Here are 5 of the best cryptocurrencies to buy now:

Bitcoin (BTC)

The first cryptocurrency was created in 2009, making it a remarkably new asset class. Extreme volatility is expected, as 2022 shown, therefore investors seeking to protect themselves from the potential catastrophic collapse of their holdings should stick with more reputable brands. None is more well-established than Bitcoin, the original and biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization with a valuation of over $570 billion, or nearly 49% of the entire market.

The most widely used cryptocurrency is BTC, which is tracked by a number of publicly traded instruments and is held on the balance sheets of several publicly traded companies, including MicroStrategy Inc. (ticker: MSTR), Tesla Inc. (TSLA), and others. After falling 64% in 2022, Bitcoin has staged an incredible return in 2023, rising 76.2% as of Aug. 2.

Although Bitcoin (BTC) was already performing well in the first few months of 2023, its growth picked back up in March after the government announced that depositors of Silicon Valley Bank would actually have access to all of their money at the collapsed bank. Confidence in the banking industry and cryptocurrencies increased as a result of the federal government’s move to intervene and guarantee liquidity for the lender focusing on startups and the IT industry.

The most profitable asset type so far in 2023 has been cryptocurrencies. faith in assets like Bitcoin, which first developed as a response to the global financial crisis and the bank bailouts that followed, has increased due to a general market recovery and weakened faith in the financial sector.

Ether (ETH)

Ether, which is the native coin on the widely used Ethereum network, comes in second by market capitalization. Ethereum, often known as ETH, is a cryptocurrency with a market valuation of roughly $221 billion, or about 19% of the entire cryptocurrency market. The Ethereum blockchain is specifically designed for smart contracts and decentralized finance tools, as well as for so-called Web 3.0 apps and the trade of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Unlike Bitcoin, Ether’s underlying network is much more than just a tool for peer-to-peer payments.

Ether has inherent utility as the native token of a hugely popular network, unlike Bitcoin, which merely serves as a speculative asset and a store of wealth. Additionally, in a world that is becoming more environmentally concerned, Ethereum has an advantage over BTC thanks to its conversion from the energy-inefficient proof-of-work protocol to the considerably more efficient proof-of-stake system. By August 2, 2023, ETH had increased by 53.7%.

Avalanche (AVAX)

Investors should be aware that there are two tiers of cryptocurrencies: one for Bitcoin and Ether, and another for everything else. Investors should take into account the greater risk associated with AVAX and the following cryptocurrencies on this list when making decisions. Despite these cautions, the AVAX token from the Avalanche network merits a spot on this list due to the lofty objectives of the Avalanche blockchain. 

Users can set up their own mini-blockchains on top of the Avalanche network using the subnets feature. Avalanche subnets, according to developer Ava Labs, provide a practical answer to the issue of most mainstream commercial enterprises and even many people wanting their own blockchains in the future. If that scenario comes to pass, AVAX, which fell 90% in the bad market of 2022, could emerge as a longer-term winner. AVAX is up 15% through Aug. 2.

Polygon (MATIC)

With a valuation of more than $6 billion, MATIC is now the 10th-largest cryptocurrency by market cap when stablecoins are excluded. Polygon still only makes up less than 1% of the total market, so there is lots of possibility for expansion. Nevertheless, the Ethereum network’s adoption and continued use are crucial to its continued growth. This is due to the Polygon network’s goal of scaling Ethereum, which will eventually enable it to support an almost infinite amount of decentralized apps, or dApps.

MATIC’s price declined in 2022, losing 70% of its value in the year, much like virtually all other tokens. A lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission against Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN) claimed MATIC and several other altcoins were acting as unregistered securities. Up until early June, the token was benefiting from the general recovery in cryptocurrency prices, with MATIC up about 20%. As a result of the news, MATIC suffered a loss, and as of August 2 is now down 10.2% for the year.

Cardano (ADA)

Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain and one of the biggest blockchains to successfully operate that more energy-efficient protocol. It was founded in 2017 by Charles Hoskinson, a cofounder of Ethereum. Cardano wants to promote a dApps ecosystem that is friendly to developers. Cardano, in contrast to Ethereum, has a hard cap on the maximum amount of coins that will ever exist, which is 45 billion. Fortunately for investors, roughly 35 billion, or about 78% of that supply, are already in use, so the overall amount of dilution that is still present is both known and very small.

Cardano, one of the greatest cryptocurrencies to invest in right now, lost 81% of its value in

2022 but has recently recovered some of those losses, with a year-to-date gain of 21.5% as of August 2. Cardano has a market cap of roughly $10.4 billion, placing it sixth among cryptocurrencies when stablecoins are excluded.