin USDC, which came under pressure over the weekend following the failure of Silicoin Valley Bank. The reason this failure is related to USDC is that Circle, a major issuer of the USDC stablecoin, announced that $3.3 billion of the roughly $40 billion total funding backing USDC is held at Silicon Valley Bank. This volume increase demonstrates that the Uniswap protocol is an important piece of infrastructure for crypto markets and can successfully handle huge volumes even in times of market chaos.
Cosmos (ATOM) came up with the update
On March 15, the Cosmos network received the v9-Lambda upgrade, which will bring replicated security (RS) to the network. This allowed Blockchains in the Cosmos network to generate blocks for the validators in the Cosmos Hub themselves. Essentially, it allows projects to rent security from the Cosmos Hub. This upgrade is part of the broader concept of cross-chain security (ICS) that the Cosmos project is gradually implementing. Duplicated security will allow Cosmos-based projects to focus on their unique strengths rather than worrying about their validators and security. Meanwhile, ATOM stakers can earn some extra returns as up to 25% of fees collected by “consumer chains” will go to Cosmos Hub stakers.
GMX hits the spotlight after FTX crash
Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges are under further scrutiny after the collapse of FTX. In addition, the failure of many centralized crypto lending businesses has negatively impacted the reputation of centralized crypto businesses more generally. While centralized exchanges still dominate in terms of trading volume, a growing number of crypto investors are looking for decentralized alternatives. The decentralized crypto derivatives industry is still relatively new, which means there could be a lot of advantages for platforms like GMX. “This is the main reason why we rank GMX as one of the best new cryptocurrencies to buy,” the analyst said.
Litecoin halving expected to affect altcoin LTC
The Litecoin community has shown a willingness to adopt new technologies to improve Litecoin, even when it comes to technologies that are not currently on the Bitcoin roadmap. Litecoin, for example, provided support for the MimbleWimble privacy protocol, giving a significant boost to the use of LTC. Another important factor that makes Litecoin notable right now is that the third Litecoin halving will take place in 2023. We saw an LTC rally prior to Litecoin’s halving in 2019, so the LTC markets will definitely be worth watching closely in 2023.
Shibarium excitement for SHIB
The Shiba Inu project is currently working on Shibarium, a layer 2 platform for Ethereum designed to provide users with more efficient transactions. The Shibarium platform will use the BONE token for gas fees and validator incentives. In addition, the basic gas fees paid in Shibarium will be used to burn SHIB tokens, reducing the supply of SHIB over time. Shibarium will provide an alternative for users who want to avoid high transaction costs on the Ethereum mainnet. According to the Shiba Inu development team, they primarily want to target the metaverse and gaming sectors. According to the analyst, the upcoming release of Shibarium will be one of the biggest milestones in the history of the Shiba Inu project, so it will definitely be worth watching for SHIB markets moving forward. However, don’t expect SHIB to hit $1 or $0.50 anytime soon.
Mina Protocol may be trending
Zero-knowledge technology is likely to become a very important trend going forward in the crypto and blockchain space, and the Mina Protocol may be very well positioned to take advantage of it. In addition, the lightweight design of the Mina network facilitates network participation, which is especially true for mobile devices. If we are to see widespread adoption of its network’s technology, it is likely that a large number of people will use its blockchain via mobile devices. According to the analyst, this could make Mina a candidate to be one of the next cryptocurrencies to explode.
Solana can accelerate altcoin project with ChatGPT step
Recently, Solana Labs unveiled a ChatGPT plugin that allows users to interact with Solana through the AI-powered ChatGPT chatbot. Users will be able to access this open source application once ChatGPT plugins become public. According to Solana Labs, the ChatGPT plugin will simplify a number of tasks for Solana users. Thanks to the plugin, users will be able to check their wallet balances, make token transfers and even purchase NFT on the Solana Blockchain.
Meanwhile, the Solana Foundation recently announced a $1 million fund for projects using AI technology in conjunction with the Solana Blockchain. The fund is intended to distribute grants between $5,000 and $25,000. With AI being a hugely popular topic right now, Solana project’s AI-related initiatives could also spark interest in SOL.