Cryptocurrencies are staging a comeback this week. It may not last, but this could be a good time to check your shopping list for potential deals in case this rally has legs. There are a lot of attractively priced digital currencies out there, and some of them could triple or more by the end of this year.
I like Terra (LUNA +0.53%), Fantom (FTM 3.57%), and Decentraland (MANA +1.36%) here. The three promising cryptos have a lot of upside, and they're still trading well below their recent all-time highs. Let's kick some crypto tires.
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Terra
Dig beneath the two most popular cryptocurrencies and you'll find a lot of digital currencies that pack more hype than substance. You need fundamentals to avoid going too far out on the risk curve, and that brings us to Terra. This is the native token of the TerraUSD (UST 0.13%) stablecoin project.
There's an important difference between TerraUSD and Terra. As a stablecoin, TerraUSD is pegged as close as possible to the the price of a single U.S. dollar. There are other Terra-based stablecoins pegged to different foreign currencies. Investors are drawn to TerraUSD -- despite its steady trading price -- because it can earn 19.5% in annualized interest when staked through the Anchor savings and lending protocol that Terra introduced.
This brings us back to Terra, the crypto that I see with the potential to triple. When demand grows for TerraUSD it requires Terra to be burned from the community pool to pump out more of the dollar-pegged stablecoin. Retiring TerraUSD tightens supply, and you can probably imagine what that means. Things are going swimmingly these days. Only Ethereum (ETH +2.88%) has more assets deposited in decentralized finance (DeFi) apps -- or total value locked (TVL). Terra's TVL was $23 billion on Tuesday night, up a blistering 84% over the past month.
Fantom
Another crypto where TVL factors into making my shortlist of cryptos that can triple from here is Fantom. It's the equivalent of a value play in crypto, but there's a beefy asterisk with that distinction.
Fantom is currently the fourth most popular crypto denomination in term of TVL, despite being a modest digital currency with a market cap of $4.6 billion. Developers are flocking to Fantom for its flexibility, ease of use, and speedy transaction validations. However, Fantom has been aggressive in appealing to top developers by providing a financial assistance fund for apps on its platform with at least $5 million in TVL.
It's working. Fantom has $11.8 billion in TVL across dozens of protocols. There are just 13 cryptocurrencies with at least $1 billion in TVL, and Fantom is the only one with a market cap lower than that amount. The promised asterisk is that there is fluidity in the valuation. TVL will fluctuate, and the value proposition can change quickly if developers and their Fantom-fueled apps lose traction.
Decentraland
Let's shift to the role of crypto in the world of gaming. Decentraland is a virutal realm built on blockchain technology. Folks can explore the rapidly evolving online metaverse with roughly 300,000 monthly active players. Popularity has attracted corporate sponsors investing in virtual digs to reach a gaming crowd that is typically hard to reach.
This brings us to the MANA token, the currency used to buy parcels of digital land, collectible NFTs, and other virtual features through the Decentraland marketplace. An investment in Decentraland is a bet on the Ethereum-based virtual world's growing popularity. It's naturally risky to have so much riding on a single virtual gaming experience, but the same can also be said about some publicly trading gaming companies. It's the risk as well as the potential high return when it comes to investing in gaming coins like Decentraland.
