12 Best Crypto to Buy Now in May 2023

With the cryptocurrency markets still in an uncertain position, many crypto investors are wondering if it’s time to sell in order to avoid further losses or if the market is going to recover soon. 

Even though the crypto markets have so far always recovered from their bearish periods, every bear market has its “casualties” that never make a strong recovery. Therefore, it’s important to choose quality crypto projects that have a good chance of surviving the bear market and thriving in the future.

For those that are looking to add some crypto to their portfolio while prices are down significantly from their all-time highs, the current market conditions present some compelling opportunities. So, what’s the best cryptocurrency to invest in 2023?

  • Lido DAO – The leading liquid staking protocol
  • Kava – A project combining the best of Cosmos and Ethereum
  • Arbitrum – The leading layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum
  • Bitcoin – A highly efficient smart contracts platform
  • Ethereum – The leading blockchain for smart contracts and DApps
  • BNB – A popular cryptocurrency utilized in the Binance ecosystem
  • Uniswap – A project with multiple Ethereum scalability solutions
  • Cosmos – The leading decentralized storage project
  • GMX – A decentralized crypto derivatives exchange
  • Litecoin – An alternative to Bitcoin with impressive staying power
  • Shiba Inu – A meme coin on the Ethereum blockchain
  • Mina Protocol – An extremely lightweight blockchain

Best Cryptos to Buy Right Now

Let’s start off by highlighting three cryptocurrency projects that have seen important developments recently, or have big events coming up in the near future. We update these highlighted coins on a weekly basis to reflect the latest developments in the world of crypto and blockchain.

1. Lido DAO

LDO is the governance token of Lido DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization that oversees the Lido liquid staking protocols. Through the DAO, LDO holders can decide on important protocol parameters including fees and assigning node operators and oracles. Lido makes it possible for users to retain liquidity even when they’re staking their coins.

The protocol issues tokens to represent staked coins, for example stETH for staked ETH. Tokens like stETH can be traded or deployed in DeFi protocols to earn yield. Lido provides liquid staking services for different blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Kusama and Polygon.

Lido is currently the leading staking solution for Ethereum. As of May 2023, the protocol accounts for around 29% of all staked ETH.

Why Lido DAO?

The Lido protocol is set to receive an upgrade to Lido V2, pending the results of an on-chain governance vote. At the time of writing, LDO holders are expressing overwhelming support for the upgrade, with about 59.5 million LDO tokens voting in favor and no tokens voting against the proposal. The upgrade, which has gone through 8 audits already, is poised to launch on May 15.

The Lido team describes the V2 upgrade as “the next step in decentralization” of the Lido protocol. The upgrade will introduce a staking router, which will allow the Lido protocol to support a more diverse range of validators. In addition, the upgrade will introduce support for ETH withdrawals. stETH holders will be able to exchange their tokens back to ETH at a 1:1 ratio directly using the Lido protocol.

The markets appear to be bullish on Lido V2, as LDO has been the third-best performer in the crypto top 100 over the past week. The LDO markets should be interesting to follow in the short term—will there be a “sell the news” event following the upgrade or will LDO be able to sustain its upwards momentum?

2. Kava

Kava is a blockchain platform that is focused on decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. On Kava, users can lend cryptocurrency to earn interest, mint stablecoins, and swap between different tokens in a decentralized manner. DeFi apps built on Kava can support assets that are native to the Kava blockchain, as well as representations of popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and BNB.

In addition, one of the most important goals of the Kava project is to facilitate interoperability between the Ethereum and Cosmos ecosystems.

Kava, which launched in 2019, still remains a relevant project and currently holds a spot among the top 100 crypto assets by market capitalization. In January 2023, KAVA was listed on the leading crypto exchange Coinbase.

Why Kava?

The Kava project is very active when it comes to development, with the protocol receiving frequent upgrades to stay in tandem with the latest advancements in blockchain tech. The Kava protocol is poised to receive the Kava 13 upgrade on May 17.

Per the Kava team, the Kava 13 upgrade will introduce the upgraded Kava EVM 2.0 virtual machine, which will improve performance for RPC providers and validators. The improved virtual machine will allow the network to process large amounts of data more efficiently.

Another upgrade coming with Kava 13 is improved bridging between the Cosmos and Ethereum ecosystems. The upgrade will also bring advanced vault control, which will make it easier for users to decide how the Kava DAO’s Strategic Vault supports protocols building on Kava.

In anticipation of the upgrade, KAVA has been the crypto top 100’s best performer in the last 7 days.

3. Arbitrum

Arbitrum is currently the most popular layer 2 scalability solution for Ethereum. The platform, which is underpinned by optimistic rollups, allows developers to launch Ethereum-compatible smart contracts and DApps that offer lower fees and faster transactions to users.

Thanks to decentralized protocols like GMX, which utilize the potential of Arbitrum to its fullest extent, Arbitrum has emerged as a dominant player in the layer 2 landscape.

Following its launch in August 2021, the Arbitrum project operated without its own token. However, the project did eventually launch their ARB token in March 23 through an airdrop to existing users of the protocol. The ARB token is used in the governance of the Arbitrum protocol, allowing users to vote on protocol upgrades, allocate treasury funds and elect a security council.

Why Arbitrum?

The Arbitrum ecosystem has seen some encouraging developments as of late which could help the recently-launched ARB token gain some momentum in the market. Earlier in May, Offchain Labs published a new release of the Arbitrum Nitro software, containing fixes and two new features (offline pruning and eth_sendRawTransactionConditional).

Meanwhile, the Arbitrum Nova platform has reached the 500,000 unique addresses milestone, showing that there’s quite a lot of interest for the ultra-low transaction fee platform. In addition, a number of new projects are joining the arbitrum ecosystem including Prohibition, Olympus DAO, RentFun, Manta Network, Particle Network and Parsiq.

While the ARB price action hasn’t been too inspiring thus far, Arbitrum is still a leading layer 2 project and the ARB token is still a recent entrant into the cryptocurrency market. Notably, the token has seen strong support around the psychologically important $1 price level.

4. Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that was initially described in 2008 and launched in early 2009. Bitcoin was invented by a person using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity is still unknown.

Bitcoin introduced the concept of a blockchain, and provides a fully decentralized digital currency that’s extremely secure. It implements Proof-of-Work to make it very difficult to alter the history of transactions or double spend coins. The network is secured by miners, who are rewarded with BTC coins for adding blocks to the Bitcoin blockchain.

BTC can be sent anywhere in the world on a 24/7 basis, and transactions cannot be blocked by any intermediaries. By holding their own private keys, users can self-custody their Bitcoin without requiring institutions such as banks.

Even though countless cryptocurrencies and blockchain platforms have been released after Bitcoin, BTC is still easily the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Why Bitcoin?

The crypto markets have taken a bearish turn recently, with many mid-market cap altcoins seeing significant price drops. We’ve also seen several meme coins cool off after rallying last week. In this market context, Bitcoin is undoubtedly the most interesting cryptocurrency to follow at the moment.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will release CPI (Consumer Price Index) data on May 10. The CPI numbers, which measure inflation in the United States, will provide an insight on whether the U.S. Federal Reserve is likely to raise interest rates again or not. If inflation is lower than expected, we could see some positive price action in both the stock and Bitcoin markets.

As far as fundamental developments are concerned, we’ve recently seen a surge in Bitcoin transaction fees which is driven by new uses for the Bitcoin network, such as NFTs and custom tokens. Both use cases are possible due to the Ordinals Protocol, which allows users to make arbitrary data inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain.

While it still remains to be seen whether Bitcoin-based NFTs and tokens will stick around over the long term, it’s encouraging to see developers and users experimenting on Bitcoin.

5. Ethereum

Ethereum is a blockchain that supports smart contracts, enabling more complex use cases such as decentralized lending protocols and non-fungible tokens. The Ethereum project was founded by Vitalik Buterin, who published the Ethereum whitepaper in late 2013. The Ethereum blockchain launched in July 2015.

One of the first use-cases enabled by Ethereum that gained a lot of traction was the ability to issue custom tokens that could be transacted over the Ethereum blockchain. This feature was utilized by many projects to conduct fundraising through Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and other types of token sales.

Today, Ethereum has an extremely vibrant ecosystem of decentralized applications – including decentralized financial services, NFT marketplaces, publishing platforms, decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges, and more – which makes it a good investment in 2023, in our opinion.

ETH is the native asset of the Ethereum blockchain, providing an incentive for users to secure the network. The Ethereum network originally implemented a Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism, but switched over to Proof-of-Stake in September of 2022.

Why Ethereum?

We are quickly approaching the “Shapella” upgrade, which is scheduled for April 12. The highly anticipated upgrade will allow staked ETH tokens to be withdrawn by holders if they wish to do so.

While there is a chance that the unlocking of staked ETH will bring increased selling pressure, investors don’t seem to be too worried, according to the recent price action in the ETH market. With the Shapella upgrade being only a day away, ETH is posting a +5.8% 7-day price change, which is about in line with the performance of BTC in the same time period. 

Once Shapella goes live, it will be interesting to see if it will have a noticeable impact on the amount of staked ETH. While we could see a drop in staked ETH due to the unlock, the upgrade could also attract more risk-averse ETH holders who previously weren’t comfortable with staking to begin staking their coins. 

6. BNB

BNB is a token that was launched by the Binance cryptocurrency exchange in 2017. BNB serves two primary functions. Holders of the token get access to special benefits when using Binance – this includes lower trading fees, access the exchange’s Launchpad and Launchpool programs, cashback on Binance Visa card purchases, and more. 

The token is also used as the native asset of the BNB Chain blockchain. BNB Chain is a variant of Ethereum that offers significantly lower transaction fees to users, and it allows developers to easily deploy EVM-compatible decentralized applications. Previously known as Binance Coin, BNB has now gone through an extensive rebranding.

Why BNB?

BNB Chain has established itself as a very popular blockchain platform thanks to its fast and cheap transactions. Even though there have been concerns about the platform’s effective level of decentralization, many users appear to be prioritizing convenience.

In addition, Binance continues to dominate the cryptocurrency exchange industry, and has increased its market share even further following the collapse of FTX. Since it’s likely that Binance will continue to provide incentives for BNB holders, it’s reasonable to expect solid demand for BNB moving forward.

Of course, there are also the quarterly BNB burns, which will continue reducing the supply of BNB until it hits 100 million coins. By increasing the scarcity of BNB, the quarterly burns work in favor of long-term BNB holders.

7. Uniswap

Uniswap is a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange that introduced and popularized the AMM (automated market maker) model. This unique design removes the need for order books, providing an elegant way for swapping between different tokens directly on the blockchain without relying on intermediaries.

The Uniswap protocol is decentralized, and anyone can create liquidity pools for any token. This means that the newest crypto assets are often traded on Uniswap before they make their way on centralized cryptocurrency exchanges.

The model introduced by Uniswap has been adopted by many decentralized exchanges on different blockchain platforms. However, Uniswap remains the most active decentralized exchange in terms of trading volume.

Uniswap is governed by holders of the UNI token, who can submit and vote for proposals. UNI was distributed to past users of the Uniswap protocol via an airdrop in 2020, and the token is now available for purchase on a variety of both decentralized and centralized trading platforms.

Why Uniswap?

The Uniswap protocol recently a record daily trading volume at $11.84 billion. This was almost twice as much volume as the protocol’s previous daily volume record. 

Uniswap hit its record as users rushed in to trade USDC, the major stablecoin that came under pressure over the weekend after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. The reason why this failure was relevant to USDC is that Circle, a key issuer of the USDC stablecoin, disclosed that $3.3 billion out of the roughly total $40 billion in funds backing USDC are held at Silicon Valley Bank.

This volume surge shows that the Uniswap protocol is a key piece of infrastructure for the crypto markets, and can successfully handle very large volumes even during periods of chaos in the market.

In addition, the Uniswap project has recently also announced a non-custodial mobile wallet that supports the Ethereum mainnet as well as the Arbitrum and Optimism layer 2 scalability platforms. 

8. Cosmos

Cosmos is a network that’s designed to allow different blockchain platforms to interoperate with each other. The Cosmos network is coordinated by the Cosmos Hub, a Proof-of-Stake blockchain. The Cosmos Hub is also designed to facilitate connections with blockchains outside of the Cosmos ecosystem, for example Bitcoin and Ethereum. The different blockchains that make up Cosmos communicate through a protocol called IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication). 

The Cosmos Hub and other blockchains in the Cosmos network are built using the Cosmos SDK framework. Blockchains launched on Cosmos benefit from a robust Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, fast transaction times (about 7 seconds) and low transaction costs (about $0.01 per transaction).

The native asset of Cosmos is called ATOM. Users can stake their ATOM tokens to contribute to the network’s security as well as earn staking rewards and a portion of the transaction fees collected by the network.

Why Cosmos?

On March 15, the Cosmos network will receive its v9-Lambda upgrade, which will introduce replicated security (RS) to the network. This will allow blockchains in the Cosmos network to essentially lease security from the Cosmos Hub by allowing validators on Cosmos Hub to produce blocks for them. The upgrade is part of the broader concept of interchain security (ICS), which the Cosmos project is gradually rolling out.

Replicated security will allow Cosmos-based projects to focus on their unique strengths instead of having to worry about their validators and security. Meanwhile, ATOM stakers could see some extra yield since up to 25% of the fees collected by “consumer chains” will be going to Cosmos Hub stakers.

At launch, only pre-approved blockchains in the Cosmos network will be able to use the replicated security feature. Eligible blockchains are selected through Cosmos governance.

9. GMX

GMX is a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange specialized in derivatives, more specifically perpetual futures contracts. The GMX exchange is currently available on the Arbitrum and Avalanche blockchain platforms.

The GMX ecosystem features two tokens: GMX and GLP. GMX is a utility and governance token which accrues 30% of the fees collected on the GMX exchange. Meanwhile, GLP is the platform’s liquidity provider token, which accrues 70% of the fees collected on the exchange.

GLP represents an index that currently consists of 8 different crypto assets which are supported on the GMX exchange for swaps and leverage trading. Users can mint GLP by supplying any of the supported assets to the pool, or redeem GLP for assets held by the pool.

The platform supports trading with up to 50x leverage, which is competitive compared to most centralized crypto derivatives platforms.

Why GMX?

Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges are under increased scrutiny after the collapse of FTX. In addition, the failure of many centralized crypto lending businesses has also negatively impacted the reputation of centralized crypto businesses more broadly.

While centralized exchanges still reign supreme in terms of trading volume, an increasing number of crypto investors is looking for decentralized alternatives. The sector of decentralized crypto derivatives is still relatively new, which means that there could be a lot of upside for platforms such as GMX. That’s the main reason why we featured GMX as one of the best new cryptocurrencies to buy.

10. Litecoin

Litecoin is a cryptocurrency that was initially launched in October 2011, making it one of the oldest “altcoins” on the market. Litecoin is heavily based on Bitcoin, as it started off as essentially a modified version of Bitcoin’s codebase. 

Litecoin has a maximum coin supply of 84 million, which is 4 times larger than that of Bitcoin. Its targeted block time is 2.5 minutes, which is 4 times faster than Bitcoin’s targeted block time. Just like Bitcoin, Litecoin also uses Proof-of-Work to reach consensus about the state of its Ledger. While Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 hash function, Litecoin uses the scrypt hash function. 

Sometimes, Litecoin has been used as a proving ground for technologies that were later implemented into Bitcoin. For example, SegWit was first implemented into Litecoin before it went live on the Bitcoin network. However, Litecoin also has some unique technological aspects to it, most notably its support for MimbleWimble privacy technology.  

Litecoin fans often describe Litecoin as the “silver to Bitcoin’s gold”. LTC transactions are cheaper and faster than BTC transactions, making Litecoin a more suitable option for everyday payments. 

Why Litecoin?

Litecoin has demonstrated impressive longevity, as it still maintains a multi-billion dollar market cap despite the fact that it launched in 2011 and countless other projects have been released since then.

The Litecoin community has demonstrated a willingness to adopt new technologies to enhance Litecoin, even when it comes to technologies that aren’t currently on the Bitcoin roadmap. For example, Litecoin introduced support for the MimbleWimble privacy protocol, providing a significant boost to the utility of LTC.

Another important factor that makes Litecoin worth considering at the moment is that the third Litecoin halving will happen in 2023 (the current estimate is August 2023). We saw a LTC rally prior to the Litecoin halving in 2019, so the LTC markets will definitely be worth watching closely in 2023.

11. Shiba Inu

Shiba Inu is a meme cryptocurrency that was launched in 2020 by a person using the pseudonym “Ryoshi”. The project is heavily inspired by the Dogecoin cryptocurrency, and also features the Shiba Inu dog breed in its branding. In contrast to Dogecoin, which has its own blockchain, Shiba Inu is issued on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20 token.

During the SHIB token launch, half of the supply was sent to Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin (who is not involved with the project in any way). The project framed this as a token burn. Buterin did eventually burn the vast majority of his SHIB holdings and sold the rest of his tokens to fund charitable donations.

SHIB saw a significant spike in popularity in 2021 and became the second-largest meme coin by market cap, second only to Dogecoin. In addition, SHIB is one of the most popular penny cryptos at the moment, making it one of the leading candidates for the next cryptocurrency to explode in 2023.

Why Shiba Inu?

The Shiba Inu project is currently working on Shibarium, a layer 2 platform for Ethereum designed to provide more efficient transactions to users. Shibarium is currently in the testnet phase. Shibarium’s “Puppynet” testnet has been seeing some encouraging activity, with over 800,000 transactions being completed so far. In addition, the testnet has seen more than 100,000 unique wallet addresses.

The Shibarium platform will use the BONE token for gas fees and validator incentives. In addition, the base gas fees paid on Shibarium will be used to burn SHIB tokens, reducing SHIB’s supply over the time.

Shibarium will provide an alternative for users that want to avoid the high transaction costs on the Ethereum mainnet. Per the Shiba Inu development team, they’re primarily looking to target the metaverse and gaming sectors with their layer 2.

The upcoming release of Shibarium will be one of the biggest milestones in the history of the Shiba Inu project, so it will definitely be worth watching the SHIB markets moving forward. However, don’t expect SHIB to reach $1 or $0.50 anytime soon.

12. Mina Protocol

Mina Protocol is a project that’s building an extremely lightweight blockchain. With the help of zero-knowledge technology, the size of the Mina blockchain is kept at just 22 kilobytes at all times.

The Mina Protocol’s version of decentralized applications is called zkApps. The smart contracts these applications are built with support zero-knowledge proofs, which can allow users to prove ownership of their data without disclosing the data itself to the party they’re interacting with. zkApps can also source data from any website privately, providing easy access to real-world data instead of relying on complicated oracle systems.

Why Mina Protocol?

Zero-knowledge technology is likely to become a very important trend in the crypto and blockchain space moving forward, and Mina Protocol could be positioned very well to take advantage of this.

In addition, the lightweight design of the Mina Blockchain makes it easier to participate in the network, which is especially relevant for mobile devices. If we’re going to see widespread adoption of blockchain technology, it’s most likely that a large number of people will be using blockchain through mobile devices. This could make Mina a candidate to become one of the next cryptocurrencies to explode.

 Native assetLaunched inDescriptionMarket cap*
Lido DAOLDO2020The leading liquid staking protocol$1.83 billion
KavaKAVA2019A project combining the best of Cosmos and Ethereum$512 million
ArbitrumARB2021The leading layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum$1.55 billion
BitcoinBTC2009Decentralized peer-to-peer cryptocurrency$530 billion
EthereumETH2015The leading platform for smart contracts and DApps$220 billion
BNBBNB2017BNB Chain’s native asset and token used in Binance ecosystem$49 billion
UniswapUNI2020The biggest decentralized exchange protocol$3 billion
CosmosATOM2019A network of interconnected blockchains$3.2 billion
GMXGMX2021Decentralized crypto derivatives trading platform$546 million
LitecoinLTC2011Decentralized peer-to-peer cryptocurrency$6.3 billion
Shiba InuSHIB2020Meme coin on the Ethereum blockchain$5.2 billion
Mina ProtocolMINA2021Extremely lightweight blockchain with ZK technology$509 million

*Data as of May 15, 2023 at 12:15 UTC.

Best crypto to buy for beginners

If you’re a new entrant in the cryptocurrency space, it’s probably best to stick to cryptocurrencies that have been around for a longer period of time and have a well-developed ecosystem of resources for users. This will make it easier for you to set up your wallet and find answers if you encounter any problems along the way.

If you’re a beginner, consider sticking to cryptocurrencies that satisfy the following criteria:

  • The coin has a significant market capitalization ($1 billion and up)
  • The coin is listed on many cryptocurrency exchanges and can easily be exchanged against fiat currencies
  • The coin has solid liquidity (at least $100 million in 24-hour trading volume)
  • The coin is already a working product and is not based on future promises

If you stick to coins that meet these criteria, you’ll automatically be filtering out a lot of low-quality projects and reducing your chances of falling victim to scams. You will also easily be able to sell your coins and convert them to fiat currency if you ever decide to do so.

Here’s a few examples of cryptocurrencies that are worth considering for beginner investors in crypto. These coins have a lot of liquidity, well-developed ecosystems and a lot of educational resources and tools that will help beginners get up to speed.

Please note that cryptocurrencies are risky investments and typically display a lot of price volatility. This is true even for established cryptocurrencies with multi-billion dollar market capitalizations. Never invest more than you are willing to lose.

How we chose the best cryptocurrencies to buy

With thousands of different cryptocurrencies on the market, it can be challenging to narrow down the list to only about a dozen coins. When creating this list, we aimed to showcase a variety of cryptocurrency projects, ranging from well-established projects to more speculative projects that could potentially have a lot of upside. Here’s the factors we considered when deciding which cryptocurrencies to feature.

Availability

It’s important for a cryptocurrency to be easily available across a variety of cryptocurrency exchanges, including both centralized and decentralized options. We also considered whethere the cryptocurrency can be traded directly against fiat currencies, which makes the process of buying and selling much more straightforward.

Market capitalization

The coins featured on our list of the best cryptocurrencies to buy in 2023 are all among the 100 largest crypto assets by market capitalization. By itself, a large market capitalization doesn’t mean that the project is of high quality. However, it is a good indication that there’s a lot of community interest in the project, and coins with a larger market cap are more resilient to market manipulation attempts as moving the market requires large amounts of capital.  

Sector leadership

The cryptocurrency market can be divided into several sectors. For example, we have Proof-of-Work cryptocurrencies and Proof-of-Stake cryptocurrencies, which represent two of the main approaches towards achieving decentralized consensus. We can further identify other sectors such as decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens, layer 2 projects, meme coins and others.

We attempted to highlight projects that are leaders in their respective sectors in order to showcase the variety that can be found in the crypto and blockchain space.

The bottom line: What crypto to buy now?

What is the best crypto to buy now is mostly dependent on your own individual risk profile and investment goals. If you are interested in cryptocurrencies that have long-term potential, then staples like BTC and ETH are probably the right choice for you. 

If your risk appetite is greater, you can try to pursue investments in cryptos under 1 cent or participate in the latest crypto presales if you are feeling especially frisky. 

In any case, please keep in mind that the cryptocurrency market is highly volatile and that investing in cryptocurrency is subject to considerable risk. Always do your research and consider your financial situation before making any investment, and never invest more than you are willing to lose.

Source: https://coincodex.com/article/22477/best-crypto-to-buy/