The next Bitcoin halving is expected to happen in the second half of April 2024, with current estimates pointing to April 18-22nd as the most likely timeframe for the halving. Bitcoin halvings, which happen every four years, have so far been pivotal events for the crypto markets, marking the beginning of bull runs. So, which are the best cryptos for 2024 in terms of their price potential and staying power?

In this article, we’ll mostly be assuming that just like what we saw after previous halvings, the next Bitcoin halving in 2024 will also be followed by a period of bullish price action. Obviously, this scenario might not play out as there’s no guarantee that the price of Bitcoin will increase following the halving. In fact, we’ve already seen Bitcoin and other cryptos post significant gains this year, which was uncommon during previous halving cycles. In previous cycles, crypto as a whole was usually in a downtrend and rallied only after each halving event.

Small market cap altcoins typically have the biggest potential for gains when the cryptocurrency market is in a bull run. However, they also carry the biggest risks — rug pulls, smart contract exploits, and malicious or incompetent leadership are some of the common risks facing investors in small crypto projects.

So, instead of focusing on projects where there’s a meaningful risk of catastrophic failure even during a bull market, we’ll be highlighting seven well-established crypto projects that are very likely to perform well if the cryptocurrency market as a whole enters a bull run, thanks to the Bitcoin halving. 

The 7 best crypto to buy before the next Bitcoin halving in 2024

Without further ado, let’s get started with our list of the best crypto projects to buy before the next Bitcoin halving.

1. Ethereum – The undisputed leader in smart contracts and the best crypto for 2024

Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, and it is likely to stay that way for a long period of time. Ethereum has a market capitalization of $476 billion, while the next closest competitor, Tether, “only” has a market cap of about $103 billion. 

If there is a crypto bull market following the next Bitcoin halving, Ethereum will almost certainly perform well. It is simply the go-to platform for projects looking to leverage the more advanced use cases offered by blockchain technology, including decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens, decentralized autonomous organizations, prediction markets, and much more.

 Read more: Ethereum Price Prediction After Bitcoin Halving 2024

In the past few years, there have been a number of changes to the Ethereum protocol that have made ETH a much more attractive asset to hold over the long term, which makes it a good crypto to buy right now.

Most importantly, EIP-1559 introduced an ETH burning mechanism in which the base ETH transaction fee for all Ethereum transactions is burned. Ethereum has also fully transitioned over to a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, which has reduced the issuance of ETH significantly compared to the old Proof-of-Work system. There are now only about 1,600 new ETH issued per day, compared to about 13,000 ETH per day under the previous consensus mechanism.

For the next cryptocurrency bull run, Ethereum will be positioned much better in terms of scalability thanks to the rapid developments we’re seeing in layer 2 scaling solutions. While many investors were priced out of the Ethereum network during the previous bull run, they will have several great layer 2s to choose from the next time the bulls dominate the crypto markets.

Another reason why Ethereum might see a price uptrend in the coming months is the anticipated launch of Ethereum spot ETFs. With the recent launch of a Bitcoin ETF, many investors believe that Ethereum is up next. Currently, several major investment firms have already filed their applications for Ethereum ETFs, including BlackRock and Grayscale. The next decision deadline for the SEC is May 23rd, when the agency will publish its decision about the fate of VanEck’s Ethereum ETF. 

2. BNB – A scalable alternative to Ethereum with support from Binance

BNB is a cryptocurrency that was launched in 2017 by the Binance cryptocurrency exchange. However, BNB has taken on a life of its own in the years following its launch and is now the native asset of its own blockchain platform, BNB Chain. 

The BNB Chain platform is compatible with the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), which essentially means that smart contract developers can use all the popular tools that exist in the Ethereum ecosystem to create decentralized applications for BNB Chain. 

Read more: BNB Will Hit This Price Level After the 2024 Bitcoin Halving

We should note that BNB Chain makes some compromises on decentralization in order to achieve better performance. The set of validators that add new blocks to BNB Chain is permissioned, which means that not just anyone can spin up the node and join the network as a validator.

However, many users seem to be happy with BNB Chain’s trade-off between decentralization and performance, as it’s one of the most widely used blockchains on the market today.

Interestingly enough, BNB is one of the cryptocurrencies that are the most correlated to Bitcoin. In fact, only Cardano is more correlated with Bitcoin than BNB in terms of price action.

It is worth noting that Binance has come under scrutiny in recent months, with the exchange’s long-time CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao stepping down from his position and agreeing to pay a $4.5 billion fine. However, with Binance being likely to work closer with regulators in the future, BNB could regain some of the lost ground in the coming months. In fact, we’ve already seen glimpses of this in action, with BNB surpassing $600 in recent days thanks to an 85% monthly price increase.

While the Binance exchange has created some distance between the BNB token and itself (likely to avoid potential regulatory issues), it still continues to support BNB and the BNB Chain ecosystem. A blockchain with strong backing from the world’s most popular crypto exchange certainly has a strong chance to perform well if the next Bitcoin halving ignites a new crypto bull run. 

3. Arbitrum – The leading layer 2 for Ethereum

Arbitrum is one of the leading layer 2 scaling solutions for Ethereum. It utilizes optimistic rollups technology to provide much faster and cheaper transactions while still leveraging the security of the Ethereum mainnet.

According to the Ethereum layer 2 tracker L2Beat, Arbitrum is currently the most popular layer 2 for Ethereum. It has a TVL (total value locked) of $16.09 billion, while the next closest competitor, Optimism, has a TVL of $9.27 billion. It’s also the most active Ethereum layer 2 at the moment, handling more than 8.79 transactions per second at the time of writing.

Read more: AI Predicts Arbitrum (ARB) Price to Increase +124% After Bitcoin Halving

So, if we see a bull run in the cryptocurrency market that brings in new investors who want to access on-chain opportunities, Arbitrum seems like a good bet as the go-to scaling solution for Ethereum. 

The project’s ARB token already has a significant market cap of $2.58 billion, which makes it the 52nd largest crypto asset at the time of writing. However, ARB could easily advance up the market cap rankings during a bull market. 

4. Solana – One of the fastest and most efficient blockchains

Solana is one of the fastest and most efficient smart contracts platforms available today. To be clear, Solana has seen some notable setbacks in the last couple of years — technical issues have caused the blockchain to halt on several occasions, and one of its biggest backers, the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, collapsed in one of the biggest scandals in the cryptocurrency industry’s history.

Despite these issues, Solana is still alive and kicking. Its impressive scalability allows it to support use cases that simply aren’t feasible on most other blockchain platforms. Solana is home to a number of popular cryptocurrency and blockchain projects, including the likes of Stepn, Helium, Magic Eden, and Orca.

Read more: Solana TVL Hits Yearly High as Number of Active DeFi Users Surpasses 150,000

Solana’s DApp ecosystem is already much more diverse compared to competitors like Cardano. Another factor that makes SOL worth considering at the moment is simply the fact that the coin is trading more than 35% down from its all-time high (for comparison, BTC is currently trading just 1% below its ATH, ETH is 18% removed and BNB 12%). So, if you believe that Solana has strong long-term potential, acquiring some SOL at these prices could turn out to be a good decision, especially ahead of the next Bitcoin halving. 

5. Dogecoin – A meme coin with mainstream appeal

We’re featuring Dogecoin as one of the best cryptocurrencies to buy before the Bitcoin halving since DOGE has demonstrated impressive longevity since its launch back in 2013.

During the last cryptocurrency market bull run in 2021, Dogecoin was one of the biggest gainers. We saw a huge influx of new investors entering the crypto market, and Dogecoin was an obvious choice for many due to its meme appeal, availability on mainstream trading platforms like Robinhood, and low price per unit (although this is more a psychological advantage than a real one). 

There was a viral trend on social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok where users encouraged each other to buy Dogecoin and bring its price up to $1.

Read more: AI Predicts DOGE Rally Ahead of the 2024 Halving

Earlier this year, the price of DOGE rallied following reports that X (formerly Twitter) might use Dogecoin to power payment on its platform. There’s precedent to expect that this might actually materialize, as Tesla, which is owned by Elon Musk, the same as X, does accept Dogecoin as one of the payment methods in its merchandise store.

If we see another spike in new investors entering crypto after the next Bitcoin halving, DOGE could very well be one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies. In the last bull market, Dogecoin soared high but couldn’t quite reach the $1 mark. Will next time be different?

6. Toncoin – Scalable blockchain with Telegram integrations

Toncoin is one of the most interesting blockchain projects to follow at the moment due to its potential to reach a truly massive userbase. This is because Toncoin and the TON Blockchain are steadily being integrated into Telegram, a privacy-focused messaging app with a whopping 800 million monthly active users.

For example, Toncoin can be used to buy and sell Telegram collectible usernames on the Fragment marketplace. The concept is similar to website domains but for Telegram usernames. Another key Toncoin integration with Telegram is the TON Space wallet, which users can access directly from the Telegram app. The wallet can be used to send TON or even swap between various tokens issued on the TON Blockchain network. 

Read more: Here’s How High TON Coin Could Go After the 2024 Halving

The ongoing integrations with Telegram are undoubtedly the most exciting aspect of Toncoin. However, Toncoin has also been making waves by itself, with numerous recent developments suggesting that the project is on the right track.

For example, the number of Toncoin accounts has grown by about 200% in the last 12 months, despite the bearish conditions that we saw in early 2023. The number of active wallets on the TON Blockchain has grown from roughly 543,000 in March 2023 to 1,745,000 as of March 2024, which is an increase of roughly 221%. 

In testing, the TON Blockchain has shown the ability to handle 104,715 transactions per second, which makes it a serious contender for the title of the world’s fastest blockchain. Of course, tests such as these have to be taken with a grain of salt, as performance in tests doesn’t necessarily translate to the real world.

Another positive development for Toncoin is that it has been approved (alongside XRP) by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), allowing financial institutions in the Dubai International Financial Centre to conduct transactions with TON. 

7. Polygon – A suite of Ethereum scaling solutions

The reason why we’re including Polygon as one of the best cryptos to buy before the next Bitcoin halving is that the project could be positioned very well if we see a surge of interest for cryptocurrency coming from the mainstream. In addition, Polygon has benefited less from the recent bullish market momentum than most other major cryptos, which could mean that it has more room for growth when the bull market ensues.

The Polygon team has achieved notable success in establishing partnerships with well-known brands such as Reddit, Starbucks, DraftKings, and Robinhood. An example of this success is evident in Reddit’s Collectible Avatars product, which utilizes NFTs on the Polygon blockchain and has already achieved significant popularity.

Read more: Here’s How High Polygon Could Go After the 2024 Halving

While Polygon could certainly benefit from mainstream attention, the project’s technology is also being adopted by cryptocurrency industry heavyweights. Recently, the OKX cryptocurrency exchange has announced that they are developing a blockchain platform called X1. The reason why this development is relevant for Polygon is that the X1 platform is based on Polygon’s CDK (chain development kit).

Another exciting development for Polygon is that the team is working on migrating the current MATIC token to a new token called POL. The Polygon team describes the POL token as a “hyperproductive” token since it allows holders to serve as validators on multiple blockchains simultaneously. The smart contracts for the POL token were released on the Ethereum mainnet in late October 2023, setting up the stage for the eventual transition from MATIC to POL.

Best crypto for 2024 FAQs

What is the best crypto to invest in 2024?

The best crypto to invest in 2024 will depend on your individual investment goals, risk tolerance, and the overall state of the crypto market. However, some of the most promising cryptocurrencies to consider include Ethereum, BNB, Arbitrum, Solana, and Dogecoin.

Which crypto will grow in 2024?

It is difficult to say for sure which crypto will grow the most in 2024, as the crypto market is volatile and unpredictable. If you want to check how cryptocurrencies included in this article might perform in the future, make sure to check our algorithmic price predictions for each coin:

The bottom line: These are the best cryptos for 2024

Many crypto investors are hoping that there will be another crypto bull run after the next Bitcoin halving in 2024. If this will indeed be the case, it’s likely that the vast majority of cryptocurrencies will perform well — the crypto markets tend to be dictated by Bitcoin, and it’s rare to see other coins slumping while BTC is rallying. 

Cryptocurrencies included in this article all have a decent chance of pushing higher in the next bull run thanks to their unique value propositions and staying power. You can quickly check the best cryptos to invest in for 2024 in the table below: 

Data collected on March 14, 2024

Hopefully, our article helped you identify cryptocurrencies that could perform exceptionally well if we see another bull run after the Bitcoin halving. If you’re looking to invest in crypto over an even longer period of time, check out our list of the best long-term cryptocurrencies to buy.