[ad_1] The post Five Cryptocurrencies to Keep on Your Radar appeared first on Millennial Money. You don’t have to own cryptocurrencies to generate wealth, but it’s good for investors to at least have an understanding of some of the top coins out there. The cryptocurrency market has exploded over the past few years as the popularity of digital coins has expanded beyond early adopters to average investors. Currently worth about $2 trillion, the crypto market continues to evolve into a more legitimate form of investing. As an investor, it’s important for you to keep cryptocurrency on your radar—even if you’re not ready to invest in it. Some banks and financial institutions, including Morgan Stanley, have begun to allow some of their wealth management clients to buy crypto products in a limited way. Other banks are dabbling in bitcoin futures. As financial institutions move closer to cryptocurrencies, it continues to help bring the crypto market out of the shadows and give it more legitimacy. Many investors view cryptocurrencies as just one tool to diversify their investments—along with stocks—to build financial independence. It’s important to mention that trading cryptocurrency is still highly speculative. Cryptocurrencies can experience large price swings on a daily basis, sometimes for no concrete reason. So while we’ll mention some innovative digital tokens below, you may want to take this information and use it as an introduction to these coins, rather than a recommendation to buy them. Five Cryptocurrencies to Keep On Your Radar Bitcoin Ethereum Polkadot Litecoin Cardano Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) Price: $43527.71 (as of close Dec 31, 1969) document.addEventListener(“DOMContentLoaded”, function(event) { Highcharts.stockChart(“stockChart-f09b2425c4c6581d86ee4f9338ed1a01”,{rangeSelector:{selected:1},title:{text:”Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC)Closing Stock Price”},subtitle: {text: “Historical Data”},navigator: { enabled: false },scrollbar: { enabled: false },credits: { enabled: false },xAxis: { type: “datetime”, labels: { formatter: function() { return Highcharts.dateFormat(“%m %d, %Y”, this.value); }}},colors: [“#118b4e”],rangeSelector : { enabled: false 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“%A, %B %e, %Y”}}]}); }); It seems fitting to kick off this list of cryptos with bitcoin. After all, out of the more than 8,000 digital coins out there, bitcoin was the absolute first—created back in 2009—and is the most valuable with a market cap of over $750 billion (as of February 2022). There are a few things that make bitcoin unique in a growing sea of cryptos, and one of the most important is that bitcoin has become a barometer for the price of other cryptos. What this means is that if you see the price of bitcoin jump (or drop) on any given day, it’s likely that many other cryptocurrencies will follow suit. One key reason for this is that most cryptocurrencies prices are measured in bitcoin. Additionally, bitcoin is often viewed as a store of value, like gold, by some bitcoin investors. There’s still a lot of debate about this, mainly because bitcoin doesn’t have the same utility as gold, isn’t as liquid, is far more volatile, and is more loosely regulated. But that hasn’t stopped some investors from considering bitcoin as a new version of gold for the digital age. Another reason why you should keep a very close eye on bitcoin is the fact that this crypto is slowly gaining more acceptance among financial institutions. Morgan Stanley already allows some of its wealthy clients access to bitcoin funds and Goldman Sachs and others have been adding ways to offer bitcoin trading as well. Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) Price: $3074.62 (as of close Dec 31, 1969) document.addEventListener(“DOMContentLoaded”, function(event) { Highcharts.stockChart(“stockChart-f8b484c33019028eee7085759b0fa8d7”,{rangeSelector:{selected:1},title:{text:”Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH)Closing Stock Price”},subtitle: {text: “Historical Data”},navigator: { enabled: false },scrollbar: { enabled: false },credits: { enabled: false },xAxis: { type: “datetime”, labels: { formatter: function() { return Highcharts.dateFormat(“%m %d, %Y”, this.value); }}},colors: [“#118b4e”],rangeSelector : { enabled: false 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“%A, %B %e, %Y”}}]}); }); The Ethereum blockchain, and its Ether coin, deserve a spot on this list because Ether is the second-most valuable cryptocurrency on the market. But what really makes this token stand out is why its value has skyrocketed over the past few years. The Ethereum blockchain is the standard for creating decentralized applications (called dApps). Decentralized finance (DeFi) is the broad term used to describe blockchain technology that facilitates verified and secure financial transactions, without the need for traditional financial institutions like banks. The DeFi space is still in its infancy, but it’s already worth $100 billion and some of the most extreme estimates say that it could grow by tenfold by the end of 2022! Already, fast-growing markets like non-fungible tokens (NFTs)—which provide verified ownership of digital goods like music and art—rely on the Ethereum blockchain. And as these new digital markets increase in popularity, it should make Ethereum’s blockchain—and its coin—even more valuable. More than 4,000 developers are active on Ethereum every month, which is one of the most active blockchain developer communities. If you’re looking for a cryptocurrency that’s already foundational to the emerging crypto space and could prove to be one of its most important protocols, Ether and its Ethereum blockchain are worth your consideration. Polkadot (CRYPTO: DOT) Polkadot (CRYPTO:DOT) Price: $20.51 (as of close Dec 31, 1969) document.addEventListener(“DOMContentLoaded”, function(event) { Highcharts.stockChart(“stockChart-2d3111763d9da854ac7645a7921784d2”,{rangeSelector:{selected:1},title:{text:”Polkadot (CRYPTO:DOT)Closing Stock Price”},subtitle: {text: “Historical Data”},navigator: { enabled: false },scrollbar: { enabled: false },credits: { enabled: false },xAxis: { type: “datetime”, labels: { formatter: function() { return Highcharts.dateFormat(“%m %d, %Y”, this.value); }}},colors: [“#118b4e”],rangeSelector : { enabled: false },series:[{name:”CRYPTO:DOT”,data:[[1613019600000,25.034],[1613624400000,31.051],[1614229200000,31.251],[1614834000000,35.35],[1615438800000,36.917],[1616040000000,35.351],[1616644800000,29.83],[1617249600000,37.429],[1617854400000,41.416],[1618459200000,43.476],[1619064000000,32.988],[1619668800000,35.973],[1620273600000,41.605],[1620878400000,40.046],[1621483200000,28.986],[1622088000000,23.951],[1622692800000,26.98],[1623297600000,22.649],[1623902400000,22.553],[1624507200000,16.224],[1625112000000,15.202],[1625716800000,15.32],[1626321600000,13.065],[1626926400000,13.16],[1627531200000,15.264],[1628136000000,19.127],[1628740800000,20.751],[1629345600000,26.596],[1629950400000,23.932],[1630555200000,31.814],[1631160000000,29.842],[1631764800000,35.531],[1632369600000,33.425],[1632974400000,28.564],[1633579200000,33.97],[1634184000000,40.701],[1634788800000,42.847],[1635393600000,41.834],[1635998400000,53.899],[1636606800000,47.479],[1637211600000,39.062],[1637816400000,39.469],[1638421200000,35.791],[1639026000000,26.939],[1639630800000,26.01],[1640235600000,29.17],[1640840400000,27.55],[1641445200000,26.71],[1642050000000,25.802],[1642654800000,23],[1643259600000,18.13],[1643864400000,18.93],[1644555600000,20.34],],tooltip:{valueDecimals:2,xDateFormat: “%A, %B %e, %Y”}}]}); }); It’s fitting to talk next about Polkadot because this blockchain—with its DOT coin—is one of a handful of blockchains that have been called “Ethereum killers.” While Ethereum is the go-to protocol for building decentralized apps, Polkadot wants to be the blockchain that connects all other blockchains together. Right now, different blockchains don’t do a fantastic job of working together. But Polkadot is changing that, allowing blockchains to communicate with each other. This could eventually make blockchains even more useful and interoperable. But Polkadot isn’t only focused on communication between blockchains, it also aims to be one of the fastest blockchains out there. Right now, this crypto protocol can process up to 1,000 transactions per second (compared to about