It’s been a rough year for investors in cryptocurrencies, to be sure. And despite a rather impressive rebound in recent weeks, the overall market remains around 60% below its peak set late last year.
With calls for another bull market resulting in positive sentiment in this sector, many investors are now looking to get back in. After all, given the drop we’ve seen, most tokens are much more attractively valued than they have been in some time.
That said, with the macro backdrop continuing to provide headwinds, investors may remain on the fence. Here’s why I think investors may want to consider Polygon (CRYPTO: MATIC) and Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) right now, regardless of whether we’re in a bull market or not.
Top cryptocurrencies to buy: Polygon
The blockchain scaling solution Polygon is among the tokens in focus for many investors. That’s because much of the positive sentiment around Polygon happens to be tied to the much-anticipated Ethereum merge set to take place next month.
Given how closely intertwined these two projects are, it’s clear investors are keen on adding exposure (directly or indirectly) to the Ethereum ecosystem. Accordingly, despite being down significantly from its peak, Polygon has seen some strong momentum since its June lows. From its lows this year, MATIC is up nearly 200%.
Those are some decent gains.
However, looking to the future, investors have a lot to like about Ethereum’s switch to proof-of-stake, and what that may mean for scaling solutions such as Polygon. The more folks use Ethereum, the more Polygon stands to benefit. And while Ethereum’s efficiency is likely to rise, there’s likely going to continue to be a need for Polygon and its lower-cost options for average consumers.
Solana
Solana has certainly been one of the most volatile large-cap tokens over the past year or so. After surging to incredible highs last year, Solana has since sunk dramatically from its peak. Currently, this token trades at a discount of nearly 85% from its peak. That’s also reflective of recent strong price performance with this token.
An Ethereum competitor, Solana has gained interest due to this network’s unique consensus mechanism. Using what’s called proof-of-history, Solana has managed to provide high throughput at extremely low costs. For those in the non-fungible token or decentralized finance space, this has proven to be a big innovation.
However, network outages and slowdowns have caused concern among many investors. Indeed, when speed and cost improvements come at the expense of stability, some eyebrows will get raised. That said, over the long term, those looking for an Ethereum-like option with serious growth upside may want to consider Solana. If anything, such a position in combination with an Ethereum stake could be viewed as a hedge of sorts.
