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Cryptocurrencies are all the rage these days, particularly with speculative investors. What used to be a “fringe” investment is now front and center. Even financial networks like CNBC talk about bitcoin daily and keep a ticker up on the screen showing the current price.

See Also: 3 Things You Must Do When Your Savings Reach $50,000

Put this all together and now even the average investor is well aware of bitcoin and the cryptocurrency movement. However, bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency out there.

There are plenty of other options if you want to get your crypto fix away from the big names. Just be aware that each cryptocurrency is unique, and you should consult your financial advisor before you invest in any of these speculative products.

What Are the Top Cheap Cryptos To Buy?

If you’re ready to invest in crypto, check out the 13 cheap options that could generate nice returns in 2024 and beyond:

1. XRP (XRP)
2. Dogecoin (DOGE)
3. Chainlink (LINK)
4. Uniswap (UNI)
5. Cardano (ADA)
6. Polygon (MATIC)
7. Stellar (XLM)
8. The Sandbox (SAND)
9. Decentraland (MANA)
10. NEAR Protocol (NEAR)
11. Shiba Inu (SHIB)
12. Wall Street Memes (WSM)
13. Metacade (MCADE)

1. XRP (XRP)

• Coin price as of March 19: $0.583

XRP is an open-source cryptocurrency that uses an open-source distributed ledger called XRP Ledger. It was developed by Ripple, an enterprise blockchain company that facilitates global transactions. Ripple says XRP was built for payments and can settle transactions faster, more reliably and at a lower cost than is possible over standard global payment infrastructure.

Ripple is currently embroiled in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which alleges it engaged in unregistered securities trading. Last year, a judge issued a summary judgement that said Ripple’s sales to institutional investors did, in fact, constitute securities transactions, while sales to retail investors who purchased through trading platforms did not, Reuters reported. SEC attorneys will not appeal, according to Coingape, and a March 22 deadline for remedies-related briefs could have a strong influence on XRP’s price, at least in the near term.

Dogecoin originated as something of a joke, but it has become quite real for those who have profited from it. The coin is certainly “cheap” at less than $0.15 per coin as of March 19, especially compared to its 52-week high of $0.1828.

Unlike many other cheapest cryptocurrencies that serve actual functions, dogecoin was created as a satirical take on bitcoin. The coin has a history of rising and falling based on hype and tweets by Elon Musk. It spiked in the weeks leading up to Musk’s 2022 purchase of Twitter but has fallen sharply since then.

Chainlink is another Ethereum token that powers the Chainlink decentralized oracle network. This network is used to securely connect to external data sources, APIs and payment systems.

As a major player among decentralized exchanges, Uniswap automates the trading of decentralized finance tokens between coin holders, allowing anyone who holds coins to create a liquidity pool for any token pair they choose.

Although highly volatile, Uniswap has the advantage of having been an early player in the decentralized exchange space, U.S. News reported. In 2023, the coin surpassed $1 trillion in total trading volume, albeit from just 3.9 million addresses, suggesting UNI still had plenty of room for growth. And it did — UNI is up 179% since October 2023.

5. Cardano (ADA)

• Coin price as of March 19: $0.6173

At less than $1, Cardano remains one of the cheapest cryptocurrencies — even amid the surge that has sent cryptocurrencies soaring over the last five months.

According to Coinbase, Cardano is a blockchain platform built on a proof-of-stake consensus protocol called Ouroboros, which can validate transactions without high energy costs. Its developers say Ouroboros allows the Cardano network’s decentralization and provides the ability to sustainably scale to global requirements without compromising security.

Development on Cardano uses the Haskell programming language. The symbol for the Cardano token, ADA, comes from the 19th-century mathematician Ada Lovelace.

So far, Cardano has an impressive record. By late 2021, it had processed over 20 million transactions with no downtime, according to InvestorPlace. It has become a popular blockchain for non-fungible token marketplaces and DeFi transaction exchanges.

Polygon is a decentralized application built on the Ethereum network as a way to expand Ethereum into a multichain system. Backed by Coinbase and Binance, Polygon could be the solution developers need to deploy decentralized applications faster, more efficiently and less expensively, Benzinga noted, calling MATIC the most promising “layer two” token — that is, one built on an existing blockchain.

Stellar is its own payment network, and it uses stellar lumens as its currency on that network. While the network can be used by anyone, it was envisioned to connect financial institutions making large transactions. On the Stellar network, these types of transactions can be done nearly instantaneously at little to no cost, unlike with traditional, or even competing blockchain, networks.

The Sandbox is a blockchain-based metaverse — a virtual game that uses a “play-to-earn” model that lets users create, buy, sell and collect digital assets in the form of NFTs. They can also create and monetize their own games and earn SAND whenever someone plays them, Benzinga explained.

Pixowl created the game in 2011 to introduce blockchain to mainstream gaming, according to CoinMarketCap. Investors include Atari, Helix and CryptoKitties.

Decentraland is the token behind an Ethereum blockchain-based virtual reality game of the same name. Securities.io described Decentraland as a 3D virtual world where users buy land on which to develop and monetize content, buy goods and services and visit other properties.

A proof-of-stake mechanism called Doomslug secures the platform without driving up costs, and Nightshade technology splits up the blockchain’s transaction history to speed up processing, Benzinga reported. The project has the potential to reduce barriers to Web3 adoption — Web3 being the catchphrase for a blockchain-based internet.

Shiba Inu is an altcoin named after the dog breed. The coin is compatible with the Ethereum blockchain through a bridging protocol from the Ren Project. A game based on the coin, Shiba Eternity, launched in late 2022. SHIB investors seem hopeful that the game will increase the coin’s popularity.

The coin has nearly tripled in price since October 2023. Whether that surge is based on something more than hype remains to be seen.

Wall Street Memes (WSM) is a recently launched meme coin. The crypto project is using a large social media following to develop community support, and has raised over $30 million so far. The community has a published aim of hitting a $1 billion market capitalization.

Daria Uhlig and Sarah Sharkey contributed to the reporting for this article.

Data is accurate as of March 19, 2024, and is subject to change.