Recently, I’ve been watching changes in crypto market rankings and found that over the past year-plus, the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap have been pretty volatile. I’d like to share my thoughts on which virtual currencies are worth investing in.

When it comes to choosing coins, many people have heard this saying: buy altcoins in a bull market, buy mainstream coins in a bear market. The logic behind it is actually quite simple: altcoins are more volatile, so they’re easier to generate high-multiple returns—but they also carry greater risks. Mainstream coins tend to hold up better, with a smaller risk of going to zero. So the first step in choosing coins is to look at the overall market trend, and then consider factors like popularity, trading volume, and liquidity.

Looking at the latest market cap rankings, BTC is still firmly in first place, with a market cap of about $1.57 trillion, accounting for 42.46% of the entire crypto market. As the king of cryptocurrencies, BTC’s most core advantage is scarcity: its total supply is only 21 million. On top of that, the halving mechanism happens once every four years, creating a deflationary effect, which makes it especially precious. Since the approval of the 2024 spot ETF, institutional funds have been pouring in continuously, and the price has kept rising.

ETH comes next, with a market cap of about $264 billion, accounting for 7.15%. The main reason Ethereum is worth paying attention to is that its application scenarios are particularly diverse, and its smart contract capabilities attract a large number of developers. Its TVL reaches $93.1 billion, ranking first among all public chains. Also, ETH has launched a spot ETF, and there are institutions applying for staking features—these are all positive catalysts.

XRP has been doing well recently, with a market cap of about $87.6 billion. Ripple’s backing comes from Ripple, and it has collaborations with many governments and financial institutions around the world. Its transaction speed is far faster than BTC’s, reaching around 500–700 TPS, which is a major advantage for institutional clients.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the SOL public chain, with a market cap of about $50.2 billion. It’s often called the “Ethereum killer.” Its main advantages are fast transaction speed and low fees. The theoretical throughput can reach 65,000 transactions per second, and in real-world conditions it can maintain 3,000–4,000 TPS, far exceeding Ethereum’s 15–30 TPS. The average transaction fee is only $0.00025, so the value for money is truly excellent.

In recent years, TAO has gained much more attention because of the AI boom. The Bittensor network wants to build a peer-to-peer machine learning services marketplace, and TAO’s design also takes cues from BTC’s fixed supply and deflationary mechanism. A virtual currency like this that’s worth investing in has indeed caught the market narrative of the moment.

DOGE and DOGE may not have the largest market cap, but their heat hasn’t gone down because they have strong backers supporting them (for example, a certain tech tycoon who frequently posts in support). LINK is also important at the infrastructure layer—it connects blockchain with real-world data and has clear practical demand for applications.

When it comes to investment strategy, my personal experience is that holding long-term is really easier to achieve higher returns than frequently trading short-term. Short-term trading may look like it brings high returns, but the premise is that you must precisely predict the market every time—something most people simply can’t do. Back in 2018, when BTC was at its bottom, I bought a few and sold when it rose to $7,000, only to watch it increase to $12,000 shortly afterward. I really regretted it then. Later, the 312 event gave me a second chance, and it also made me realize the importance of long-term holding.

Long-term investing is especially friendly for beginners. You don’t need complicated trading strategies or exceptional psychological resilience—just understand basic buying and selling operations and the fundamentals of virtual currencies. And holding long-term can effectively help you avoid missing major market opportunities caused by frequent trading.

If you’re a conservative investor, you can consider only BTC and ETH, the two most well-known coins. If you have some trading experience, in addition to these two, virtual currencies like DOGE, ADA, and SOL can also be taken into consideration. But you must avoid a fatal mistake: getting misled by altcoins with lots of zeros after the decimal point, thinking that if it just rises to a dime you’ll get rich. The reality is that most of these coins either go to zero or are on the road to doing so.

Finally, a reminder: no matter which virtual currencies you choose to invest in, make sure you protect your asset security. If you use an exchange, protect your passwords. If you use a wallet, store your private keys and seed phrases properly. After all the effort of sticking through the bear market and reaching the bull market, it would be truly heartbreaking to have your assets stolen.

Overall, the virtual currencies worth investing in still need to come back to fundamentals—look at the project’s real-world application, the team background, and the level of market recognition. Market cap rankings are only for reference; the real investment decision should be made based on your own risk tolerance and trading goals.