Top 10 Altcoins to Invest in October 2021

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, is leading the market, and altcoins are following suit. All tokens created following Bitcoin's prominence are referred to as altcoins, which translates as "alternative to Bitcoin." In the first quarter of 2021, coins like Ethereum, Cardano, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu dominated the headlines and became extremely popular.

The crypto market has had a rough few months due to a variety of issues, but it is currently in recovery mode, with bulls attempting to capture the market. After China announced its ban and crackdown on all cryptocurrencies, the market has witnessed a slightly bearish trend. However, since October 1, 2021, cryptocurrency prices have been steadily increasing. And it is just a matter of time until the Altcoins hit the bulls high. 

So, if you are thinking of investing in the crypto space this month, then Altcoins might be a better choice. This Cryptoknowmics article will help you with the top 10 Altcoins for October 2021. Look closely for them to get the maximum return on investment. 

Top 10 Altcoins for October 2021

October could be the month when we will find out what increased cryptocurrency regulation in the United States would entail. Treasury officials are reportedly on the verge of establishing a crypto policy framework, according to Bloomberg. 

Heavy-handed regulation, particularly for coins linked to decentralized finance, might deliver a big short-term blow to the industry. That might mean price drops for some of the most popular smart contract cryptos, such as Solana (SOL) and Avalanche (AVAX), which have seen significant price gains in recent months. Depending on your investment philosophy, this could be a good time to buy. 

Nonetheless, the digital currency business has fared admirably in the face of regulatory challenges thus far. The overall crypto market is up over 130% so far this year despite China's ban, according to CoinMarketCap. Moreover, the SEC lawsuit against Ripple hasn't yet pushed it out of the top 10 cryptocurrencies. And with Altcoins pulling up its game angina, this is the best time to invest in crypto. 

Note: Altcoins are not given in any particular order, and the price and market cap of all the tokens are as per the research done for the article.

Polkadot (DOT)

-- The token is currently trading at $31.24, with a global market cap of $30 billion. And it is not a surprise that this token should belong to this list. With the recent upgrades in the Polkadot ecosystem, analysts are optimistic about the DOT's revival. 

Polkadot's comeback from a 20% decrease in the final week of September has been accompanied by changes in the token's ecosystem. Following a period of stagnation in the last week of September 2021, the Polkadot ecosystem has received several new improvements. The eleventh parachain to earn a place in the auction is the Altair Network, a Centrifuge-powered project. 

The DOT ecosystem is seeing increased development activity, which is in line with the positive network updates. The Polkadot network's developers and contributors have stayed consistent and engaged for over a year, fueling the growth story.

Although technical analysts are eager to offer price forecasts, investors should look at Polkadot's derivatives data. A lack of a futures contracts premium, for example, indicates that investors are hesitant to use leverage to create bullish positions. 

In just 30 days, DOT's total futures open interest increased from $360 million to $685 million. This is a favorable sign since it shows that leverage traders are willing to keep their long positions open despite the rally. Therefore, look out for this one. 

Kusama (KSM)

The token is trading at $341.08, with a total market cap of $2 billion. This token holds good potential as it has either launched several projects or has several lined up in the future. The protocol for the blockchain to fund its bid for a Kusama parachain, Composable Finance has announced a crowd loan project. The Picasso Network has also released a native token that will be deployed on the acquired parachain. 

The weekly technical chart of the Kusama crypto price points to a significant upward price momentum in the next few weeks. Following a drop near $300, the token price is undergoing a severe retreat on the daily chart. The positive trend of KSM is likely to face resistance near $450. While the price is trending downward, support can be found at about $250.

The KSM cryptocurrency price is pointing to a significant bullish comeback in the next few days. The asset is also known as Polkadot's wild cousin. Kusama is a blockchain network that aims to give new users a rich experience. KSM and DOT are manufactured by the same company, Parity Technologies. In the future, the KSM/BTC pair has also started to revert down to the new high. KSM can be purchased based on the bullish signal and price breakout.

Uniswap (UNI)

-- The token is currently trading at $25.17, with a market cap of $15 billion. Grayscale, an institutional crypto asset management company, has announced a new investment in Uniswap, a DeFi technology. This was stated in a recent press release about the company's quarterly fund rebalancing. Grayscale investment in Uniswap, according to Grayscale, the rebalancing of funds would result in a decrease in the portfolio's holdings in Bitcoin and Litecoin, the two most valuable crypto assets by market capitalization.

After China’s recent crypto outrage, DeFi exchanges like Uniswap are winning. So it is safe to say that Uniswap has only gained from the ban. The three biggest decentralized exchanges by volume are Uniswap, SushiSwap and derivatives exchange dYdX. Jonas Luethy, a junior sales trader at digital asset manager Global Block, said in a newsletter: 

"Decentralized exchanges Uniswap and Sushiswap have seen a surge in usage, which is likely a result of China's ban on centralized exchanges. Since DEX only requires a crypto wallet and no KYC [know your customer], it is much easier to use and can be set up in a matter of minutes." 

1inch

The token is trading at $3.18, with a global market cap of $575 million. 1inch is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that searches different liquidity sources inside the Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, and Optimistic Ethereum networks for the best potential swap prices for its consumers. Users can multiply their positions while using the new Oasis.app feature, Oasis Multiply.

The 1inch Network brings several decentralized protocols whose synergy allows for the fastest and most secure DeFi operations. The 1inch Network's first protocol is a decentralized exchange aggregator that gathers liquidity from many exchanges. It can split a single transaction among several DEXes. This aggregator is powered by smart contract technology, which allows users to optimize and tailor their deals.

Oasis.App, a prominent decentralized finance platform, has partnered with 1inch Network, a renowned DEX aggregator, to offer its consumers the greatest prices and liquidity on the DeFi market. This integration comes after users of Oasis Trade were experiencing increased gas expenses, and 1inch provides a cheaper and more efficient option. Therefore, with projects like these, it is a win-win for this token. 

Ripple (XRP)

The token is trading at $1.05, with a global market cap of $49 billion. Even with all the SEC lawsuits going on, this token is making a good comeback. Several projects are lined up for XRP and Ripple, the former one’s parent company. The Massive XRP Ledger upgrade was recently released as a preview by Ripple's development team. We initially learned about the improvement in June of this year. “Federated side chains” will be included in the upgrade, which will be a game-changer. Ripple also claims that the side chains will be able to release DeFi (Decentralized Finance). Furthermore, smart contracts will be available on the XRP ecosystem without reducing its efficiency.

Ripple is a company that develops DeFi solutions for people all over the world. It is the only blockchain startup that falls under the enterprise category that has commercially available goods. Ripple's global networks provide access to alternative liquidity solutions for a variety of businesses. Furthermore, the XRP ledger (XRPL) and its digital asset XRP are used by the worldwide network to improve payment procedures. 

The latest preview will assist developers in providing comments on the technologies used. Developers are also given access to test it to ensure that everything is working properly. Sidechains, according to Ripple's Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz, will help to extend the use cases of XRPL.

Cardano (ADA)

The token is trading at $2.22, with a market cap of $70 billion. With the recent announcement of the Alonzo update, the token is touching ATHs like never before. And that is why it holds a lot of potential this month. Cardano, the world's third most widely used digital currency, maybe undervalued for its performance and growth based on the last 12-month average, according to a recent research analysis by Grayscale. Cardano is deserving of greater attention than Ethereum, which follows a similar pattern of operation.

The paper elucidates the reality with global figures based on Cardano's progress over the previous year. The unwinding of smart contracts is one of the primary causes of its growth. Cardano's smart contract has been upgraded to Alonzo, allowing for additional decentralized applications. Cardano now has a competitive advantage over market rivals such as Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, and Polkadot, thanks to this update. According to the research, the ADA coin settles a higher payment value per unit than its direct competitors. Cardano is similarly undervalued when measured in terms of active monthly users, according to the figures. Cardano has 2.8 million monthly active users, whereas Ethereum has 7 million.

Solana (SOL)

The token is trading at $166.79, with a global market cap of $49 billion. Solana recently reposted a message announcing that the market valuation of its NFT has surpassed $1 billion. The "Solana Monkey Business" collection contributed significantly to this. This NFT series is made up of 5000 happy monkey artworks that have been saved on the blockchain. It's worth noting that Solana's famous "Degenerate Ape Academy" NFT collection, which featured amusing gorillas, received a lot of notoriety in the past.

Solana's growth and achievements in October did not happen by accident. In September, the CEO of derivatives crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, alluded to an NFT marketplace in a tweet. NFTs will be a cross-chain for Ethereum and Solana, according to Bankman-Fried. NFTs issued on FTX might be listed in SOL, ETH, and USD, according to FTX US President Brett Harrison. 

Many crypto artists may see SOLSEA as another proof of Solana's growing supremacy in the NFT market, and potentially even over Ethereum itself. Solana also marked a milestone in the more traditional finance space. Grayscale added SOL to its large-cap crypto fund for the very first time, in October.

Avalanche (AVAX)

The crypto coin is at $65.83, with a global market cap of $14 billion. During the last week, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and Cardano were down roughly 10.3%, 14.5%, 13.8%, and 4%, respectively. Avalanche's AVAX token still appears to be on a high following last week's announcement of a large private investment in the company. Despite challenges due to the China Evergrande collapse and comments from Chinese regulators proposing a ban on crypto trading in the country, AVAX has proven impressively resilient. That tenacity, as well as the substantial private investment, are encouraging signals that the Avalanche blockchain and coin are generating genuine interest.

Avalanche is a blockchain platform for creating and running decentralized apps that is gaining traction as a competitor to Ethereum and other blockchain systems with comparable capabilities. There's still a lot of danger for crypto investors, but AVAX's ability to produce profits in a week that was largely hampered by turbulence is significant. 

Moreover, through the private auction of its rising AVAX coin, the foundation behind the Avalanche blockchain announced recently that it obtained a $230 million investment from a partnership led by Polychain and Three Arrows Capital.

Algorand (ALGO)

The token is trading at $1.99, with a market cap of $12 billion. A lot has been happening around the platform and that is why it has been gaining a lot of attention. Algorand, a blockchain platform, has released the Algorand Virtual Machine, or AVM, a layer-1 protocol improvement meant to improve decentralized app scalability for developers and organizations, enables instant transaction finality, and maintains a zero carbon footprint. 

The AVM will also provide programmers with the ability to build smart contracts in Python or Reach, a format comparable to the multi-paradigm web page language Javascript.

The Algorand Foundation created a $150 million ALGO fund earlier this month, intending to cultivate the platform's decentralized finance ecosystem, as well as supporting growth for synthetic applications and the NFT platform, among other things. Algorand's Chief Product Officer, Paul Riegle for his perspective on the upgrade said: 

“This AVM upgrade allows for the development of complex smart contract-based applications in DeFi, the NFT marketplace, web3, and more. We’re already getting great feedback within the Algorand ecosystem, and look forward to continuing this momentum.”

Ren (REN)

The token is trading at $1.26, with a global market cap of $1 billion. The growth this token has shown this year is exceptional. Ren, a blockchain protocol that aims to enable interoperability and liquidity between multiple blockchain platforms, has gained steam in the last month and a half as the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry has grown. 

The arbitrum bridge, an Ethereum (ETH) layer-two scaling solution meant to run popular decentralized apps in a fast, low-fee environment, was released on Sept. 15 and contributed significantly to the price increase. The Ethereum network has been plagued by high fees and long transaction times, making it difficult for many users to use DeFi or other non-fungible tokens (NFT) related protocols. 

The low-cost environment provided by Arbitrum has proven to be an appealing DeFi environment for BTC holders, who may now migrate to the layer-two solution and interact with renBTC on the network. As of Sept. 15, the total value locked on Arbitrum using the Ren protocol was $7.75 million, as shown in the value locked chart above by the green line.

Conclusion

While Bitcoin is the most popular and widely accessible cryptocurrency, investors have begun to look at other coins in the hopes of replicating Bitcoin's spectacular growth. Altcoins are scalable, inexpensive, and offer a quick and easy way to make transactions. Despite their apparent similarities, most cryptocurrencies provide unique services and functionalities. The above-mentioned Altcoins have proven to be quite profitable in the past and hence hold a very good potential in the future.