Admittedly, 2022 has certainly not been the best year so far for cryptocurrencies. A number of factors were responsible for keeping the market moderately bearish. These include constant reminders regarding Federal Reserve hikes, the unfortunate Terra (UST-USD) incident, and now concerns around the crypto lending and trading markets via the freezing of withdrawals from Celsius (CEL-USD) and Binance (BNB-USD). However, despite all these headwinds, many investors are on the lookout for growth. Growth at a significant discount is even better, as we can find in the best cryptos to buy.
For this article, I have selected three cryptos that are taking a long-term approach to growth. These three tokens are each in the top-10 rankings of tokens by market capitalization. Thus, there’s a size element to each of these tokens that should provide stability over time.
However, each of these projects also has unique growth drivers I think make for a compelling risk-to-reward argument. Here’s why investors may want to consider these tokens as a five-year investment.
| Ticker | Company | Price |
| ADA-USD | Cardano USD | $0.4117259 |
| BTC-USD | Bitcoin USD | $19,403.96 |
| ETH-USD | Ethereum USD | $1,062 |
Cryptos to Buy and Hold: Cardano (ADA)
Cardano (ADA-USD) is a decentralized and open-source public blockchain platform, which is noted for its early adoption of proof-of-stake validation. In addition, Cardano boasts energy-efficient procedures, which are more eco-friendly than peers such as Bitcoin (BTC-USD). This has been a key driving factor of interest around Cardano and other proof-of-stake blockchains.
This network’s native token, ADA, facilitates peer-to-peer transactions on Cardano’s blockchain. It’s worth noting that ADA has been on an incredible ride in recent years, with token price appreciation of approximately 14,000% to its all-time high in September 2021. Of course, since then, it’s been mostly downhill for investors. Currently, ADA trades at a discount of approximately 85% to its all-time high.
That said, there are a number of catalysts investors should consider. The Vasil hard fork, which was recently released, has boosted developer interest in the Cardano network. In fact, over the past month, Cardano has led the way in terms of application development, signaling something for investors to hang on to as token prices everywhere decline.
Over the long term, I think Cardano is a top token to buy and hold. That’s because Charles Hoskinson and his team aren’t rushing anything. They’re methodical. For investors in this high-growth, high-risk sector, that’s a good thing.
Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin is the world’s largest crypto in terms of market capitalization. Initially traded in a range of roughly $0.0008 to $0.08 per coin over ten years ago, the price of BTC hit an all-time high around $69,000 in November last year.
The major reason behind its popularity is that investors believe that the value of Bitcoin will appreciate over time because of its limited supply of 21 million. As an inflation hedge, many have looked to Bitcoin to stabilize their portfolios.
While this thesis hasn’t played out well lately, it is worth noting that Bitcoin’s long-term beta still hovers around zero. That is to say that this token’s price action generally doesn’t depend on the movements of the overall market.
While macro headwinds remain very strong right now, it’s clear that Bitcoin is still the leader in many key metrics. In terms of a form of payment, Bitcoin has seen incredible traction of late; arguably among the most-utilized tokens outside of stablecoins. Thus, for those taking the very long view of this sector, Bitcoin is a stalwart worth considering at these new low prices.
Cryptos to Buy and Hold: Ethereum (ETH)
Second only to Bitcoin, both in terms of market capitalization and price, Ethereum (ETH-USD) is another crypto that investors highly prefer. There are many reasons for this.
Besides being a widely circulated cryptocurrency asset, Ethereum is also popular for its revolutionary network, which allows developers to construct their own tokens via its ERC-20 compatibility standard. In addition, decentralized finance and non-fungible tokens are some other concepts which have shot up Ethereum’s value over the years.
Additionally, the upcoming highly-anticipated Ethereum Merge will push the ecosystem from the present, energy-intensive Proof-of-Work mechanism, to a Proof-of-Stake mechanism. This shift will help turn Ethereum into a more sustainable project in the long term.
ETH hit an all-time high of more than $4,800 in late 2021 and started at the $3,600 bracket this year. It posted a 160% growth in 2021 and some project this token could hit $6,500 in 2022. This makes it a mandatory addition to a crypto portfolio for the long term.
On the date of publication, Chris MacDonald owns Ethereum. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.