9 of the Best Cryptos to Buy for 2023

What will be the best crypto to buy next year? Rounding out the final quarter of 2022, crypto investors and traders are looking ahead to see how things could develop.

As the liquid exchange markets for cryptocurrencies and distributed network tokens churn into November and December, market participants are weighing the likelihood of various future scenarios – to price in who they think will be the best crypto to buy in 2023. 

The following report concludes with a shortlist of the best current estimates of which coins will be the best crypto gainers to buy for 2023.

Exciting new blockchain projects are set to have the most upside next year, with market watchers expecting the highest yields among cryptos purchased by the year’s end or Q1 of 2023.

1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gen chains among best cryptos to buy 2023

As you will see from the list, some of the best crypto gainers are newer projects debuting after 2017 (one of them — Metacade or MCADE token — is in its presale stage in Q4 and on the road to launch in Q1 2023.

Some are older, second-generation cryptocurrencies, and yes, the original gangster, king crypto — Bitcoin (BTC) is still hanging around on this list of best cryptos to buy for 2023.

There’s no Bitcoin maximalism or DeFi or altcoin mania behind this list. It doesn’t matter how old or new a project is, what its scale and scope are, or its unique value proposition. What matters when looking for gains are value creation, fundamental analysis, and leading indicators to spot which cryptos are poised to make big moves.

Why 2023 will be a banner year for top crypto gainers

Institutional investment marches on

Institutional investors continue to cautiously, but steadily ramp up their interest in allocating some of their portfolios to the larger, older, most well-tested cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

This will give a significant boost to altcoins as well, given the O.G. cryptocurrencies’ historically long coattails. The massive capital inflows to Bitcoin and L1 blockchains during the crypto market’s cyclical bull run end up finding their way into chains for newer projects in search of greater ROI.

According to private equity company CB Insights in a Sept 2022 report for a members-only list of 105 companies currently offering financial services for crypto to institutional investors:

“Institutional interest in cryptocurrency is on the rise, from trading and prime brokerage to asset management and DeFi.”

Furthermore, CBI says:

“The start of 2022 looked promising for institutional crypto. More than 80% of institutional investors said crypto would become mainstream within 10 years, according to a Bitstamp survey.”

All-year business tycoon Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank fame has argued passionately for a near-term bullish outlook for cryptocurrencies like BTC and ETH. He says most pensions and sovereign funds have not yet allocated anything to crypto.

Once they start, they’ll all go very quickly, and trillions will flow in nearly all at once even if most allocate just 1% of their holdings to crypto. O’Leary says he expects this to happen in 2023. Time to get a side hustle or second job to stack sats. If Kevin’s right, investors have a window here to take a long position in the best cryptos – and it’s closing quickly.

Long term crypto holders are consolidating

Over 50% of all addresses for BTC have actually been holding their sats at a profit since prices stabilized around $19K in June.

So despite the “crypto winter” price drop since Nov 2021, crypto isn’t really struggling. Meanwhile, exchanges have seen a steady outflow of BTC and ETH since June.

Over the 30-day period ending Oct 22, over $2.4 billion worth of bitcoin left exchanges for private wallets. That is a bullish signal because that keeps the crypto from being liquid and immediately available to sell to buyers.

It signals the intent of coiners to hold long-term, which increases the scarcity and price of the coin on liquid crypto exchange markets. It’s Gresham’s Law playing out in real time.

The economic crisis will divert more mainstream attention to crypto

Meanwhile, the economic crisis ahead will be bullish for crypto in 2023. More people than ever are in the addressable market for crypto but haven’t adopted it yet. Slowly, however, they are growing ever more aware of blockchain’s existence, features, and benefits.

And of course, the infrastructure is far more built out at this point than it was during the last financial crisis when developers first started building blockchain networks.

It was that last economic crisis that gave birth to the crypto industry and made BTC the top-performing asset of the decade.

Expect an encore for crypto during this next crisis, for the same reasons investors turned to it after the Great Recession of 2008. Things will be even bigger this time, with far more surface area to attract, hold, and utilize capital. 

Now on to the best cryptos to buy for 2023:

Metacade is an up-and-coming gaming token prepared for its debut listing on centralized (CEX) and decentralized exchanges (DEX) in Q1 2023. The team is planning to list the coin on three to five of the top ten crypto exchanges.

The coin will power the world’s first decentralized arcade hub for play-to-earn, DeFi gamers to get together and build and play. The Metacade platform will offer users plenty of other ways to earn more of its native token, MCADE, through tournaments, contributing content, game testing and development, and staking. 

With the kind of growth similar P2E, DeFi gaming tokens like Axie Infinity (AXS) have had, investors can expect a big pop for MCADE in Q1 2023, so look out!

2. Bitcoin (BTC)

Bitcoin is still firmly entrenched as the king of all cryptos by market cap dominance, active monthly users, and the number of exchanges, custodial services, second-layer chain projects, and other BTC subsidiaries and supporters the coin has in its orbit.

Because of the enormous strides its entrepreneurs, dev community, and stakeholders are making in 2022 while markets are cool on the price, I expect a robust bitcoin price rally sometime in 2023.

3. BNB Coin (BNB)

BNB coin could be the number one biggest threat to Ethereum for market capitalization share and users. The hard-supply capped, deflationary, crypto exchange utility token has seen robust growth in recent years because of the popularity of Binance exchange.

But now that it’s a utility token for BNB Smart Chain to build Web3 dapps, it has a lot of upside ahead in 2023.

4. Cardano (ADA)

Cardano is a third-generation dapp blockchain first launched in 2017. It continues to grow in 2022. This month, for example, the first telemedicine app to accept ADA tokens for payment went live. That day crypto analytics firm, Santiment sent out a price alert:

“Cardano now sits at its lowest relative position compared to its realized value since Jan 2019. This is a sign of undervaluation based on average trader losses. ADA’s price doubled the following 3 months the last time its MVRV Z-Score hit this level.”

5. Dogecoin (DOGE)

If Bitcoin is the original gangster cryptocurrency, which it is, Dogecoin is the original gangster memecoin. Its spectacular 2021 bubble has settled some 90% down in Fall 2022 from its 2021 ATH price, and yet— it’s still trading around 20x higher solidly now than its pre-2021 levels.

Why will the proof-of-work, BTC-fork, and memecoin make a best cryptos to buy for 2023? Because “the memes won’t die.” This puts it on the list of one of the best penny cryptocurrencies to invest in 2022.

6. Polygon (MATIC)

Polygon is the most popular scaling solution for Ethereum. So as Ethereum’s fortunes go, so do Polygon’s in a very direct way. And the L2 chain solution has made big moves in 2022, growing its dapp ecosystem in leaps and bounds.

This month, three Motley Fool contributors named MATIC one of “3 Cryptos Under $1 With Explosive Potential,” in an article syndicated by Nasdaq. That’s why this list names MATIC as one of the best penny cryptocurrencies to invest in in 2022 and 2023.

7. Polkadot (DOT)

Polkadot is a Gen 3 cryptocurrency for building smart contracts and decentralized applications, but with the scalability and throughput enhanced by tradeoffs with consensus and security mechanisms. Investors with big pockets who are betting big on crypto sustainability expect DOT to be one of 2023’s top crypto gainers.

8. Uniswap (UNI)

Uniswap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) cryptocurrency that operates on the Ethereum blockchain. It’s popular among crypto enthusiasts because it combines an automated and decentralized exchange with the safety and security of final settlement on the Ethereum layer one blockchain.

It is the largest decentralized exchange and its coin flourishes during periods of high volume. So get ready for gains with crypto price volatility incoming!

9. Litecoin (LTC)

Litecoin is a Bitcoin-fork launched in 2011. If Bitcoin is the O.G. cryptocurrency, which it is, Litecoin is the O.G. altcoin. It was first styled as the “digital silver” to Bitcoin’s “digital gold” thesis. With greater privacy and bandwidth enhancements in 2022 after the Mimble-Wimble upgrade, expect LTC to make top gains in 2023.

The cryptocurrency industry is moving rapidly toward full adoption by its entire addressable global market. The nature of exponential growth is that it happens slowly at first, then all at once.

We’ve already seen the tremors of what this will be like in four previous crypto market bull runs that have ended in parabolic price bubbles, retracements, consolidations, and then the next rally up to the next bull run.

When the big one happens, the one crypto enthusiasts refer to as the moon shot, there will be an enormous, sea-change reevaluation of crypto prices upward. There’s no telling for sure if 2023 will be the big one or the next bubble on the way toward the moon shot. 

Either way, you won’t regret taking a closer look today at any of the other cryptocurrencies for 2023 on this list, especially Metacade (MCADE) for its solid foundations and great future potential to expand as the market moves into 2023 and beyond. 

The platform is currently in its Presale Beta stage – with 1.4 billion tokens (70% of the total) up for grabs. At the moment they’re offering 125MCADE for only $1 in an early bird deal, but it’s expected to sell out fast. There’ll be 9 stages in total, dropping to 50MCADE for $1 in the final stage, so it’s advised to get in early while the deal is red hot.

You can participate in Metacade’s presale here.