Have you heard about how high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) put in large sums of money into a startup or project that they believe in, and 5 or 10 years down the line, their investment grows exponentially?
If you have, then you probably might have wished you could do the same. But then, reality hits you hard and reminds you of your bank balance. But what if we told you that you too could get into angel investing, but in a manner that is scaled down to your net worth?
Of course, angel investing is not as simple as it sounds. However, at its most basic level, angel investments are those potentially high-risk investments that an entity makes in the hopes of high returns over a specific period.
How Can Individuals Become Angel Investors?
Thanks to blockchain technology, the world of finance are more decentralized than ever before!
By buying cryptocurrencies or investing in crypto tokens, individuals can place their trust and money in different technology projects that are built and deployed on the blockchain.
However, with an ocean of cryptocurrencies out there and very little knowledge about this new technology, investors can easily get overwhelmed. So, here are four leading crypto tokens that you might want to consider investing in.
1. Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency!
Did you know that all crypto coins other than Bitcoin are dubbed “Altcoins”?
Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that is equivalent to real-world currency but in the digital world.
Bitcoin was proposed by an anonymous person, alias Satoshi Nakamoto, as a solution to economic recession.
While all the conventional currencies of the world (a.k.a. fiat currencies) were inflationary, i.e., depreciating in value as their supply is not capped, Bitcoin’s model was deflationary. As a result, there would only ever be 21 million Bitcoins in existence!
Bitcoin is completely decentralized, fraud-proof, and hack-proof. Above all, it also has the largest market cap in the cryptocurrency universe.
The concept of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency was so disruptive to the modern financial system that several people even called it a “bubble” out of disbelief!
| Market Cap as of June 2021 | USD 685.66 billion |
| All-Time High (ATH) of 1 BTC as of June 2021 | USD 64,805 |
| Percentage Growth in 5 years | +6931.53% |
2. Ether (ETH)
Ether, the native crypto token of the Ethereum network, is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
While Bitcoin sought to solve the challenge of inflation and simple financial transactions, the Ethereum network decentralized the entire financial system and introduced what is known today as “DeFi”!
Ethereum is a blockchain platform in itself. Using the Ethereum network, individuals can decentralize financial transactions like borrowing and lending money with the help of “Smart Contracts” (or SmartC).
Simply put, Smart Contracts are lines of code, when once written, cannot be deleted, edited, or stopped from being executed. These codes are written in the programming language known as “Solidity.”
Due to its open-source nature, the Ethereum network has grown past just DeFi to DApps and more. DApps refer to decentralized applications. So, a decentralized version of Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media platform can be built and deployed on the Ethereum network.
| Market Cap as of June 2021 | USD 286.46 billion |
| All-Time High (ATH) of 1 ETH as of June 2021 | USD 4356.99 |
| Percentage Growth in 5 years | +17,275.77% |
3. Binance Coin (BNB)
The altcoin, Binance Coin (BNB), is the native cryptocurrency of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, Binance.
Using Binance Coin, traders and investors get the added advantage of paying a lower transaction fee. Hence, BNB can be traded in exchange for other crypto tokens such as Bitcoin and Ethereum at a much lower cost.
In its initial stages, Binance Coin was developed and operated on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20 token. Today, Binance has its own blockchain called “Binance Chain,” where BNB is the native currency.
Due to its enormity and fast growth, BNB is being accepted as a form of payment among several vendors and across many websites on the internet.
| Market Cap as of June 2021 | USD 52.97 billion |
| All-Time High (ATH) of 1 BNB as of June 2021 | USD 686.31 |
| Percentage Growth in 5 years | +17,661.56% |
4. Polygon (MATIC)
Polygon is a crypto protocol made by two engineers based out of India.
Polygon addresses the major challenge faced by the Ethereum network – speed and affordability.
Due to the high demand for cryptocurrencies, the Ethereum network has become so slow and expensive that it sometimes takes over 10 hours to complete a transaction. Polygon’s protocol aims to bring this down to a few seconds and at extremely low gas fees.
Although Polygon is an Ethereum token, it is a separate blockchain in itself and runs beside the Ethereum blockchain. Some of the protocols that are currently taking advantage of Polygon are:
- Aave
- Quickswap
- Paraswap Polygon
- Sushiswap
- Curve
Polygon addresses the decentralization trilemma of having to sacrifice one of the following for the other two:
- Decentralization
- Scalability
- Security
Unlike other cryptocurrencies mentioned here, Polygon was launched only recently, in the year 2017.
| Market Cap as of June 2021 | USD 8.61 billion |
| All-Time High (ATH) of 1 MATIC as of June 2021 | USD 2.62 |
| Percentage Growth in 4 years | +6129.2% |
Conclusion
These are some of the most promising crypto tokens of 2021. Others include:
- Cardano (ADA)
- PUSH
- Ripple (XRP)
- Tron (TRX)
- Polkadot (DOT)
- Zcash (ZEC)
There are several exchanges on the internet where you can begin your investing journey with $100 or less! Happy Investing!
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