Ethereum
Ripple
Litecoin

While the 2018 slump was worrying, cryptocurrencies have been performing quite strongly since then. In 2019, the overall crypto market cap rose 44.1%, closing the year at almost $180 billion. Bitcoin trading also experienced a 600% increase in 2019. The trend continued in 2020 as well. With economic uncertainty regarding fiat currencies increasing in 2020, driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, cryptos have gained strength. 

In 2020, Bitcoin price increased 60% against a weakening US dollar. BTC also crossed the $12,000 level twice since mid-July. But Bitcoin is not the only crypto that experienced traders are interested in. There are more than 5,000 alt coins on the market, as of 2020. Among these, some could prove to be a valuable addition to trading portfolios, just like Bitcoin. Here’s a look at the top four cryptos seasoned traders are adding to their portfolios. 
 

Ethereum (ETH) is the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, after Bitcoin, reaching a value of almost $40 billion in September 2020. It is also the second most liquid crypto, after BTC. This means that traders are likely to find buyers and sellers of ETH in the market when they wish to trade. 

One of the major reasons behind the success of ETH has been the decentralised finance or DeFi functionality that the Ethereum platform affords. This is the nickname for smart contracts, protocols and decentralised applications (DApps), built on Ethereum. Ethereum was also one of the first major cryptos to use smart contracts. The DeFi market has grown exponentially in 2020, with the total value locked in these protocols reaching $3.75 billion by the end of July.  

There has been huge anticipation regarding the launch of ETH 2.0. It is expected to enable staking for the users and remove miners from the network, using a proof of stake consensus protocol. 
 

Ripple is unique in the fact that is acts as both a cryptocurrency as well as a digital payment network for financial transactions. XRP has the third largest market cap and is one of the most used coins for cross border payments by many leading financial institutions around the world, including banks.  

The value of XRP has experienced a dramatic increase since July 2020. The crypto was trading at around $0.17 in mid-July. By August, it was trading at around $0.32, almost doubling in value. Some of the reasons behind the surge of Ripple have been a stronger BTC and a weaker US dollar. 
 

Litecoin was developed in 2011 by Charlie Lee. He wanted to create a currency that acted as a “Lite” version of Bitcoin. The result was Litecoin. It is a peer to peer currency, based on blockchain. It is similar to Bitcoin in function but requires less resources. In fact, ordinary PCs can be used for mining Litecoin. Plus, the transactions are faster than on the Bitcoin network. Litecoin transactions can be completed under 3 minutes, whereas BTC transactions can take around 10 minutes. This close similarity to BTC, combined with additional advancements, has been driving the popularity of Litecoin. In fact, it is the crypto with the fifth largest market cap.  However, the maximum number of Litecoin's is capped at 84 million, 4 times that of Bitcoin.