Editor’s Pick: Top 5 Cryptocurrencies to Watch in 2019 Besides Bitcoin
Now we can safely say that 2019 has been fairly positive for the majority of the cryptocurrencies. April is so far a month of fantastic gains, seeing Bitcoin (BTC) rising more than 35 percent so far. The market added a total of $40 billion in less than 30 days, while many altcoins surged. Having said this, we’ve narrowed down some of the strong performances that are worth keeping an eye on.
* The following it’s not a recommendation, only the opinion of the author.
Binance Coin (BNB)
Binance Coin (BNB) is, without a doubt, one of the best performing crypto currencies throughout 2019. The best performer of the top 10 cryptos. Year to date, the exchange based token is up by almost 300 percent, currently trading at around $24.29. Moreover, just a few days ago, BNB managed to breach its former ATH value reached back in the crypto bubble of 2017. This is the first altcoin from the top 10 cryptos to reach an all-time high since 2017.
The performance of BNB probably doesn’t come as a shock to many because Binance has definitely been busy throughout the entire year. The exchange was the first to start doing Initial Exchange Offerings, creating a serious demand for BNB. Moreover, it recently launched its mainnet for the decentralized exchange Binance Chain, which is likely to propel further attention to both the company and its native cryptocurrency.
Basic Attention Token (BAT)
Basic Attention Token is another one of 2019’s top performing altcoins. The cryptocurrency has surged 200 percent year to date. BAT is currently trading at around $0.39, and despite being 7% down on the day, its monthly and YTD chart are definitely impressive.
Basic Attention Token is a project introduced by the creator of JavaScript programming language and the co-founder of Mozilla and Firefox. It’s open-source, transparent and decentralized protocol attempts to transform digital advertising through blockchain-based technology. The project has made serious progress and already has its working product in place.
Litecoin (LTC)
Litecoin is currently trading at around $78.63. Since the beginning of 2019, the altcoin has had an impressive rally, increasing by more than 150 percent against the USD. 
While Litecoin did gain a lot in April, the veteran project has also been growing steadily even before. Moreover, earlier in February, Litecoin’s creator – Charlie Lee, announced that the team is working on a solution which is going to make LTC more fungible by adding Confidential Transactions, collaborating with Beam for Mimblewimble implementation.
EOS (EOS)
Another cryptocurrency that more than doubled in value since the start of 2019 is EOS. Up by more than 100% at the time of this writing, EOS has had a splendid run year to date. 
EOS did gain quite a lot during April’s rally, but the cryptocurrency also surged substantially before that. According to decentralized app monitoring resource State of the DApps, EOS’ network is currently home to about 252 DApps. Moreover, the project is known for having a relatively strong community and expects further developments throughout 2019.
Ripple (XRP)
While Ripple’s performance might be a bit lagging behind other altcoins, the cryptocurrency has managed to relatively stand its grounds, despite increasing competition. Throughout 2019, XRP actually experienced a slight decline of about 7 percent against the USD. Against Bitcoin, it’s a different story, as the coin’s chart looks like a complete crash since 2019 had started.
However, there’s been plenty of developments around the project. The company’s developer ecosystem initiative called Xpring partnered up with blockchain solutions provider Forte on a $100 million fund in order to support the increasingly popular game developing field. Moreover, XRP also went live on Coinbase Pro back in February.
2019 has definitely managed to have the cryptocurrency community on the positive again, with many proponents calling that the bottom is already here. While only time will tell this for sure, there is an noticeable change in sentiment throughout the entire community.
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