New Cryptocurrencies of 2020 – Where to Invest in

The cryptocurrency markets are slowly recovering back to their all-time high. Altcoins are, once again, experiencing crazy price gains in short amounts of time. We are waiting patiently to witness the performance of the most promising new cryptocurrencies of 2020.

But what exactly makes a coin promising? How can one differentiate the money-making opportunities from profit-driven scams?

In this article, we list 12 coins and tokens that you should keep an eye on. This should give you enough runway to research them in further depth, and discover the gems that could lead to massive profits.

Top 12 new cryptocurrencies of 2020

The following new cryptocurrencies of 2020 are expected to outperform most of their recently-launched competitors. Read on to discover which coins we talk about and where we think they’re headed.

1. Wazir-X (WRX)

WRX is an exchange-based token that supports the functions and activities of Wazir-X, a Binance-owned, Indian cryptocurrency exchange. The project had its IEO on Binance earlier this year and saw massive growth over its first few weeks. This was partially due to India temporarily lifting its cryptocurrency ban. Currently, Wazir-X and Binance are working closely together to strengthen the community of the platform and thus the liquidity of WRX.

Why is Wazir-X important?

With India’s long-standing banking ban on cryptocurrency, more than 1,3 billion people have very limited access to cryptocurrency. While Wazir-X is currently offering P2P solutions to avoid the involvement of banks, the exchange is getting ready for another potential ban lift. If this happens, Wazir-X will become the go-to exchange to obtain Bitcoin, as they offer the only INR fiat onramp solution through their WRX token.

Events we look forward to:

• Legalization of cryptocurrency trading in India (currently uncertain)
• Automated market maker (AMM) DeFi protocol on Matic network

WRX Price prediction for the next 12 months:

If cryptocurrencies are, once again, legalized in India, we expect WRX to breakout and surpass its ATH (2600 Satoshi). Given the expected growth of Bitcoin and the popularity of exchange tokens, it wouldn’t be unrealistic to see WRX at $1 in the short term future.

2. Sandbox (SAND)

Sandbox is a project that allows users to buy and lend virtual real estate (LAND) and other collectibles (ASSETS). Their token, SAND, is used for internal transactions on the Sandbox platform. Even though Sandbox has been around since 2012, the project only recently held its IEO on Binance, which was very successful. Currently, the platform holds strong partnerships with multiple e-gaming companies, including Atari.

Why is Sandbox important?

Similar to Decentraland, a project that rose to popularity during the latest bull market, Sandbox believes that digital real estate will become more popular in the coming years. And thanks to its partnership with Binance, Sandbox could realistically outgrow its competitors.

Events we look forward to:

• Public LAND sale on the Sandbox platform (before the end of 2020)
• Sandbox’s game platform Public Beta (before the end of 2020).

SAND price prediction for the next 12 months:

Based on the prior growth curve and the circulating supply of Decentraland (MANA), we expect SAND to outgrow it by at least 3x (due to having ⅓ of its circulating supply). If our prediction holds we could see SAND reaching a valuation of 6000 satoshis (or $0,60 at the time of this writing). Note that the value will most likely be higher since Bitcoin is currently recovering from its 2018 bottom. As such, it could become one of the most rewarding new cryptocurrencies of 2020.

3. Cartesi (CTSI)

Cartesi is a project that allows developers to build scalable dApps using a Linux operating system. While it may pose certain similarities to Ethereum, the project is not a direct competitor. Instead, they focus on improving the accessibility, cost-effectiveness, and development of decentralized applications. The token of their network, CTSI, was recently listed on Binance, after a successful IEO that helped the project raise $3 million.

Why is Cartesi important?

The project aims to resolve the scalability constraints that are currently faced in the DeFi space. One of the ways they plan to do this is by improving the interoperability between blockchains, which is currently a limiting factor for the bright future of decentralized financial applications. Other use cases include machine learning, automation, logistics, and gaming.

Events we look forward to:

• Release of P2P Service GRPC (before the end of 2020)
• Launch of Cartesi Side Chain on Testnet (before June 2021)

CTSI price prediction for the next 12 months:

Due to the technical focus of the project, the price of Cartesi will depend heavily on the growth of the dApp space over the following 12 months. Due to the niche focus of Cartesi, we do not expect it to see the “moon-shot” growth of other successful ETH competitors (like EOS). If, however, the coin manages to attain even 5% of EOS current market cap it could be worth $0,60 in the future.

4. Bella Protocol (BEL)

Bella Protocol is the first-ever Launchpool project on Binance. The coin is distributed hierarchically to users who stake BNB, BUSD, and ARPA, the latest of which is the team behind the project. BEL is the utility token of Bella protocol’s ecosystem and has several use cases including fee collection, discounts, staking, and voting.

Why is Bella protocol important?

The new cryptocurrency project aims to tackle bottlenecks in the DeFi UX, such as high transaction fees and learning complexity, to increase the popularity of the DeFi ecosystem. This is done by providing an arsenal of products aimed towards a better crypto banking experience.

Events we look forward to:

• Growth of CeFi (Centralized Finance) projects with BEL being the first of its kind
• Binance listing of Bella protocol after its distribution (September 2020)

BEL price prediction for the next 12 months:

We expect the coin to see an initial price pump similar to other IEO projects, which could take its price to $3 (approx. 4x its listing price). After a short consolidation period and its eventual staking, we expect the coin to see the growth trajectory of SUSHI, which it will eventually outgrow due to lower circulating supply. If this happens, we can see the cryptocurrency reaching $10+ per coin.

5. Sushiswap protocol (SUSHI)

SUSHI is one of the most controversial cryptocurrencies of 2020. Just one week after its creation, the project was hyped up and listed on Binance, experiencing a 948% price growth. Shortly after, the coin’s price crashed by 80% due to the sale of its founder’s holdings (NomiChef). Being one of the first and most popular revenue-sharing DeFi projects, the project is still relevant, and the founder has since given full control of the project to FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried.

What makes Sushiswap protocol important?

With Crypto Twitter scratching their heads over the SUSHI’s rapid community growth, less experienced traders are finally starting to understand the instability of the project. When unknown founders hold more than 10% of the coin’s circulating supply, there is a high risk of pump and dump scenarios. In SUSHI’s case, it offers a valuable lesson to investors who believe that every Binance listing is a guaranteed success.

Events we look forward to:

• Sam Bankman-Fried implementing multisig into SushiSwap smart contracts to recover community trust.
• Binance’s CEO addressing the SUSHI issue and improving the listing criteria of new projects.

SUSHI price prediction for the next 12 months:

DeFi projects are currently hyped up, similar to ICO’s in the 2017 bull market. After the hype fades, we should see such tokens stabilize with many losing their value. Paired with the introduction of Binance Launchpool we don’t expect to see SUSHI making any big moves in the future. Our price prediction for SUSHI tokens in the coming year is $2-$4.

6. Yearn-finance (YFI)

Yearn.finance is a DeFi platform that wants to build different types of financial products, including but not limited to liquidity provision, trading with leverage, automated marketing making, and more. YFI, the native token of the ecosystem, is the most expensive token currently available (mainly due to its low circulating supply: >30.000 YFI). The project is currently hyped up due to its very rewarding yield earning opportunities.

What makes yearn.finance important?

Yearn.finance helps lending providers (“stakers” or “farmers”) benefit from high returns by moving their funds between blockchains of other DeFi projects. The service is currently very successful with liquidity increasing, and the roadmap points towards more exciting products like yVault, for additional profit optimization strategies.

Events we look forward to:

• The stabilization of DeFi’s yield earning trend, which will help yearn.finance stand out from other competing projects.
• The launch of additional products on the yearn.finance platform, which could lead to increased popularity and usability.

YFI price prediction for the next 12 months:

The project is one of the leading DeFi platforms with enough liquidity, and popularity to become a market leader for crypto earning opportunities. Being one of the most hyped, new cryptocurrencies of 2020, we believe it could easily reach $100.000 per coin in the next 12 months.

7. Compound (COMP)

Compound is an autonomous “Money Maker” (interest-earning) protocol, built on the Ethereum blockchain. The project is one of the most popular DeFi protocols, having locked more than half a billion dollars worth of crypto-assets, and supplying nearly $1 billion. The platform’s native token, COMP, is one of the most sought-after, new cryptocurrencies of 2020. It is mainly used for vote delegation processes on the platform but has also become a popular trading option on Binance.

What makes Compound important?

Compound is mainly built for developers, with the purpose of creating more efficient money markets (no need for KYC). The interest rates of borrowed assets are “compounded” on the Ethereum blockchain, making central-party overview unnecessary. Eventually, we can see the project playing an important role in the development of decentralized borrowing and earning.

Events we look forward to:

• Integration of the Compound Lending Protocol (before the end of 2020).
• The participation of Compound in Token 2049. The event will take place in Hong Kong in March of 2021.

COMP price prediction for the next 12 months:

The growth of Compound will depend on the growth of the DeFi and yield-earning opportunities in the cryptocurrency space. Due to its low circulating supply and the current hype of DeFi projects, we could see the token outgrowing its ATH closer towards the end of the year, breaking the $1000 price point.

8. Solana (SOL)

Solana got listed on Binance in April of 2020, shortly after the massive COVID-19 induced price drop in the crypto markets. The project is building a high-speed single-layer blockchain, which can handle up to 50k transactions per second using a new pre-consensus model known as Proof-of-History (“PoH”). The project has already raised more than $25 million from prominent investors and has a team with an impressive background. SOL, the native token of Solana’s blockchain, is used for staking, governance, and fees for transactions and smart contract execution.

What makes Solana important?

Instead of competing with other blockchains, Solana aims to empower them, thanks to their single-layer blockchain solution, which makes POS consensus faster. Moreover, on the more technical side of things, the system optimizes data propagation, empowers validators, and is the only blockchain that scales naturally with bandwidth, GPU cores, and SSDs.

Events we look forward to:

• FTX building a reputable decentralized exchange (Serum) on the Solana blockchain.
• Further growth of the international Solana community and its effect on the token’s price.

SOL price prediction for the next 12 months:

Solana is increasing in popularity ever since its Binance listing and the development of Serum. If their growth trajectory and the current market conditions remain positive, the coin could reach a valuation of $10 before June 2021. The limiting factor to the coin’s growth is its heavily technical nature which makes it harder to generate hype in a mostly profit-driven market.

9. FTX Token (FTT)

FTX is the most liquid derivatives-exchange in the crypto industry. The platform is built by Alameda Research, one of the largest cryptocurrency liquidity providers, who are currently building a wide array of products that the platform’s users can benefit from. Holders of FTT, the platform’s native token, receive socialized profits from the platform’s insurance fund, with a long-term goal of preventing perpetual growth. Similar to BNB, FTT follows a coin burn schedule, reducing its circulating supply based on the number of fees collected by the exchange.

What makes FTX Token important?

On first instance, FTT looks like any other exchange token. However, upon digging deeper, you can quickly see that it has huge market potential. Late last year, Binance announced a strategic investment in the platform, forming a long term partnership aimed towards the further development of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. This common effort will accelerate the growth of FTX exchange, which has already become one of the leading trading platforms in just a year.

Events we look forward to:

• Increased demand in FTX products, including futures contracts, leveraged tokens, and options contracts. If the public adopts these financial products, the FTT token could experience massive growth.
• The “recovery attempt” of SUSHI, which could increase the popularity of Sam Bankman-Fried, and thus the community of FTX exchange.

FTT price prediction for the next 12 months:

FTX is still massively underrated and only used by experienced traders in the crypto industry. Thanks to the platform’s strategic partnership with Binance (including FTT listing) and the continuous efforts of the team, the coin has experienced a stable growth curve over the past year. If the coin’s value would continue increasing at its current pace, it could easily be valued at $10 within 9 to 12 months.

10. Polkadot (DOT)

You may have recently checked CoinMarketCap, only to realize that a new project has come out of nowhere, placing straight into the top 10. That project is Polkadot – a sharded network that aims to provide interoperability and cross-communication between blockchains. Its native token, DOT, is used for all the different functions of the ecosystem and is also one of the latest listings of Binance.

What makes Polkadot important?

The project aims to connect blockchains to create one unified network, enabling interoperability between the different chains. This, in turn, allows for blockchain experimentation, similar to how Ethereum created experimentation opportunities for decentralized apps. This is done by providing a basic “skeleton” blockchain known as Substrate, which helps developers build their own blockchains easier, without the need for specific skills and heavy time investment.

For this reason, many people believe that the coin will follow the same trajectory of Ethereum’s early days. Note that the founder of Polkadot, Gavin Wood, is also the ex-CTO of Ethereum.

Events we look forward to:

• Polkadot’s first Parachain bond with Edgeware.
• Substrate’s increase in popularity and an eventual hype buildup through it.

DOT price prediction for the next 12 months:

DOT is one of the most promising new cryptocurrencies of 2020, due to the problems it aims to solve. Within 1 year, we expect to see the coin priced at $50.

11. UMA (UMA)

UMA is an open-source protocol that allows two counterparties to come together to write self-enforcing smart contracts with economic guarantees. What makes this project stand out is its development of “synthetic” assets, which match the value one cryptocurrency against another. 

For example, if users believe ETH is going to outperform BTC in a specific timeframe, they can bet on ETHBTC, a synthetic token that is priced based on the relationship between two assets. For example, if one ETH is worth $400 and one BTC is worth $10,000, the value of ETHBTC is $0,04.

What makes UMA important?

UMA protocol will increase Uniswap’s product availability and betting opportunities, which could accelerate adoption and minimize oracle usage.

Events we look forward to:

• UMA’s listing on Kucoin exchange
• UMA’s listing on Binance (uncertain at the moment of this writing)

UMA price prediction for the next 12 months:

UMA’s price prediction depends on two factors: (1) whether Uniswap will continue to increase in popularity and (2) whether Binance lists its token any time soon. If both of the above happen within 12 months, we estimate that UMA could reach $70-$100 depending on the date of the Binance listing (the earlier the better).

12. bZx protocol (BZRX)

bZx is an Ethereum-based DeFi protocol that helps developers build dApps for traders, borrowers, and lenders. Similar to other DeFi protocols discussed above, the native token of the network, BZXP, is used for activities related to the ecosystem, and captures value from current assets supported on the protocol (including future cash flows). BZRX is listed on Binance since August 2020 and is expected to grow further in the coming months.

What makes bZx protocol important?

The platform has built several dApps that saw a massive increase in popularity during the first months of 2020. Among them is Fulcrum, a fully decentralized margin trading solution. The application is expected to reshape leverage trading, making is safer, cheaper, and more rewarding.

Events we look forward to:

• Further development of Fulcrum and Torque dApps to increase the popularity of decentralized crypto loans and margin trading.

BZRX Price prediction for the next 12 months:

Due to the extremely rewarding interest rates of the protocol, we expect the coin to at least double price-wise in the coming months and peak around $4-$5 before the summer of 2021.

Wrapping up

While hundreds, if not thousands of cryptocurrencies were introduced or finally “discovered” by the public in 2020, there is only a handful of coins worth researching further. In this article, we listed 12 of our favorite new cryptocurrencies of 2020. If historic price tendencies repeat this time around, we can expect that these coins will experience major price gains in a short amount of time.

To summarize, here are the coins we looked at:

1. WRX (Wazir-X)
2. SAND (Sandbox)
3. CTSI (Cartesi)
4. BEL (Bella protocol)
5. SUSHI (Sushiswap protocol)
6. YFI (yearn-finance)
7. COMP (Compound)
8. SOL (Solana)
9. FTT (FTX token)
10. DOT (Polkadot)
11. UMA (UMA)
12. BZRX (bZx protocol)

Do you know of any other new cryptocurrencies of 2020 that we should add to this list? If so, make sure to leave a comment. Note that all the options listed above do not constitute financial advice and should not be taken as such.

Written by

Dimitris Tsapis

Dimitris writes content related to the Blockchain and cryptocurrencies but also on topics related to digital marketing.