Hi everyone,

Altcoins are a hot topic for a lot of crypto investors. Finding the next gem, hoping for gains just like Bitcoin had, etc. Here I will try to line out some points to show that a new rise is possible for altcoins. Keep in mind that a lot of altcoins are scams and will die in the future. A lot of projects that seem legit will simply not make it, because there is a lot of competition out there. Do your own research and be careful. Try to find projects that have a use case in this world (business world) and try to solve a problem. Check out the employees, their road map, their developments and their reputation in the crypto community.

- Real use cases in the business world

There are altcoins that have real use cases in the business world and they try to solve a problem. These coins, with the right development, employees and funding behind them, can really make a change and grow. Examples are :

Ethereum

Ethereum is the creator of smart contracts and dapps (decentralized applications). While Bitcoin is more focused on store of value or transactions, Ethereum has found a way to create a whole new world with smart contracts and dapps that are completely autonomous and do not have a single point of failure. Ethereum was the first one around to really start this and that is why I put it on top for now. They face a lot of competition from the likes of TRON, NEO, EOS, ICON, etc. 

Vechain

Vechain wants to be a big player in the supply chain with their blockchain. They will track a good or product from point A (all the way at the beginning) to point B (end user) and since it is open to the public, anyone can track this process and this should prevent fraud or tempering with the goods. A good example was recently demonstrated by a meeting between the Chinese president and the French president, where the meat got tracked by Vechain and it arrived safely without tempering ! Vechain has a lot of great partnerships as well !

Iota

Iota wants to be the new generation cryptocurrency in the “Internet of things” world. They do not use a blockchain but Tangle technology. They want to create transactions/communications between devices. An example could be that your fridge will be able to communicate with your smart phone. Your fridge will notify your phone that it is lacking milk or cheese. Another example would be when you are driving in your car and you need to be somewhere and you need a parking space. Your car will get in contact with parking points and will show you free spaces. You could in that case decide to take a spot and pay for it with Iota in advance and then you can drive towards this parking area knowing you will have a spot. This will take time to develop and is not around the corner, but I can see it happening in the future !

Ripple

Ripple is not the most popular cryptocurrency out there, but they do try to solve a problem in the banking world. They change the way cross-border payments are done. Ripple wants to cut the middle man and their transactions are very fast and have very low fees. For banks this an interesting development and they will use their technology in the future. Ripple is already working with a lot of banks. The only issue for us crypto investors is their currency XRP. Banks do not have to use XRP for doing cross-border payments. Let us hope for the future that they will find ways to let them use XRP, otherwise this crypto is going to die down.

I can go on with other altcoins that have use-cases (ENJIN coin in the gaming world, SIA coin in the decentralized storage world of data, etc.), but it goes to show that there are definitely altcoins that can have a bright future ! It is not only Bitcoin that will have a future. Obviously There are competitors within these use-cases, for example Ethereum will have NEO, TRON, ICON, EOS etc. as competitors to fight for the smart contracts and dapps world.

- Psychology in investing for new investors

Once a new big bull run will start and Bitcoin is going to rise above 20.000$, you will probably see the media starting to hype up cryptocurrencies again. This might or will lead to new investors (retailers) coming in and I believe we are going to see very nice gains in altcoins (maybe not as much as the ICO boom in 2017/beginning 2018). A lot of new investors will see the price of Bitcoin, see their own investment amount and wonder how on earth they are going to make a lot of money quick. They will not like to have 0,01 BTC for example or 0,10, but they would like to have thousands and thousands of a coin. They will check coinmarketcap.com and they will find altcoins ! It seems so much more attracting to buy a 1000 XRP coins or 2000 Cardano coins rather than a fraction of a Bitcoin. Bitcoin will not move from 20.000$ to 2.000.000$, but Cardano might move from 0,50$ to 50$ !!! I am going to be rich ! Psychology is present and new investors tend to go for lower priced coins, because they think it can have the same trajectory as Bitcoin and rise as high. This however is very unlikely of course, but they do not understand that yet. It is up to them to do their own research and understanding that having 0,10 BTC will be as good or even better than having 2000 Cardano ADA coins (this is just an example, I like ADA actually !)

- Traders and smart investors go into altcoins after Bitcoin top of bull run

This has happened in the end 2017/beginning 2018 and is likely to be reproduced once Bitcoin is going to hit its new top during the next bull run. Traders like to transfer from BTC to altcoins and take nice gains and move this back to either BTC or stable coins. Smart investors can do the same and will gladly take some extra gains (FOMO is still going on at that point in BTC and altcoins). It will be easier to dump BTC to new investors or FOMO people and after that they will make it seem that altcoins are going to destroy BTC. FOMO people will enter altcoins and the smart investors/traders are selling it to you and they have made some extra BTC or some extra in stable coins.

Try to use this to your advantage. If you are a long term hodler of altcoins you can sit and relax. Look at the charts every now and then and pay a lot of attention once BTC has hit its top of the bull run ! When you hear your friends that did not like crypto start asking you questions on how to invest or which coin to invest in, start to pay more attention, because a top is going to come soon after that !

I am not a financial adviser and this is not financial advice. Do your own research and make your own decisions !