
Before we dive into the various cryptocurrencies and their prices, lets take out some time to fully understand the concept of cryptocurrency and what the fuss about it is, how it came about and the whole idea behind it.
What Is Cryptocurrency?
To put it in very simple terms, Cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual money that takes the form of coins or tokens which is not controlled by or managed by a central system like the government.
Brief History Of Cryptocurrency
The first person to ever think of virtual coins is none other than the cryptographer David Chaum. In the year 1983, David Chaum (who is an American) developed a cryptographic system called eCash. Twelve years later, he developed another system which was called DigiCash. The newly created DigiCash used cryptography to make economic transactions confidential.

However, 1998 was the year that the term or idea “Cryptocurrency” was coined and introduced . In that year, Wei Dai started thinking about how to develop a new payment mechanism that used a cryptographic system and whose main characteristic was that it wont be controlled or managed by a central system like the government. He wanted it to be decentralized.
The Creator Of The First Cryptocurrency
In 2008, a financial crisis affected everyone. This global economic crisis that happened over many decades ago affected the virtual coins and they were losing their value way too fast.
This gave rise to the first cryptocurrency that we all know as Bitcoin and it was developed by the one and only Satoshi Nakamoto. Like I said earlier, the idea of this type of coin had been there way before Satoshi Nakamoto decided to make Bitcoin. It was because of the global economic crisis that Satoshi Nakamoto made Bitcoin with the sole purpose of the people being able to make transactions with this digital money without the interference of a third party organization and for people to have something worth some value.
Investing In Cryptocurrency
There are currently way over 5,000 cryptocurrencies on the market.
Cryptocurrency can be treated as a long-term investment as well as being used to make payments and transactions from one person to the other. However, investing in cryptocurrency can be quite risky if you don’t know where to start from.
These are the top 10 cryptocurrencies that are most worthy of investment now in 2021:
Today, the top cryptocurrencies are in a good place as the prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum are going up. Analytics Insight has listed the top 10 current cryptocurrency prices on August 20, 2021
- Bitcoin- US$47,070
- Ethereum- US$3.219
- Cardano- US$2.51
- Binance Coin- US$428.80
- Tether- US$0.999
- XRP- US$1.22
- Dogecoin- US$0.3167
- USD Coin- US$0.9997
- Polkadot- US$26.72
- Uniswap- US$20.90
1. Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin is officially the first cryptocurrency and has been around for the longest of any cryptocurrency. It’s quite easy to see why it’s the leader of the cryptocurrency world, with a price, market cap and volume that’s much higher than any other investment options available on the marketplace. Even with the influx of thousands of other cryptocurrencies on the market, Bitcoin still holds 40% of the cryptocurrency market cap. It is also referred to as the father of other cryptocurrencies.

Many companies and businesses already accept Bitcoin as payment today, which makes this cryptocurrency a smart investment. Visa now does transactions with Bitcoin, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently invested over $1.5 billion in it. Also, the bigger banks have started to incorporate Bitcoin transactions into their systems, too.
Risks of Investing in Bitcoin
Bitcoin’s value always tend to fluctuate a lot from time to time. The price may go up or down a couple dollars or thousands of dollars during any month. If these type of fluctuations make you scared then you might want to chill on Bitcoin but if you go into the cryptocurrency market with the aim of making a long-term investment then these wild fluctuations should not mean anything to you because you have a target on when to sell out, take profit and cash out.
Another reason that makes investing in Bitcoin risky, is the price. With a single share costing more than $50,000, most people can’t afford to invest and buy whole shares of the stock so for the investors who want to avoid buying shares in small quantities, this could be an issue.
2. Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum is quite different from Bitcoin because it does not just operate as only a cryptocurrency, it also is a network that allows developers to create their own cryptocurrency utilizing the Ethereum network. When you compare the value of Ethereum to the value of Bitcoin now on the market, you will find out that the value of Ethereum is still far behind Bitcoin. However Ethereum is also far ahead of the other competitors.

Risks of Investing in Ethereum
As we know, Ethereum uses blockchain technology. However it uses one lane foe conducting transactions. This can lead to completion of transactions being slow when the system is congested.
Also, something to bring to your notice is that a hack in 2016 led to more than $60 million Ether dollars lost because of a loophole in the Ethereum wallet. While the company has made strides in increasing its security, loopholes are always a risk with any cryptocurrency investment so you have to beware.
3. Cardano
Cardano is one cryptocurrency to invest in for sure. The Cardano network has a smaller footprint, which is appealing to investors for several reasons. Cardano developers launched this app back in September 2017. These developers had a motive to create a platform to launch and execute smart contracts at a higher speed and more efficiently. It takes less energy to complete a transaction with Cardano than with a bigger network like Bitcoin. This means transactions are faster and cheaper, which is a huge plus.
Cardano claims to be more adaptable and more secure than most cryptocurrencies including Ethereum. Cardano also regularly improves its development to stay ahead of hackers.

Risks of Investing in Cardano
Even with a better network, Cardano may not be able to compete with larger cryptocurrencies as it is still kind of new and still being developed. Fewer adopters of Cardano mean it has fewer developers. This is not very appealing to most investors who want to see a high adoption rate in the cryptocurrency that they want to invest in. The platform has big plans, but there are doubts about whether it can live up to that potential but then again, there are always doubters. It does not mean that Cardano will not excel.
4. Binance Coin
Binance is one of the few cryptocurrencies to also invest in 2021. During the bull market run that happened in 2017, the price of all cryptocurrencies rose up and Binance Coin was one of the few cryptocurrencies that reached a new all time high and gained massive recognition in the cryptocurrency space, reaching a peak before plateauing and decreasing in value.
Unlike other coins in the cryptocurrency space, Binance Coin continued a slow but consistent upward trend after 2017. Because of its slow but steady performance, Binance Coin has proven to be one of the most stable investment options, posing fewer risks than most cryptocurrencies out there.

Risks of Investing in Binance Coin
One of the strong factors that differentiates Binance Coin apart from its competitors is that it was created by a company instead of a group of tech developers. Although Binance Coin’s commitment to maintaining a strong blockchain has won over many skeptics, some investors are quite still unsure of investing in this cryptocurrency and its potential security issues.
5. Tether (USDT)
Tether is the most stable of all the cryptocurrencies because it is specifically tied to the U.S. dollar. For each and every unit of Tether, there is one dollar in the Federal Reserve Bank. This makes Tether great for investors who want to invest and transact with their cryptocurrency .

Risks of Investing in Tether
Investors have raised a couple questions over the actual reserve stock. There are doubts that there is truly a U.S. dollar in the reserve bank for each Tether unit. The value of Tether’s stock could drop quickly, if this point were to be disproven.
6. Ripple (XRP)
Ripple is the company that unveiled the XRP token and is enticing to investors because it singles itself out from other cryptocurrencies by offering international transactions. With a bank, international money transfers can take up to 10 business days, which awfully a long period of time. With Ripple (XRP), the same transactions take mere seconds to be completed. Right now, as I write this article, Ripple is booming and sources say that it will hit a new all time high soon and those who are not opportune to invest in this cryptocurrency would be missing out big time in the nearest future.

Ripple also has contracts with large banks around the world. The more contracts it has, the more accessible the Ripple cryptocurrency is to adopters.
Risks of Investing in Ripple
Ripple showed great promise back in 2017 when its value jumped at about 36,000%. However, when you look at the fact that the percentage represented growing to a $2.40 stock value, it’s a bit less impressive. As you research on cryptocurrencies to invest in 2021, don’t be distracted by the high percentages. Focus on the real numbers and see what the growth really means and draw conclusion from there.
7. Dogecoin
Elon Musk is one of the high-profile figures that have taken on to Dogecoin. Lots of other celebrities have taken it up too including the likes of Snoop dog and Paris Hilton. This, for a start, is a good thing for the Dogecoin community because there are millions of celebrity followers who knew nothing about Dogecoin but now know. This creates liquidity for Dogecoin and is really commendable for its adoption. That’s because as more people buy and sell this crypto, the action of one buyer or seller will not impact its price. This is what will make Dogecoin perfect for use as a currency because anyone buying or selling using Doge can be sure that the value of the currency will not fluctuate randomly in the middle of a transaction.

Risks of Investing in Dogecoin
Dogecoin has been actually bringing massive returns these past months and has been on the news for it but doubters still think its too good to be true. While it has seen over 7000% increase over time, some investors think that having a low price is not always a good thing so before you invest into it its important to think of how it will pan out over the years.
8.USD Coin
From the name USD coin, you can tell that its connected to the US dollar. It is a new stable coin that was developed in September 2018. It is an alternative to USDT also known as Tether. Bringing US dollars on the blockchain allows moving them around anywhere in the world within minutes, and this brings about much-needed stability to cryptocurrencies. Plus, it opens up new opportunities for trading, lending, risk-hedging and much more.

Risks of Investing in USD Coin
Because of the fact that USD Coin is a cryptocurrency asset with a aim of stability which is said to be secured by assets denominated in USD or that are equivalent of USD, there is a risk that, as a result of controlling and regulatory rules to be imposed for such currency or assets, there may be unfavorable changes in use, transfer and redemption of the USD Coin or tax liability may be imposed upon USD Coin holders which does not sound very good.
9. Polkadot
Polkadot is one of the cryptocurrencies to invest because it allows users to send more than just tokens across blockchains. Polkadot allows these networks to communicate actual data. Polkadot attempts to tackle one of the most pressing issues facing the blockchain sector which is interoperability.
Polkadot’s flexible and adaptive form facilitates building technology, including smart contract platforms. In this way, developers can start building next-gen applications that get permissioned data from a private blockchain and use it on a public blockchain. Such an incredible feature.

Risks of Investing in Polkadot
There are no significant risks in investing imto Polkadot asides its volatility. As an investor, you have to keep in mind that there are going to be down trends that will affect your investments but this should shake your stand in the cryptocurrency.
10. Uniswap
Uniswap (UNI) is one of the most talked-about cryptocurrencies to invest in, in 2021. From watching the charts, you can see how this cryptocurrency is quickly climbing up. Uniswap currently sits just outside the top 10, with a market cap of over $11 billion.
Uniswap is a governance token, and this means that holders can vote on proposed changes to the Uniswap exchange. Its success is tied in to the exchange because if the exchange gets more popular, it will likely lead to more people wanting to buy the token and this means the value will eventually go up.

Risks of Investing in Uniswap
Uniswap is a high risk investment. One of the biggest potential problems is that regulators may try to crack down on DeFi as a whole, which could negatively affect Uniswap.











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