Today, we’ll talk about cryptocurrencies with untapped potential and quickly developing ecosystems
Most promising cryptocurrencies to buy in 2022. Source: shutterstock.com
Ecomi (OMI)
The Singapore-based tech project behind the digital collectibles marketplace VeVe is giving its utility token a new life on the Ethereum blockchain. Starting from 2022, the OMI crypto is migrating from GoChain to Ethereum via Immutable X. The migration will improve access to both the VeVe app and OMI token, and enable the interoperability of the tradable NFTs, while giving the project exposure to a new customer base.
VeVe app offers premium licensed collectibles from Marvel, DC Comics, Disney, Warner Bros, Cartoon Network, and more. Through the VeVe platform, fans can showcase their digital collections in the app’s virtual showrooms, virtually visit, comment on and like showrooms from other collectors. VeVe also offers an AR photo mode that allows collectors to mix their digital collectibles with real-life settings, as well as share their collectibles through VeVe’s in-app social feed or on external social platforms.
As for the numbers, Ecomi has recently celebrated 1 million active monthly users on the platform, with more than 2.6 million NFT’s sold. Its native token OMI has grown enormously during the past year. With peaks in February and March, OMI has gained over 16,500% in value since last January.
Solana (SOL)
Solana is the fastest-growing crypto ecosystem. Not only is it widely seen as one of the main competitors to Ethereum with its smart contracts support, but also the blockchain has a constant expansion of innovative features such as blockchain gaming. Last year, the SOL crypto reached a few all-time-highs, growing by 17,500% from January till November.
Experts predict a bright 2022 for Solana after a series of meaningful partnerships including the popular privacy-focused and crypto-friendly browser Brave, top crypto exchange FTX and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Its involvement with the multi-billion web3 gaming industry is very promising for Solana’s resilience as well.
Besides, VC fund Seven Seven Six and the Solana Foundation plan to invest $100 million in developing “the next wave” of social media on Solana. Decentralised social media would be a new way for users to earn rewards for participating and community building.
Harmony One (ONE)
Harmony uses blockchain to allow different stakeholders, developers and businesses to build open marketplaces of fungible and non-fungible tokens and assets. The platform offers cross-chain asset transfers with Ethereum, Binance and 3 other blockchains. The protocol is powered by a native token ONE which is used for various forms of payment and participation (staking, transaction fees, voting & governance). ONE has gained 6300% in value over the year.
Furthermore, the upcoming application of zero-knowledge proofs will allow Harmony to become a data-sharing platform that can overcome the conflicting problem plaguing many information and data markets: that individual market participants’ have mutual distrust to share data but strong desire to acquire data themselves.
Terra (LUNA)
The unique nature of Terra blockchain unites borderless benefits of cryptocurrencies with the day-to-day price stability of fiat currencies. The South Korean platform uses algorithmic fiat-pegged stablecoins to power price-stable global payments systems and cross-chain DeFi ecosystem. The project partners with a dozen payment platforms, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, Terra is supported by the Terra Alliance, promoting its adoption.
Its native coin LUNA is a reserve currency that can be swapped to either expand or contract the stablecoin supply to match demand. LUNA holders can also validate transactions on the network. The token has grown almost 13,000% over the last year.
Due to the latest Columbus-5 upgrade and deployment of another “bridge” protocol, Wormhole V2, Terra is now interoperable with Cosmos, Solana, and other platforms using the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) standard. Cross-chain movements of UST and other Terra assets to ETH have gotten easier.
Besides, the upgrade led to LUNA being permanently destroyed when burned, instead of being sent to a community pool. A shrinking number of tokens caused greater demand. Therefore, a few crypto analysts teams such as WalletInvestor, DigitalCoinPrice, and EconomyWatch predict continuous bullish growth through 2022.
Polygon (Matic)
Formerly known as the Matic Network, Polygon is a scaling solution that provides a framework for building decentralised apps (dApps) off-chain. The platform acts as an add-on layer to Ethereum that does not seek to change the original blockchain, but solves most usability issues with multiple tools. The Matic Network went live only in 2020 but has already attracted some of the top names in the DeFi industry, including Decentraland and MakerDAO.
MATIC token is used as the unit of payment and settlement between participants who interact within the network. It grew by over 12,000% in 2021. While the price predictions for MATIC vary, most cryptocurrency analysts believe the value of Polygon will continue rising over the coming year as its utility and ecosystem continue to grow. Polygon experienced exponential growth in 2021, and the number of teams using Polygon doubled every two months recently, according to Alchemy. Month over month usage growth reached 145% as of October 2021, and 61% more teams were building on Polygon relative to the previous month.
Polkadot (DOT)
Polkadot is a unique cryptocurrency as it connects the various blockchains in order that they can all work together, thus creating interoperability with other blockchains. Its native platform Polkadot is an open-source sharded multichain protocol that connects and secures a network of specialised blockchains, facilitating cross-chain transfer of any data or asset types, not just tokens. As a metaprotocol, Polkadot is also capable of autonomously and forklessly updating its own codebase via on-chain governance according to the will of its token holder community.
Polkadot’s native DOT token serves three purposes: staking for operations and security, facilitating network governance, and bonding tokens to connect parachains. The number of developers working on the Polkadot blockchain exploded over the last year, from about 2,600 to nearly 10,000. Wider adoption gives the crypto greater growth perspectives. Institutional investment from T-Systems MMS, a subsidiary of German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom, is another reason for the optimistic 2022 projections.
Avalanche (AVAX)
Avalanche is a layer one blockchain that functions as a platform for decentralised applications and custom blockchain networks. Its network consists of three individual blockchains: the X-Chain, C-Chain and P-Chain. Each chain has a distinct purpose and a different consensus mechanism based on its use cases. Different Ethereum-based projects such as SushiSwap and TrueUSD have integrated with Avalanche. Furthermore, the platform is constantly improving interoperability with Ethereum.
Last month, CirclePay’s USD Coin launched on Avalanche. As the stablecoin is now supported natively, it provides more seamless transaction and payment options for the whole Avalanche ecosystem. Previously, users wanting to get USDC in Avalanche had to bridge it via Ethereum.
AVAX has grown 2900% over 2021 and is now the eleventh biggest crypto on the market (based on market cap). It’s rather impressive since Avalanche’s mainnet went live only on September 21, 2021. Per intent observations, AVAX’s recent surge in value is attributable to the underlying blockchain use in multiple P2E games. Avalanche’s partnerships with Deloitte, Fireblocks and Circle must have also added to the popularity of the blockchain.
Besides, the Avalanche Foundation has recently secured $230m in funding. The bulk of the funding money will go into the Blizzard project which the team says “is dedicated to accelerating development, growth, and innovation across the ecosystem of builders and users of the Avalanche public blockchain and beyond.” The 2022 roadmap will concentrate on four main areas: “DeFi, enterprise applications, NFTs and culture applications, and will also look for opportunities to support other emerging use cases such as security token issuances, liquidity providers and self-sovereign identity.”
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