Amid the turmoil that impacted the crypto-asset market at the beginning of the year, there were digital currencies that followed the opposite path, showing high appreciation during the period. This is what a survey carried out by Felipe Medeiros, analyst, and partner at Quantzed Criptos, a technology and financial education company for investors shows.
Based on data from CoinCodex, the analyst highlighted which were the three cryptocurrencies that rose in appreciation in the first quarter of 2022. To know them, check below.
Which cryptocurrencies appreciated the most in the first quarter of 2022?
1 – GMT, from STEPN: + 791.93%
The cryptocurrency that appreciated the most in the period was Green Metaverse Token (GMT), a governance asset of the STEPN application, a platform that encourages physical exercise through rewards within the game ecosystem.
It works like this: that interested access the technology and, in a way, “equipped” with an NFT sneaker, walk or run to earn the cryptocurrencies (exercise monitoring is controlled by STEPN via GPS).
Then, after performing physical activities, users’ earnings are stored in the app’s wallet, which has a built-in exchange function.
For Medeiros, the justification for the increase would be that “in recent months, we have had a very strong trend towards the ‘win-to-play’ model… [that’s why] the currency that appreciated the most in the first quarter was the GMT”.
However, the analyst also comments that despite this hype bringing a strong rise to the asset at the moment, he does not have a good outlook on the cryptocurrency in the medium and long term.
In trading on April 14, the asset had a market cap of $342.3 million, according to Coinbase data. The cryptocurrency began trading in May 2021.
2 – KNC, by Kyber: + 149.56%
Kyber Network Crystal (KNC) is a utility and governance token and an integral part of the Kyber Network, which is a decentralized exchange liquidity platform that is based on the Ethereum blockchain.
The ecosystem allows for simple conversions between different types of digital assets, so users can trade cryptocurrencies using only decentralized apps and their wallets.
KNC token holders bet and vote to receive protocol trading fees on the network. And as more trades are executed and new protocols added, more rewards are generated.
In trading on April 14, the asset had a market value of US$ 828.5 million, according to Investing data. The cryptocurrency began trading in November 2017.
3 – WAVES, from the Waves platform: + 95.16%
Waves is an all-in-one blockchain platform that supports multiple use cases, mainly for the development of decentralized applications (DApps) and smart contracts.
The network has its own virtual asset, which has the same name. The token serves to reward all infrastructure participants, to pay platform fees and for users to carry out other projects.
In trading on April 14, the asset had a market value of US$ 2.4 billion, according to Investing data. The cryptocurrency began trading in July 2017.
Is it worth looking for more alternative cryptocurrencies?
As is well known, investments in digital assets are part of the variable income category, so in this market that is so volatile, making these applications is quite risky, even more so when investing in more alternative cryptocurrencies.
For Medeiros, “if you know how to make a good assessment of the assets you are buying, it is worth betting a small part of your portfolio on this… but you have to understand that you are taking a very big risk”.
Francisco D’Orto Neto, professor at the FIPECAFI faculty in the subjects of the Economics course, explains that before investing in a cryptocurrency, it is important to make a complete and thorough analysis of it. For the teacher, it is essential to assess the following:
- Is the cryptocurrency project innovative? What are his advantages? Are there already other digital currencies proposing the same thing? If so, do they seem to be more promising?
- What is the future planning of the project (roadmap)? It is important to analyze the next programmed steps and, if possible, identify if the currency has the potential to grow. And it’s worth a warning: if you can’t find a crypto roadmap, it’s a sign of distrust.
- Does the currency have its source code available to the public, allowing anyone to access it?
- Another fact to look at before investing: it is important to identify cryptos that have liquidity and market value.
Best Cryptocurrencies to Invest Now in 2022
For Medeiros, the best investment now is in Ethereum, “because the cryptocurrency will undergo an update in the coming months, which is the biggest in history”.
Currently, the development of Ethereum is through the proof-of-work (PoW) protocol, that is, when a decentralized network of computers competes to validate transactions.
With the update, which is called The Merge (the merger, in the Portuguese translation), the network should start to work through the proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol. This means that users will be responsible for validating transactions when staking the cryptocurrency.
This change is expected to have a positive impact on the asset price because, ideally, it should bring more security to the investor, reduce energy costs and facilitate blockchain scaling.
“I see Ethereum, including, in the next few months getting very close to the Bitcoin market cap … I think this is a trend that will happen”, comments the analyst.
In addition, among other promising cryptocurrencies, “a second good prospect that we can assess for this year still plays to earn games . We will have a very large inflow of capital into them”, concludes Medeiros.
What are the main cryptocurrencies on the market?
Among the thousands of cryptocurrencies listed on the market, few of them stand out among the majority. Clearly, at the moment, the crypto asset that has the most relevance is the pioneer Bitcoin (BTC), which has more than BRL 3 trillion in market capitalization. Then comes Ethereum (ETH) skyrocketing in relation to the others, with a trading volume of more than BRL 1 trillion.
However, in this first quarter, the performance was not good for crypto assets: Bitcoin lost 9.66%, and Ethereum 16.11%.
Rubens Neistein, business country manager at CoinPayments and partner at Blockmaster Brasil, believes that both cryptocurrencies “in the short term will still suffer volatility due to the global scenario”, which is still suffering from the consequences of the war in Ukraine.
Which Cryptocurrencies to Avoid in 2022?
For Medeiros, “mostly, the investor needs to avoid coins that survive on hype, which do not have a purpose”. He cites Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and other meme-pegged cryptos.
“Another asset class people need to avoid is games that promise high returns,” he adds.
How is the cryptocurrency market?
As the most recent survey by North American exchange Gemini points out, nearly half of all cryptocurrency owners in the United States, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region bought the assets for the first time in 2021 alone.
But not only that. According to the survey carried out by asset manager Hashdex, Brazil recorded a 1,266% growth in the number of investors allocated to crypto-asset funds and ETFs in 2021 compared to the previous year. The number of investors in this type of application rose from 30,000 in 2020 to more than 410,000 last year.
