Leading cryptocurrencies rated by adoption, technology, investment reward & risk
In this post we are going to look at some of the leading cryptocurrencies and how they are ranked in according to financial & investment research firm Weiss Ratings.
Weiss ratings are based on objective computer models driven by complex algorithms with large volumes of data, excluding each analyst’s personal opinion from the process.
As a result, the rated entities are always treated with complete objectivity and fairness according to Weiss Ratings.
Weiss Ratings has been noted for its objectivity and accuracy by Members of Congress, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and major news organizations, so they are definitely an organization to keep in mind for investors looking into the cryptocurrency market.
Weiss Ratings ranks cryptocurrencies based on four models:
- Technology
- Adoption
- Risk
- Reward
A = Excellent, B = Good, C = Fair, D = Weak, E = Very Weak.
Lets look at how this financial research firm scored various cryptocurrencies.
Top 10 Cryptocurrencies by overall rating:
- Bitcoin (BTC) — First decentralised cryptocurrency, most trusted and most adopted cryptocurrency, seen by some as a store of value.
- Ethereum (ETH) — First blockchain development platoform, lower fees than Bitcoin and faster transactions.
- Ripple (XRP) — 3 second transactions, fees cost less than 1 cent, partnered with over 100 banks to transfer money worldwide.
- EOS (EOS) — Turing complete blockchain development platform, fast & low cost transactions.
- Litecoin (LTC) — Faster and cheaper transactions than Bitcoin.
- Binance (BNB) — Binance Coin, will be used on the Binance DEX, seen as a store of value.
- Cardano (ADA) — Scalable blockchain development network, every update is peer reviewed by a team of global scientists.
- Stellar (XLM) — 2–3 second transactions, fees cost less than 1 cent, also functions as a blockchain development platform. Like a cross between XRP & Ethereum.
- TRON (TRX) — Blockchain-based entertainment content sharing platform.
- Monero (XMR) — Privacy focused cryptocurrency that allows users to send and use money anonymously.
Top 5 cryptocurrencies by adoption
1 . Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin scored a “B” overall rating and an “A” rating for technology/adoption. It should come as no surprise that Bitcoin is in first place with BTC being the most established and trusted cryptocurrency at this time.
Companies like Microsoft, Expedia, Subway, Virgin Galactic and Lamborghini (Moonlambo?) all accept Bitcoin. Fiat based exchanges also play a big role with every fiat based exchange offering Bitcoin as a purchase option for investors.
2 . Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum comes in second place for adoption with a “B” overall rating and an “A” for adoption/tech, the same as Bitcoin. However it has a risk/reward rating of “D+” which is lower than Bitcoins “C-” grade. According to Weiss’s algorithms Bitcoin is a slightly safer investment than Ethereum in terms of a risk & reward ratio.
In terms of adoption with Ethereum being the first and most preferred DApp (Decentralized Application) development platform with 72,422 people using Ethereum based DApps according to a report by DApp.com.
Decentralized exchanges (DEX’s) make up more than half of the Ethereum DApp transaction volume with gambling DApps coming in second. Gamers are the most active Ethereum DApp users, making up over 40% of Ethereum’s daily DApp user base.
Reference: Dapp.com Q1 2019 Dapp Market Report
3 . Ripple (XRP)
XRP by Ripple Labs comes in third place with an “A” for adoption and “D+” for risk & reward, the same as Ethereum. According to Weiss XRP is as safe an investment as Ethereum and slightly more risky than Bitcoin. Having shot up over 35,000% in 2017, XRP has proven very profitable for early investors.
When it comes to adoption, Ripple $30 million worth of shares in MoneyGram, with the chance to buy another $20 million over the next two years. As part of the deal MoneyGram will use XRP through Ripples xRapid product to transfer money across the globe in seconds and at close to no cost.
Along with the MoneyGram deal Ripple is also partnered with other 200 banks, startups and payment companies which include the likes of Santander, Barclays & HSBC.
References: Is XRP still a good investment? Here’s why I believe XRP is still a great choice
This Google Sheet Document lists Ripple’s partnerships and RippleNet implementation: Ripple Partnerships
4 . Litecoin (LTC)
Litecoin sits in 4th place with a “B+” rating for technology/adoption and a “C” rating for risk & reward. Litecoin was forked from the Bitcoin source code and was built to offer faster transactions time and lower transaction costs than Bitcoin itself.
In regards to adoption, Litecoin has partnered with Travala.com, a blockchain based hotel booking platform. As part of the deal, users can reduce their hotel booking costs by 40% if they pay with Litecoin. Seeing as Travala boasts a portfolio of nearly 600,000 properties in hundreds of countries, this partnership could have a considerable impact on Litecoin’s adoption.
Another factor that has possibly helped Litecoin’s adoption is it’s Atomic Swap technology which I will describe in the “Technology” section of this post.
5 . EOS (EOS)
EOS comes in 5th place with a “A-” rating for technology/adoption and a “C-” rating for risk & reward.
EOS has around 281 DApps built on it’s platform with the majority being gambling DApps followed by gaming DApps and DEX’s. EOS is still in it’s early days so it may be a while before we see increased adoption by DApp developers and cryptocurrency users.
Top 5 cryptocurrencies by technology
1 . Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum takes 1st place with an “A” rating. Ethereum brought smart contracts and DApps into the cryptocurrency world.
Ethereum is going to transition into Ethereum 2.0 which will use Sharding technology to fix scalability issues that have plagued Ethereum especially during 2017 when a large number of users clogged the network with transactions.
You can find more information about ETH 2.0 on Github: ethereum/eth2.0-specs
2 . Stellar (XLM)
Stellar takes 2nd place with a “B+” rating. Stellar is like a cross between Ethereum and Ripple in terms of technology.
Stellar can be built on to create DApps, issue smart contracts and create new tokens similar to Eth, whilst having 2 second transactions times and transaction costs of less than a penny like XRP.
This has attracted developers who had concerns about Ethereums scalability issues, one example is Mobius which chose to run it’s ICO on the Stellar network instead of Ethereum.
3 . Cardano (ADA)
Cardano is in 3rd place with a “B+” rating. Cardano is a blockchain platform still in it’s early stages and all developments are peer reviewed by a global team of scientists.
At this point in time Cardano has only developed it’s cryptocurrency ADA, smart contracts and DApp development are still to be integrated into the Cardano blockchain.
It looks like Cardano are taking things slow and steady to avoid running into problems that established cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin & Ethereum have run into, with scalability being a major issue for 1st and 2nd generation cryptocurrencies.
Cardano is set to be one of the new 3rd generation blockchains that will hopefully solve this issue.
4 . NEO (NEO)
NEO sits at 4th place with a “B+” rating. NEO, at one point known as “China’s Ethereum” due to it’s position as a development and smart contract platform as well as a meteoric rise from less than 14 cents to over $100 in just one year (January 2017 — January 2018).
Holding NEO in a personal wallet also generates GAS, a more scarce cryptocurrency that powers the NEO blockchain, similar to how ETH powers the Ethereum blockchain. This allows NEO holders to earn a passive income as GAS is generated just by owning NEO without the need to stake your tokens.
5 . ONTlogy (ONT)
Ontology sits at 5th place with a “C+” rating. Ontology aims to allow businesses to install both private and public blockchains for their business, for example a company can store sensitive information on the Ontology blockcahin which is private and store other information on the public NEO blockchain.
This will allow organizations to effectively manage different types of data, allocating data to blockchains based on whether the data needs to public or kept within the company.
Top 5 cryptocurrencies by investment reward
1 . Litecoin (LTC)
Litecoin sits at first place with a “C” rating. According to Weiss Ratings algorithms Litecoin is a fair investment in terms of risk-to-reward ratio.
2 . Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin is at 2nd place with a “C-” rating. Bitcoin comes in second place, this could be due to a long and drawn out bear market which Bitcoin has experienced numerous times despite growing tremendously in value.
According to Weiss Ratings algorithms Bitcoin is a fair investment in terms of risk-to-reward ratio.
3 . EOS (EOS)
EOS is in 3rd place with a “C-” rating. Another “fair” rating by Weiss Ratings, EOS is up about 7x from it’s ICO price, reaching 21x at it’s highest point and not experiencing any crazy swings.
EOS tends to grow and fall steadily giving investors enough time to buy in and cash out.
4 . Binance Coin (BNB)
BNB is at 4th place with a “C” rating. BNB is up about 375x from it’s original price of $0.10, BNB has shown increased growth due to Initial Exchange Offerings (IEO) on Binance which require BNB for users to participate.
BNB is also used on the Binance DEX (Decentralized Exchange) for lower marketcap cryptocurrencies.
BNB get’s a “fair” rating according to Weiss Ratings algorithms in terms of reward-to-risk ratio.
5 . Cardano (ADA)
ADA is at 5th place with a “C-” rating. Cardano gets a “fair” rating, ADA did grow over 100x shortly after release however the price has since declined and looks to moving into an accumulation phase.
Top 5 cryptocurrencies by investment risk
1 . Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin is at first place with a “C-” rating. Weiss Ratings see’s Bitcoin as a relatively low risk investment.
2 . Binance (BNB)
Binance takes 2nd place with a “C” rating. BNB is a bit more risky than Bitcoin according to Weiss Ratings algorithms but still fairly low risk.
3 . Bitcoin SV (BSV)
Bitcoin SV sits at 3rd place with a “D” (Weak) rating. Bitcoin SV gets a “Weak” rating by Weiss Ratings for investment risk and as an overall score. Weiss Ratings algorithms see Bitcoin SV as a risky investment.
4 . Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum is at 4th place with a “D+” rating. Risky according to Weiss Ratings algorithms but still better than other cryptocurrencies which didn’t make the Top 10 or Top 5. Overall “B” (Good) rating.
5 . Ripple (XRP)
XRP sits at 5th place with a “D+” rating. Weiss Ratings see’s XRP as fairly risky but it’s still in the Top 5 and has a “B” (Good) overall rating.
With Bitcoin breaking past $10,000, it looks like the cryptocurrency market is slowly edging towards to a bull season, investors may find it helpful to look at cryptocurrencies based on actual adoption, technology and risk/reward ratio.
Weiss Ratings looks like a good start, with the ratings themselves having an impact on cryptocurrency prices, for example EOS dropped 20% in price during June after Weiss Ratings expressed concerns over “serious problems with centralization.”
“The more you know, the better you fare, failure to plan is a plan for failure.”
I hope you enjoyed this story, feel free to check out the useful resources below:
Download Brave Browser free and earn BAT for every ad notification
You can buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP/Ripple, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Bitcoin Gold, Stellar/XLM and more from anywhere in the world using CEX
You can buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Cardano, NEO, BAT, IOTA, OmiseGo, EOS, TRON/TRX, Bitcoin Cash, Tezos, Monero, and many more from anywhere in Europe using BitPanda.
If you hold a large amount of cryptocurrency you may benefit from a Ledger Wallet.
You can keep up with me on Twitter and Medium.
<a href="https://medium.com/media/3c851dac986ab6dbb2d1aaa91205a8eb/href">https://medium.com/media/3c851dac986ab6dbb2d1aaa91205a8eb/href</a>