Experts' Take: What Altcoins to Invest in April

iHodl reached out to several financial experts to find out which altcoins are worth investing in right now.

Visa's integrating of the USDC stablecoin as part of the partnership with Crypto.com (CRO) marks a major new milestone in the cryptocurrency world. The use of a cryptodollar on the Ethereum blockchain with the support of the largest cryptocurrency application (with the ability to bind a plastic card to crypto wallets) in the ecosystem of the largest processing giant Visa opens up broad prospects for many altcoins at once.

Firstly, this is a plus for ether (ETH), the blockchain of which continues to cover an increasing number of areas. Secondly, it is a boost for the Crypto.com native token (CRO). Third, this is a broad reputation boost for stable cryptocurrencies (almost all are based on the Ethereum blockchain).

Given the upcoming transition to ETH 2.0, this creates new conditions for the continued growth of the token in the long term, despite the current high price values. As you can see from the price action, coins from the historic 2017 rally have not made any progress towards repeating all-time highs. Therefore, the bet on platforms and decentralized finance may be the most correct one.

In addition to finance, global users need decentralized data storage as an alternative to the cloud services of large corporations. Here Filecoin (FIL) becomes the best option. Although the coin has shown impressive growth in recent times, a long-term bet on this project can generate impressive profits.

The altcoin rate is highly dependent on bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin) as many altcoins are quoted primarily to bitcoin, and through it to the US dollar. Therefore, in many cases, everything will depend on what the rate of the first cryptocurrency will be in April. Now we see that bitcoin is slowly correcting from historical highs, so even if the altcoin rate to bitcoin rises, then in dollar terms its value will fall.

In April, I would look at altcoins such as Chainlink (LINK), Polkadot (DOT), and Uniswap (UNI). Particular attention should be paid to the latest project — Uniswap. The exchange team recently released a new protocol update. The news was greeted quite optimistically, which could lead to an increase in the rate of the coin. This is superimposed on the general trend towards an increase in trading volume on decentralized platforms, which allow you to trade assets without giving control over them to third parties.

Therefore, I suppose that UNI is a good investment, if not in the short term, then, precisely, in the medium term. In general, I am not in favor of short-term investments in cryptocurrencies, which are characterized by high volatility. Trying to get quick profit is a losing strategy. It is better to form an investment portfolio with a long-term prospect, and not to invest all available funds at once, but to make investments regularly, which will evenly average the purchase price of assets. So the chances of being in the black are much higher.

Today, Binance Coin has excellent prospects.

Binance Coin (BNB) is a utility cryptocurrency that works as a way to pay fees associated with trading on the Binance exchange. Those who use the token as a means of payment in the exchange can trade at a discount.

In 2021, we predict an increase in the price of this token, as the number of people using the Binance platform increases, and accordingly, many customers will want to trade the crypto at a discount, and therefore will purchase BNB tokens.

Also, in order to understand which altcoin will grow, you need to look at bitcoin, and at what correlation the coins have with each other. Although the relationship between altcoin and bitcoin price changes is not always clear (due to the large number of variables), we know that it is strong and significant. Also, when choosing promising altcoins, you need to pay attention to the information field, since it is loud news that most of all affects the market.

After all, I see BNB and ETH as the most promising coins. You can also look at DOGE and MONA. Study coins technically and fundamentally, then you will have the clearest picture of the fate of an altcoin.

The cryptocurrency market has been steadily growing for several months, despite the general decrease in trading volume. Nevertheless, the general global macroeconomic situation favors the search for alternative ways to invest.

Almost all cryptocurrencies on the market are currently in a state of fairly strong volatility, and I would recommend reducing investment volumes in April and monitoring how market events develop.

The only and already my traditional advice is to increase your portfolio in ETH. There are all the obvious reasons for its further growth: the convenience of settlements, a well-developed infrastructure and widespread use among users.

According to Listing.Help analysts, the market might face a correction in the coming weeks. Therefore, in April there will be an opportunity to buy altcoins, for a long term and at "big discounts".

First, it is worth paying attention to popular projects, whose updates are awaiting the entire cryptocurrency community — ETH and UNI. A number of updates are expected in Ethereum in the coming months, led by the possible adoption of EIP-1559, which will launch a deflationary mechanism in the project network and change the mechanism for calculating transaction fees.

Uniswap is also expected to have a major upgrade to v3, largely focused on making decentralized exchange as capital efficient as possible. In addition, it will include solutions to the scaling problem and the addition of customizable liquidity ranges.

Also pay attention to BNB and NEM. The development of the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem is driving increased demand for BNB. And NEM recently launched Symbol, a technology for the corporate sector and business solutions. It can also give rise in the medium term.

I try to abstain from direct financial advice, so let us look at the groups of altcoins that have the most potential for growth.

The NFT market is expecting a boom in capitalization from the current $400 million in volume to $1.5 billion by the end of the year. NFTs are non-fungible tokens that are analogous to a digital signature or certificate used in digital art.

A serious limitation is the growth in the cost of gas in the Ethereum network, on the basis of smart contracts of which, in most cases, NFTs are built. Because of this, third-party projects with similar features, but low transaction costs, are showing significant growth.

Thus, the ENJ coin of the Enjin Coin project has grown by 800% over the past month and still has the potential for continued growth.

Slowly but surely, cryptocurrencies are moving to the masses: as expected, Elon Musk's company will begin to provide buyers in the United States with the opportunity to pay for Tesla electric cars with cryptocurrency. Today we are talking only about bitcoin, but not so long ago, in a conversation with DotCom, Musk said that in terms of the size of commissions, Bitcoin Cash is better than the main cryptocurrency. Does this mean that the next step will be to accept BCH as payment? Only Musk knows the answer to this question, meanwhile, the price of BCH has risen by more than 10% since the tweet about the commission.

After that, Musk urged not to neglect DeFi-related tokens. According to CoinMarketCap, DeFi token trading activity surged after Musk's tweet, and the sector's total market capitalization surged to $79.49 billion. In addition, many expected his tweet to positively impact the price of ether — the blockchain on which most DeFi or decentralized finance applications are built. Since March 25, Vitalik Buterin's creation has exceeded $1800.

Despite this, not everyone agrees on the benefits of cryptocurrencies. Rosfinmonitoring, for example, named bitcoin, ether and monero (XMR) as the most popular cryptocurrencies for terrorist financing. In addition, on January 1, 2021, the law "On digital financial assets" entered into force in the Russian Federation, which prohibits the use of cryptocurrencies in Russia to pay for goods and services.

Speaking about Ripple, the SEC said that no investors, exchanges or other platforms violate the regulator's rules by selling the XRP tokens. Meanwhile, the price of the token jumped by 20%. Judge Sarah Netburn of the Southern District Court of New York even stated that XRP cryptocurrency is more like a currency than a security. Thus, the epic with Ripple is far from over.

In the end, I would like to note the growing interest in NFT or non-fungible tokens, which are titles of ownership of various digital objects. Unlike cryptocurrencies, NFTs are completely unique. Artists, influencers and musicians have taken advantage of the hype and started making money selling NFT versions of digital art, with investors lining up to get their piece of the pie.

As a result, we can say that the hype rules the show, and if nothing extraordinary happens, the growth of the aforementioned coins will continue. Of course, the opposite scenario should also be taken into account, where portfolio diversification can help.

April has always been a favorable month in the entire history of cryptocurrencies, while March has been an unfavorable one. So, in the entire history of bitcoin, the largest annual decline occurred in March and November, followed by growth. This March was an exception due to the rapid volatility in the market and the flow of funds.

Of course, bitcoin is a cryptocurrency for long-term investments, but today I would like to highlight another token, which this year (the year of the sensational NFT) may grow several times, and it is in April that it is expected to jump. This is The Graph protocol token - GRT.

What is this token?

GRT is an indexing token protocol for indexing individual data on the blockchain, which can be used to create decentralized applications. In other words, the protocol denotes information in the blockchain with an index, like in a book: to find the required chapter, you can go to the content and view the required page.

At the moment, the blockchain works in such a way that each block stores a collection of data. The search for data in a typical blockchain structure is carried out in such a way that each block is checked in turn, which can take a very long time, perhaps even several days. Therefore, most transaction tracking applications create a database and store information about all transactions in them, which is a little expensive and requires a lot of work. With Graph, everyone can create their own API that will read the necessary requests on each smart contract and output them to the frontend of the application.

Why now?

At the moment, the Graph Protocol supports Ethereum. Since most decentralized applications now run on this blockchain, most NFTs are created on Ethereum, but the project is going to integrate its protocol into other blockchains and even make the gateway protocol. It means it will be possible to request data from another blockchain.

One of the applications can be attributed to the creation of a marketplace and NFT tracker such as DappRadar and Nonfungible. For such applications, using The Graph, you can create several classifications, for example, how much the total volume of audio-NFT was purchased yesterday at a price from $200 to $2000. One of the largest NFT marketplaces, Decentraland, already has its own open API for the Graph, where you can find any information on parameters, so the Graph is called the Google of the decentralized world.

The goal of the project is to remove from the network such control and supply links as API, servers and databases. All information will be stored in a single decentralized network.

In April, the protocol update will begin, namely the transition to the mainnet, in which all APIs will be brought into one network and a single gateway will be created to search for any information on the blockchain. Like Google in 2000, The Graph has huge potential for growth in the new decentralized world, and this project should undoubtedly be worth a look. Now the protocol is used by such recognizable projects as Uniswap, Synthetix, CoinGecko, Aave, Compound, Aragon.

Technical analysis

At the moment, the total number of GRT in circulation is only 12% of the total, and is 1 245 666 867 GRT, the total number of issued tokens is 10 billion. The market capitalization of GRT is $2.2 billion, and the price has increased since the launch of the token by 1588.7%.

The maximum of the token was fixed at $2.89, after reaching which the pair began to form a correction in relation to growth. Every attempt to resume the rally was stalled and every weekly high was below the other. Thus, the pair formed the "Triangle" pattern, and, according to the rules of technical analysis, breaking the upper border of the triangle is the denominator of continued growth. At the time of writing, GRT is trading at 1.74575 against the US dollar, bouncing off resistance at $1.88 after completing the Inverse Head and Shoulders pattern. For the upside to continue, GRT must close on the daily timeframe above the $1.88 resistance. If this resistance is broken, I expect the token to grow in the short-term to $2.14, and in the medium-term to $3.2. If GRT maintains its momentum, then we can see the $3.2 mark in mid-April.

This article is distributed for general informational and educational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal, tax, accounting or investment advice.