11 Best Cryptocurrencies to Buy for 2023

As of now, there are over 5,000 cryptocurrencies listed on Coinmarketcap, and probably twice as many that you’ll never know about. 

That’s a lot. So, what is the best crypto to buy in 2023?

In this article, I will share my 11 best cryptocurrencies to invest in for a strong, diversified portfolio.

Whether you are looking for the next big cryptocurrency, or for which altcoins to buy to diversify, read on.

Diversification Is Key

There isn’t only one best cryptocurrency to buy. 

Lots of cryptocurrencies have various use cases and promise to disrupt various industries. 

Investing in cryptocurrency is risky, but investing in only one is way riskier. 

So make sure to diversify your crypto portfolio.

Diversification is a great way to hedge

your risk and increase your chances of being involved in the next hot cryptocurrency.

Since I love diversification, my list of the best cryptocurrencies to invest in includes coins that:

• Land in different categories of coins that exist.
• Are some of the less volatile coins in each category.
• Are relatively easy to store and trade.

As all cryptocurrencies presented are so different, make sure to think about which ones make the most sense for your portfolio and your investment strategy.

The 11 Best Cryptocurrencies To Buy

Going forward, I will describe each coin, its purpose, team, liquidity

, price volatility, and other metrics. 

In the end, you will have a solid understanding, so that you can decide for yourself which is the best crypto to buy in 2023.

I will start with popular, well-known cryptocurrencies. Ideal for beginners.

Then, I will move on to some more advanced coins.

These coins may generate more profits, but they require you to know a bit more about them.

Plus, they are likely more volatile than the first coins on my list.

If you’ve already invested in top cryptocurrencies offered on platforms like Coinbase and want to expand your portfolio, then the coins at the bottom of my list might be the best crypto to invest in.

#1. Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the most widely used cryptocurrency to date. It is often referred to as the king of cryptocurrencies, and its primary goal is to act as global, peer to peer,

digital cash.

Best Cryptocurrency To Buy. Bitcoin vs. Fiat money
 

• Team: Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that I recommend with an anonymous founder. The creator of Bitcoin is known as Satoshi Nakamoto

  Satoshi Nakamoto

  The anonymous person or group that created Bitcoin.

  View full glossary
  . There is a lot of speculation about who he or she is, but ultimately, no one knows. On the other hand, the team actively updating Bitcoin’s open-sourced

  Open Source

  A term used to describe software that is made available online so that any individual can view its code and submit improvements.

  View full glossary
  codebase is run by top cryptographers in the space, such as Adam Back.
• Liquidity: Bitcoin has the highest liquidity in the space, making it the best cryptocurrency to buy for beginners. You will have no trouble buying or selling Bitcoin - there will always be someone on the other end to match your order. 
• Price Volatility: Despite its volatility, Bitcoin is known to be one of the most stable cryptocurrencies. It would require a lot of capital for someone to manipulate the price.
• Crypto Economics: Bitcoin runs on a PoW (Proof-of-Work

  Proof of Work

  The consensus algorithm introduced by Bitcoin. PoW requires miners to compete against each other to add new block and earn rewards.

  View full glossary
  ) system, which means miners

  Miner

  An individual that volunteers computing power to verify transactions on a blockchain in exchange for block rewards.

  View full glossary
  receive block rewards in Bitcoin. Initially, the block reward

  Block Reward

  The payment given to a miner for securing a blockchain that uses POW (Proof-of-Work) consensus

  View full glossary
  was 50 BTC per block, but every 210,000 blocks the reward halves. This means, over time, inflation decreases. Also, the supply is limited: only 21 million coins will ever be mined. As demand increases, the price should rise substantially.
• What makes Bitcoin a good investment? Market share. Did you know that Bitcoin accounts for over 60% of the total cryptocurrency market cap? This dominance means it has tremendous momentum, which makes it the best crypto to invest in 2023 if you’re a beginner, or if you simply don’t trade much.

Best Exchanges To Buy Bitcoin

 

Simply put, Bitcoin is still the best crypto to buy today, if not the best. I would not recommend anyone invest in cryptocurrency without investing in Bitcoin. 

If you’re still not convinced, check out why Bitcoin is a good investment.

#2. Litecoin

Litecoin is one of the first cryptocurrencies to come after Bitcoin, and one of the hottest cryptocurrencies of the last decade.

Using Bitcoin’s source-code, Litecoin is a fork

of Bitcoin with some technical changes to the code, making it much faster than Bitcoin. Its mission is also to be a global, peer to peer currency.

Best Cryptocurrency To Buy. Source: imgur.com
 

• Team: The creator is Charlie Lee. He is an experienced computer scientist, who also worked at Coinbase

  Coinbase (Exchange)

  The first exchange that allowed individuals to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

  View full glossary
  as the Director of Engineer. His brother is Bobby Lee, founded BTC China, a large exchange

  Exchange

  Online platforms on which individuals can buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

  View full glossary
  . Charlie is both experienced and well connected. 
• Liquidity: Litecoin is very liquid. It has had high liquidity and a large market cap since its creation. 
• Price Volatility: Litecoin is more reliable of a hold compared to higher risk coins with smaller market caps

  Market Cap

  The total value of a cryptocurrency. Calculated by multiplying a coin’s price by its total supply.

  View full glossary
  and communities. 
• Crypto Economics: Litecoin started with a 50 LTC block reward

  Block Reward

  The payment given to a miner for securing a blockchain that uses POW (Proof-of-Work) consensus

  View full glossary
  , now it is 12.5 LTC. There is a limited supply of 84 million as compared to Bitcoin’s 21 million. Still, this is with a higher block reward and faster block time. 
• What makes Litecoin a good investment? Litecoin is the silver to Bitcoin’s gold. It’s one of the original altcoins

  Altcoin

  Alternative Coin. Bitcoin is known as the first and foremost cryptocurrency, so any cryptocurrency that is not Bitcoin is an altcoin.

  View full glossary
  , and therefore also has a tremendous market cap when compared to other altcoins. Plus, it has utility; it’s faster and cheaper than Bitcoin. This is one of the reasons it is a popular choice for players to play at Litecoin casinos. Its longevity and utility put it towards the top of the best crypto to buy in 2023.

Despite its competition, Litecoin is still one of the most trusted and used cryptocurrencies these days.

#3. Ethereum

Ethereum

was the first major project to introduce smart contracts

Smart Contracts

Agreements between two parties that self-execute when their terms are met and automatically cancel when their terms are not met.

View full glossary

.

Smart contracts allow developers to launch mobile and desktop decentralized applications

(dApps) on top of the blockchain. 

Thousands of tokens run on the Ethereum network, and these tokens were what spurred the initial coin offering

(ICO) movement.

Best Cryptocurrency To Buy: How Smart Contracts Work
 

• Team: Ethereum is founded by Vitalik Buterin. Although he’s young, he has proved himself to be a dedicated cryptocurrency expert. Joseph Lubin is also known as a co-founder of Ethereum as well as Consensys, which is a software-production studio in NY dedicated to creating decentralized Ethereum applications. 
• Liquidity: Ethereum is also highly liquid, generally ranked #2 or #3 right below Bitcoin. You will have no problems buying or selling Ethereum. 
• Price Volatility: Ethereum has a loyal community and team, which means the price has a better chance of staying stable and increasing in the long run which makes it one of the best crypto to invest in. 
• Crypto Economics: There are many more Ethers that can exist as opposed to Bitcoin and Litecoin. But keep in mind that Ethereum fuels the dApp

  dApps

  Distributed Apps. Applications without centralized control.

  View full glossary
  ecosystem. This means millions of developers and companies may need Ether to fuel their smart contracts and launch their applications. 
• What makes Ethereum a good investment? Ethereum is the current leader of smart contract platforms and is still one of the hottest cryptocurrencies to buy in 2023 for the innovations it brought to the world and its potential applications worldwide. 

Is Ethereum a good investment? Check out the full guide on why Ethereum is worth buying. 

#4. Binance Coin (BNB)

Unlike Bitcoin and Litecoin, which aim to be used as currencies, the Binance coin is a utility token

. 

This means its value comes from how useful it is (and how much demand there is for its utility) within the Binance ecosystem.

Best Cryptocurrency To Buy. Source: binance.com
 

• Team: Changpen Zhao is the CEO of Binance. Given the success he and his team are achieving with Binance, it’s safe to say they have the skills and resources to make this coin a success.
• Liquidity: Binance Coin is one of the most liquid cryptocurrencies right now. It is always well-ranked on Coinmarketcap, with stable or growing trade volume. 
• Price Volatility: The price has shown impressive stability (compared to other cryptocurrencies), along with consistent growth. The price was indeed multiplied by x3 in early 2019, during the bear market, but still, it is considered one of the most promising cryptocurrencies.
• Crypto Economics: 200,000,000 BNB were issued via an ICO at $0.10 per coin. BNB offers trading fee discounts to users holding BNB. In the first year holding BNB, users get 50% discounts, then 25% the second year, 12.5% third, 6.75% fourth, and zero the fifth or later. Binance will also use 20% of its profits each quarter to buy back BNB tokens and burn them until the amount of BNB has reduced to 100,000,000 - by half. Binance is also launching a decentralized exchange, Binance DEX, which should further increase the utility of BNB. 
• What makes BNB a good investment? As opposed to most utility tokens, Binance has found lots of use cases for BNB tokens (and they keep adding new use cases regularly), which should only increase demand for the token -- and thus, its price.

Binance is one of the world’s fastest-growing exchanges. Because Binance Coin is used to pay for transactions on the exchange and many other purposes, BNB is one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrencies in 2023 in terms of trade volume.

If you’re looking to diversify your cryptocurrency portfolio by adding a utility token issued by a company with a solid business history and an experienced team, and don’t know which crypto to buy, think about Binance coin.

#5. Tether (USDT)

Tether is another recommended option to buy in 2023. Founded by Bitcoin enthusiasts, this crypto has become one of the most practical options for users.

You should be aware that Tether (USDT) is a stablecoin whose value follows the USD. The crypto owner is a company from Hong Kong, iFinex, an established financial giant and owner of the BitFinex crypto exchange.

Tether has recently become a must-choose option, as it supports BTC’s Omni and Liquid protocols, ETH, SOL, and other blockchains.

Using Tether for different transactions makes sense because of the following:
 

Best Cryptocurrency To Buy. Source: Tether.to
 

• Team: Tether’s team consists of talented professionals who are passionate about making waves in the industry. They have years of experience in the financial sector, compliance, and technology. Since establishing the company in 2014, they have achieved different milestones together and they move in the same direction. 
• Liquidity: USDT has created a state-of-the-art building block, allowing companies to offer smooth cross-border transactions. Tether tokens provide liquidity on top-tier exchanges. This allows traders to benefit from arbitrage opportunities in the shortest time. USDT is usually among the top 3 options at Coinmarketcap. 
• Price Volatility: Choosing USDT is the right decision because of its value. As a reminder, stablecoins

  Stablecoin

  Any cryptocurrency pegged to a stable asset for the purpose of reducing price volatility.

  View full glossary
   are crypto currencies pegged to fiat currencies like USD. Their value follows the movement of the major currencies they are linked to. Tether follows the USD value, and the crypto is backed fully by Tether reserves.
• Crypto Economics: At the moment, there's no total supply for USDT. This means that issuance of new coins is in the hands of the founding company. Every issued coin is backed by one USD, and the supply depends on the total cash reserves of the company. The current circulating supply of Tether is 66,272,490,385 USDT with a $67.1B trading volume.
• What makes USDT a good investment? USDT has become one of the top cryptocurrencies right after BTC and ETH and the number one stablecoin in the market with a cap of $83 million. This makes the coin highly recommended for investors.

#6. Monero (XMR)

Monero is a privacy-focused project. The coin utilizes fancy cryptography

and privacy logic to hide the participants' identities. 

It is widely used on the dark web for this reason and is the most popular privacy coin today. 

Best Cryptocurrency To Buy. Source: bauer-power.net
 

• Team: Monero had a somewhat anonymous start by a user on the Bitcointalk

  BitcoinTalk

  A forum of myriad boards where enthusiasts and experts alike can go to discuss various cryptocurrency related topics.

  View full glossary
  forum. The team is known to be led by Riccardo “fluffypony” Spagni, an experienced developer and cryptocurrency expert. 
• Liquidity: Monero is a highly liquid coin, always sitting at the top of Coinmarketcap. No matter how much you wish to buy or sell, the market should be large enough to fit your needs. 
• Price Volatility: Due to Monero’s user base and market cap, it’s a bit more stable and less risky than smaller market cap coins - and it has proven so during the bear market of 2018/2019. 
• Crypto Economics: A maximum of 18.4 million XMR coins will exist in circulation until May 2022. After that, 0.3 XMR will be put in circulation every minute forever. This is a pretty small limit, making the coins very valuable in times of demand. Much of the dark web

  Darknet

  A network that requires special software (like TOR) to access. Websites on the Darknet are much more difficult to shut down than normal websites. The Darknet was one of the first communities to use cryptocurrencies for transactions.

  View full glossary
  uses Monero for its privacy features, which is continuously pushing demand up.  
• What makes XMR a good investment? Whether you feel good about it or not, privacy coins like Monero will always have demand due to their use on black markets. Despite its old-fashioned technology, Monero’s popularity and liquidity make XMR

  XMR

  The native currency of Monero.

  View full glossary
  one of the top privacy-focused cryptocurrency to buy in 2023, and a great way to diversify your portfolio.

#7. Solana (SOL)

Solana is a firmly-established blockchain platform created to host decentralized applications. Since its foundation in 2017, SOL has operated as an open-source system under the ownership of the Solana Foundation. 

The native cryptocurrency SOL has quickly become the first choice of investors thanks to the faster transactions and lower fees compared to Ethereum. It uses the proof of stake concept and its environmental impact is minimal. Moreover, the SOL network is approved by thousands of nodes that run independently and maintain the security of your data on the highest level. 

Best Cryptocurrency To Buy. Source: solana.com
 

• Team: Solana dates back to 2017, when Anatoly Yakovenko published his revolutionary whitepaper. He joined forces with Qualcomm’s colleagues Greg Fitzgerald and Stephen Akridge to create innovative and groundbreaking solutions.
• Liquidity: Solana is usually among the top 10 cryptocurrencies according to Coinmarketcap. It comes with high liquidity, so you will always be able to buy and trade as many coins as you prefer.
• Price Volatility: Solana is historically known for its average volatility compared to alternative cryptos. According to the InvestorsObserver, the token has a moderate rank volatility of 54. Furthermore, SOL faces mild price fluctuations and it is free from price manipulation. 
• Cryptoeconomics: As of January 2023, the circulating supply of Solana’s token is 370,008,713 with a market cap of $5,990,692,408. However, you should be aware that SOL is an inflationary token, and its supply increases at a fixed rate. 
• What makes Solana a good investment? Solana is a rapidly growing cryptocurrency, so it's not strange that many investors stick with it. Its smart contract compatibility allows the crypto to run decentralized applications

  dApps

  Distributed Apps. Applications without centralized control.

  View full glossary
  and NFTs. Additionally, its proof of history concept enables faster transactions and increases the overall efficiency of the network. That's why it remains a widely recommended choice.

#8. Ripple (XRP)

XRP is a relatively consistent cryptocurrency and the official token of the company Ripple. Its currency code resembles Ethereum’s. 

Ripple is a payment settlement and currency exchange option that can handle global transactions at a rapid speed and with minimum costs.

Thanks to blockchain technology, Ripple allows global businesses, financial institutions, and governments to move, govern and tokenize value. This leads to greater economic freedom for customers anytime and anywhere.

Ripple is one of the leading blockchain companies in the market, with commercial products used by people in 50+ countries. It enables companies to extend into new markets, as well as to access innovative liquidity solutions, and create new streams of crypto revenues.

Best Cryptocurrency To Buy. Source: ripple.com
 

• Team: Established in 2012, the founders of the company are Jed McCaleb and Chris Larsen. It runs on XRP Ledger, a blockchain created by McCaleb, Arthur Britto, and David Schwartz. At the moment, the company’s team consists of 500+ employees spread across 15 offices and 50+ countries.
• Liquidity: Ripple stands out with high liquidity, so you can easily convert your assets into cash. According to Coinmarketcap, it is among the top 7 most popularly traded coins.
• Price Volatility: While the value of any cryptocurrency depends on the current market supply and demand, Ripple experienced significant ups and downs. Its peak value was $3,84 which is a far cry from its value at the beginning of 2023. Still, the value of XRP will depend on the current legal proceeding against the company. 
• Crypto Economics: Ripple Labs initially held 55 billion XRP tokens, but the current total supply of the coin is 100 billion. At the moment of writing this review, there are 50,623,288,122 coins in circulation and a market cap of $17,684,380,767.
• What makes XRP a good investment: Despite its risky nature, Ripple remains one of the best options to invest in. The token has a huge potential to replace old and time-consuming global money transfers. The company has already closed partnerships with banks, which looks promising for its future.

#9. Dogecoin (DOGE)

Dogecoin is one of the fast-increasing cryptos, known for its open-source protocol. Launched in 2013, DOGE relies on Litecoin and it takes advantage of the same proof-of-work technology. It also uses a scrypt algorithm to secure low costs and uncapped supply.

The coin has already gathered massive support among users, and its community is constantly growing. Since it uses the image of a Shiba Inu dog, it's also favored by the tokens’ fans. It came from the founders' joke and became one of the top cryptocurrencies in the market.

Best Cryptocurrency To Buy. Source: dogecoin.com
 

• Team: Dogecoin is the invention of two software engineers, Jackson Palmer and Billy Marcus. The company emphasizes its status as an accidental crypto-movement that keeps people with smiles on their faces. The team behind DOGE is passionate about being useful, welcoming, reliable, and personable.
• Liquidity: Dogecoin has a high liquidity ratio and it's among the top 10 traded cryptos on Coincapmarket. You can follow DOGE’s daily trading volume and obtain as many coins as you need.
• Price Volatility: Dogecoin’s price depends on different factors including the latest project updates and developments. We cannot also deny the effect of public sentiment, asset flow, and the newest crypto trends. Over the last years, DOGE’s price was especially influenced by social media such as TikTok and Twitter. The biggest supporters of the coin are Elon Mask and the well-known Snoop Dogg. The all-time high of DOGE was $0.74.
• Crypto Economics: The launch of Dogecoin came with 100 billion coins in supply. The amount has increased by five billion every year. The price follows the trends of supply and demand, seeking significantly greater demand. At the moment of writing this review, the total amount of circulating coins is 132,670,764,300 DOGE and a market cap of $11,618,688,463.
• What makes XRP a good investment: Dogecoin is one of the cheapest cryptos among the top 10 listed on Coincapmarket. At the moment of writing, its price per token is $0.08769. You should also know that DOGE stands out with huge token holdings and the number of supporters is getting higher.

 

#10. Cardano (ADA)

Cardano, which is competing with Ethereum and NEO, is touted to be more scalable and easier for developers to use. 

It aims to be more scalable by introducing two layers of technology: one responsible for tracking balances of the ledger, and the other for transferring value. 

Cardano uses two programming languages called Haskell and Plutus. 

Haskell has been around since the 1980s, and is Cardano’s attempt at making it easier for developers to create decentralized applications. Plutus is the functional language built in-house by Cardano’s development team. 

Best Cryptocurrency To Buy. Source: topsimages.com
 

• Team: Charles Hoskinson is the co-founder of Cardano, and was a co-founder of Ethereum as well. He also leads IOHK, a leading research and development facility for blockchain technology. Charles is well equipped to make Cardano a successful venture. 
• Liquidity: Cardano regularly has high trading volumes, so you should have no worries actively trading in this market. 
• Price Volatility: Cardano has had its ups and downs. Overall, it’s more volatile than other major cryptocurrencies out there. 
• Crypto Economics: Cardano has a max supply of 45,000,000,000 and a current supply of ~31,000,000,000. It uses a Proof-of-Stake

  Proof of Stake

  PoS. A method of minting new coins and securing a platform by allowing users to stake their coins and receive more coins as a reward. Introduced as an energy efficient alternative to PoW (Proof of Work).

  View full glossary
  (PoS) consensus algorithm.
• What makes ADA a good investment? All in all, Cardano is a good cryptocurrency today because it’s another way to hedge

  Hedging

  The act of protecting an asset from risk. A hedge can protect against losses or even offset against gains.

  View full glossary
  against Ethereum. It may not be as promising as NEO or Ethereum itself, but it has potential and is worth keeping an eye on at least.

#11. USD Coin (USDC)

USD Coin (USDC) is a popular stablecoin, backed by the USD. One USD Coin equals one American dollar. This means that the value should stay stable over time.

As an open-source project, everyone can contribute to USD Coin’s code. The crypto is not issued by any central authority or US government. At the same time, USDC's reserves are kept in segregated accounts with U.S. financial institutions. The popular coin is also compatible with several blockchains

  such as Ethereum, Tron, and Solana.
 

Best Cryptocurrency To Buy. Source: circle.com

 

• Team: USD Coin is led by Centre, a consortium established by well-known cryptocurrency exchange - Coinbase (COIN) and a financial tech company, Circle. The company strives to change the financial landscape by connecting people, merchants, financial services, and currencies. They launched the project in 2018 and made it one of the most thriving in the market.
• Liquidity: USD Coin has a good liquidity ratio. Based on the information on Coinmarketcap, its trading volume in the last 24 hours was $4,285,551,815 (registered on January 15, 2023). This means that anyone can buy some coins for just a few dollars.
• Price Volatility: USD Coin is based on the value of U.S. dollars, so traders don't have to worry about price volatility. Each coin they buy will keep the same value, so there's no worry that something will change regarding the price. The consistency of price is something that makes stablecoins highly recommended. 
• Crypto Economics: USD Coin has a market cap of $43,775,693,319 at the moment of writing. Additionally, its circulating supply is 43,768,627,570 USDC. As a reminder, the market cap is what we get by multiplying the USD Coin’s value by the number of circulating coins.
• What makes XRP a good investment: Stablecoins like USD Coin don't serve as an investment, but they have many other benefits. You can lend some tokens and earn good interest rates, thus getting a passive income. You can also engage in crypto staking

  Staking

  The act of locking up one's coins or tokens to help verify transactions for cryptocurrencies with Proof of Stake consensus mechanisms. Stakers earn staking rewards for providing this service.

  View full glossary
   on popular exchanges and earn significant returns from it.

Are You Looking for More Great Cryptocurrencies to Buy?

You made it to the end of my list! I hope you enjoyed my top 11 cryptocurrencies to buy for 2023, and that you found the information I provided useful.

If you’re looking for more great crypto to invest in, or to find out which coin is going to be the next most promising cryptocurrency, here is what you can do:

1. Join crypto communities

An excellent community to explore new cryptocurrencies is the BitcoinTalk forum, specifically the altcoin threads.

You can interact with people deeply involved in this niche, explore opinions, and search for the announcement threads (“ANN”).

This forum is also helpful to discover projects early on, before they become the next big cryptocurrency.

More great communities can be found on Facebook -- and one of them is our own Facebook group. Feel free to join and ask other members about their favorite cryptocurrencies.

2. Check out trustworthy crypto exchanges

The best crypto exchanges perform a significant number of checks before listing new coins for trading.

You can use these verifications as some kind of quality label to find some of the best cryptocurrencies to invest in which aren’t listed on this page.

eToro and Binance are some of the biggest crypto exchanges and offer dozens of the best cryptocurrencies for trading -- I definitely recommend you check them out.

Remember to stay safe

Buying the best cryptocurrencies is not enough to be a successful crypto investor.

Countless promising investors saw their crypto journey end brutally because they did not pay attention to security.

If you’re serious about investing in cryptocurrencies, put some effort into reinforcing your security.

• Read the ultimate cryptocurrency investment strategy guide I wrote about the 50 mistakes cryptocurrency investors make -- many of them are related to security.
• Purchase a hardware wallet (recommended if you own $500 or more worth of cryptocurrencies). Our favorite hardware wallets are the ledger nano s and ledger nano x.

	Supported Cryptos	Benefits	Price
	1000+	Cheaper than most Easy to use	~$70	Get a Ledger Nano S
	1000+	Store 100+ cryptos together Manage from mobile	~$120	Get a Ledger Nano X

I hope you enjoyed this article.

Let me know in the comments which coins you invest in, and which top cryptocurrencies you think are missing from my top 11!

More Useful Resources: 

• The Definitive Crypto Tools Checklist
• 6 Best Bitcoin Cards
• The 5 Best Crypto Lending Sites
• The Ultimate Guide on Crypto Loans
• Should I Buy Ethereum?