I’ve been thinking about a question recently: with so many cryptocurrencies on the market, which ones should you actually invest in? I put together some ideas and market observations, and I want to share with everyone the cryptocurrency rankings and investment strategies.

First, let me state the most important logic: buy altcoins in a bull market; buy mainstream coins in a bear market. If you’ve experienced a full bull-and-bear cycle, you should understand what this means. Altcoins tend to rally easily in a bull market, but the risks in a bear market are huge; mainstream coins are the opposite—they hold up better, and the probability of ending up at zero is lower. So, the first step in choosing cryptocurrencies is to judge what stage the market is in, because that determines your investment direction.

Take a look at the top “big names” in the current cryptocurrency rankings. Bitcoin is still the top leader, with a circulating market cap of $1.563T, accounting for 42.92% of the entire market. Its advantages are obvious: the total supply is fixed at 21 million coins, halving every four years, with the inflation rate kept below 0.80%. Since the approval of spot ETFs in 2024, institutional capital has been flowing in steadily. This scarcity and anti-inflation characteristic make it the first choice for long-term asset allocation.

Ethereum is second, with a market cap of $263.77B, but its trading volume often reaches 60%–70% of Bitcoin’s. Why? Because Ethereum has smart contracts, and the entire DeFi ecosystem runs on top of it. Its TVL reaches $93.1B, the strongest among all public chains—this is where its real value lies.

The most interesting one is the TAO coin. It’s a product of combining AI and blockchain. The Bittensor network wants to build a decentralized machine learning marketplace, using TAO as the trading medium. In terms of design, it also takes cues from Bitcoin: a fixed supply of 21 million coins, gradually becoming deflationary. With this wave of AI, projects like this are definitely worth paying attention to.

XRP has the support of Ripple, and it is closely connected with global financial institutions and government departments. Its transaction speed reaches 1,500 to 3,400 TPS, far higher than Bitcoin’s 7 TPS—making it an institutional-grade choice. Its current circulating market cap is $87.30B, and it remains consistently near the top in cryptocurrency rankings.

Solana is dubbed the “Ethereum killer.” I think that title is a bit exaggerated, but its performance truly is strong. It uses parallel processing technology, with a theoretical throughput of 65,000 TPS, and in practice it’s around 3,000 to 4,000 TPS. The most important point is that transaction fees are unbelievably low—averaging just $0.00025 per transaction. This combination of high efficiency and low cost is very attractive to both developers and users.

There’s also Chainlink. What makes it unique is that it connects blockchain with real-world data. The oracle network enables smart contracts to securely access off-chain data. This is a role at the infrastructure level—it’s not “air coins.” As for why DOGE and TON are popular, it mainly comes down to big backers behind the scenes—Elon Musk and Telegram. Every move they make can trigger dramatic fluctuations in coin prices.

Now let me talk about investment strategies. The difference between mainstream coins and altcoins is simple: the ones ranked within the top ten by market cap are considered mainstream coins; anything after that is an altcoin. Mainstream coins are more resistant to declines, while altcoins are highly volatile. From a safety perspective, mainstream coins are more suitable for long-term holding of more than four years, which can effectively help you avoid short-term volatility risks.

But note that stablecoins like USDT and USDC, although they rank high in cryptocurrency listings, are not suitable for value appreciation investments. They are pegged 1:1 to the US dollar and their price fluctuations do not exceed 1%, so they can only be used as cash reserves. The things truly worth investing in are non-stablecoins like BTC, ETH, TAO, XRP, SOL, and DOGE—these tend to see solid gains in each bull market.

My personal experience and lesson is that long-term investing looks simple, but execution is actually difficult. In 2018, when BTC was forming a rounded bottom, I bought 3 BTC, entering around $5,000. I sold when it rose to about $7,000. But just a few days later it climbed to $12,000, and I regretted it terribly. Later, the 312 incident gave me a second chance to get in. That’s why I advocate long-term holding now: don’t trade too frequently, and avoid missing the biggest market moves.

For beginners, long-term investing is generally more suitable than short-term trading. Short-term trading requires a systemized trading strategy, the ability to manage positions, and healthy psychological resilience—things that most beginners lack. Long-term investing has much lower requirements: you just need to understand basic operations and the concept of a coin’s market cap. And in terms of returns, although short-term trading may look like it could offer higher gains in theory, in reality most people end up buying high and selling low, leading to losses. Long-term holding can more effectively lock in profits from upward trends.

Finally, I want to emphasize asset security. If you work hard to survive the bear market and make it into the bull market, only to have everything taken because of a hack—that’s the real tragedy. Protect your exchange accounts by securing passwords, and if you store funds in a wallet, protect your private keys and seed phrases, and avoid using DAPPs of unknown origin on your wallet.

The mistake beginners are most likely to make is self-deception: they see an “affordable” altcoin and think that as long as it rises to $0.10, they’ll become rich overnight. But the reality is that most altcoins either go to zero or are on the road to zero. Even worse, using a high-market-cap mainstream coin to exchange for a pile of junk coins often leaves you losing on both ends.

To sum up: the top ten projects in the cryptocurrency rankings each have their own features, but not all of them are worth investing in. Stablecoins are only for value storage; the ones truly worth investing in for either the long or short term are mainstream coins like BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, and TAO. If you’re a conservative investor, consider only BTC and ETH. If you’re a growth-oriented investor, you can add other mainstream coins such as DOGE, ADA, and SOL. As for small altcoins and MEME coins, their volatility is extremely high, so I don’t recommend them.

Most importantly, no matter which coins you choose, you must be clear about your investment goals, learn how to set stop-loss rules, and don’t hold altcoins long-term without a plan. The cryptocurrency market changes rapidly, and cryptocurrency rankings will also change. Learning to adjust your strategy according to market conditions is the right path. The benefit of long-term holding is that you don’t have to watch the charts constantly, which saves time and fees. But if you trade short term, the risks are higher—especially with leveraged contracts, which can easily lead to liquidation and are not suitable for beginners. Finally, remember: don’t repeat other people’s mistakes, or you’ll keep paying tuition.