The market is looking good again and I can almost hear the cheers from all of the investors who have been waiting an ungodly amount of time to see Bitcoin go even a bit closer to the all-time highs of 2017. Well, it’s gone down a bit since the last few days but it’s still at a reassuring figure of $11,500 or so. Anyone who got into the game at the $3000 levels sure should be happy now. 

Predictions are hard to make and I know I’m opening myself up to some criticism and failure when picking tokens that will explode in price. That’s just how the crypto market works :P 

Still, there’s good reason to think that the token’s I’ve listed below will at least experience some boost in price because of the way the way development has been going in recent times, and their comparative increase in adoption and awareness. Here are the tokens that I think will gain some 10x between now and the end of 2020, with some arguments supporting my choices.

1. XRP

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first: Ripple (XRP) has so much going for it. It’s got good support from the investor community and financial institutions all over the world are taking to it’s products with increasing pace. 

The latter is the primary reason why I think that Ripple is going to make some great progress in the years to come. Several pilot programs for cross-border transfers have already been conducted using Ripple’s tech in countries all across the world and these banks have almost unanimously agreed that it has increased the efficiency of transfers manyfold. Underscoring the conviction in Ripple is the fact that the RippleNet has over 200 financial institutions as partners. Adoption doesn’t get any better.

Another moderately significant and less tangible reason as to why I think that the token will do well this year is the fact that Ripple seems to be doing a damn good job in convincing people of its worth. CEO Brad Garlinghouse has spoken to financial industry insiders (including IMF’s Christine Lagarde) and they seem to be getting on board with the idea. 

And it’s not just me - a survey in Japan by Japanese internet giant GMO showed that Japanese investors show great confidence in the performance of the Ripple token, responding in the survey that Ripple will grow in 2019. XRP is a big matter in Japan, as financial giant SBI is a backer of Ripple. Its CEO even joined Ripple’s board of directors. 

2. QASH

QASH is the ERC-20 token for the Liquid platform which was started by Quoine. It is mainly used on Quoine’s Liquid platform, which is an exchange that focuses on fiat trading. The QASH token is expected to undergo a rebranding over the next few months, soon to become the Liquid token (LQC). According to the team themselves, the vision of QASH - or should we say LQC? - is to democratize finance.

Like other tokens released as an accompaniment to an exchange’s services, the token provides users with attractive reasons as to why one should use it. This includes discounts on trading fees, earning interest on the token using the lending app and receiving airdrops from time to time. 

The idea of exchanges releasing new tokens for the benefit of customers who use it on the platform is nothing new - Binance’s BNB is probably the most prominent of these tokens, as it performed extremely  well in the first half of 2019. Other tokens are also 

Some minor reasons as well: Liquid is well on its way to receiving a full banking license by the end of 2019, a necessary step towards their goal of democratizing finance. Remember, crypto is not about burning incumbent institutions, however troublesome they may be, but getting them to join forces with this new emerging system that can benefit everyday. 

Several of the upcoming development milestones also show promise for the token’s increase in price by 2020: the team is going to launch a mobile app and bring Contract-for-Difference (CFD) trading soon. The latter is similar to the margin trading features offered on the likes of BitMEX. Both are the kinds of features that users precisely want, and the focus on fiat pairs make Liquid and its token open to some really lucrative gains in the years to come, should things go well. 

Just because the LQC token has these features and the platform is growing and developing, does it mean that the token will grow sharply in a niche where several exchanges are doing the same? It’s hard to say, but what Liquid has going for it is its focus on fiat trading and features for more experienced investors.

3. Hydro

Anyone who entered the market before the run of late 2017 will know that the market is kind of like a graveyard. There are several projects that have been left by the wayside, dead on the road to becoming a mainstream project that has actual value in real-world applications. 

Very few projects that were a part of the altcoin genesis of the early 2010s are still around and that’s because these are the only ones that thought long-term, with a focus on laying the foundation for a future where crypto-based economies would be a reality. 

The Hydro project, I think, shares qualities with those surviving projects. It is building a new standard (ERC-1484) for blockchain agnosticity. The goal (which is a common theme among projects but at least they’re really trying to back it up) is to bring those with lack of financial access into the system. To this end, they are attempting to build a complete ecosystem with remittance, tokenization, P2P and B2B payments, and more - a rich ecosystem with all major features that anyone can access, something compatibility with any blockchains will make all the more rich. 

I think the scope of Hydro’s ambition is best summed up by the progress indicators for each phase of the project, much of which has already been completed. Upcoming phases will include AI features, legally binding contract protocol and a dapp store. 

Sure, you could say that other projects are attempting something similar - a lot of teams say that their goal is to provide banking to the unbanked. However, I’m not sure if any are approaching the problem with the level of thoroughness and depth that Hydro is. Too many are focused on their own little ecosystem, almost in isolation. But Hydro is striving to be open as possible, not drawing any borders, and that’s why I think that it’s going to grow in value as we head into 2020.