The Best and Worst Cryptocurrency Investments for the First Half of 2018

As far as cryptocurrency markets are concerned the last six months of 2018 has been the exact opposite of the 2017 bull run last year. A great majority of digital assets have lost between 60-90 percent of their values since the beginning of the year. Today we’re going to look at which crypto-markets performed the best and then delve into the currencies that had the worst losses over the past six months.    Also Read: EU Study: International Nature of Cryptocurrency Markets Is a Challenge for Regulators

A Look at the Best and Worst Cryptocurrency Market Performances Between January 7 through July 24, 2018

A lot has happened this year as far as cryptocurrency markets are concerned, as most digital assets plummeted in value from their all-time highs during the last month of 2017. There has been a lot of losses in value and position shifts within the top cryptocurrency market capitalizations as well. We’re going to take a look at the first half of 2018 to see the kind of price performances these crypto-markets had this year by reflecting just on objective numbers and historical price data. The time frame used to calculate this year’s gains and losses was recorded between January 7 to July 25, 2018, or just under seven months.

The Top Ten Coins During the First Week of January Didn’t Perform so Well

On January 7, 2018, digital asset prices were very high as most coins who touched all-time highs in December were worth slightly less a month later. The top ten cryptocurrency market valuations at the time consisted of bitcoin core (BTC $17,131), ripple (XRP $3.19), ethereum (ETH $1,097), bitcoin cash (BCH $2,881), cardano (ADA $1.01), litecoin (LTC $300), NEM (XEM $1.67), stellar (XLM $0.70), tron (TRX $0.17), and IOTA (MIOTA $4.00). More than a half a year later each coin’s value is much less now, and the top ten capitalizations are slightly different. Let’s take a look at the coins from the January 7, 2018 top ten and see how they fared so far.

• Bitcoin core (BTC): Price on July 25, 2018, is $8,244 which indicates a loss of -51.87 percent this year.
• Ethereum (ETH) lost of -57.06 percent in 2018.
• Ripple (XRP) lost -85.89 percent.
• Bitcoin cash (BCH) lost -71.22 percent.
• Cardano (ADA) lost -84.15 percent.     
• Litecoin (LTC) lost -71.33 percent.
• Stellar (XLM) lost -57.14 percent.
• IOTA (MIOTA) lost -75.75 percent.
• Both Tron (TRX) and NEM (XEM) have been bumped out of the top ten and replaced by EOS, and tether (USDT).

Now as you can see the top ten cryptocurrency markets have not performed well. The best performances in the top ten slots were BTC, followed by ETH, and XLM. The worst performers of 2018’s top ten were XRP, ADA, and IOTA, minus the coins that were bumped out of the list. So which coins performed the best in 2018? The answer leads to a bunch of new cryptocurrencies and it’s likely that you have never heard of some of these coins.

The Best Cryptocurrency Investments in 2018

The best cryptocurrency performer for the first half of 2018 belongs to Paccoin ($PAC) that calls itself a “third generation cryptocurrency.” Paccoin has increased by +1,481.33 percent this year at its current price which is less than a half of a US penny. **Update. It seems that Paccoin had a 1000/1 swap and has declined in value since January. Some members of the cryptocurrency community have contention with these numbers due to the 1000/1 swap.

Another big pumper this year was Hexx (HXX) which saw a +1,268.96 percent increase this year. These two coins are followed by Mithril (MITH +922.52%), Casinocoin (CSC +139.63%), and Ontology (ONT +109.14%).

The Worst Cryptocurrency Investments This Year

The worst cryptocurrency market performances this year lost nearly all of their value since the beginning of the year. The infamous Bitconnect lost -99.88 percent of its value and the digital asset Rise didn’t live up to its name as Rise markets are down -97.01 percent. These two losers are followed by OP Coin (-98.23) and Mybit Token (-99.59) which are now close to worthless. Let’s not forget about the bitcoin gold (BTG) fork as BTG market values have mostly vanished into thin air losing -89.38 percent of value since the first week of January.

All Eyes Will Likely Stay Focused On the Top Ten Positions

Most digital currency markets have seen lots of losses in 2018 and the big gainers mentioned above are true rarities among all 1,600+ cryptocurrencies in existence. However, a little over three weeks ago cryptocurrency prices were far more dreary and most of them have rebounded slowly over the past few weeks. Top ten crypto-cap traders are hoping the current movements are signaling a trend change and the bearish months of 2018 will soon be over. Even though a few coins that are not well known made significant gains this year, for the most part, all eyes will be on the top cryptocurrencies markets for the latter half of 2018. What’s your opinion of the best and worst cryptocurrency investments in 2018? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below. ** This post was updated to reflect contention towards the Paccoin numbers on 7/26/18.

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Images via Shutterstock, and Satoshi Pulse. 

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