In the investment world the most famous and largest investments are typically not the most profitable. A new company just listed in the stock market may outperform the tech leaders and a new crypto token may do much better than better known tokens like Bitcoin and Ether. Any number of small, virtually unknown tokens did better in 2022 than FTX, Terra/USD Luna, Three Arrows Capital, Voyager Digital, Celsius, or BlockFi which all collapsed. The best performer in 2022 was GMX that went 111% as the rest of the crypto world collapsed. It was followed at a 92% gain by Trust Wallet Token, and LEO which “only” lost 3% on the year! The question now is which will be the most profitable cryptocurrency in 2023.
Where to Find Crypto Winners in a Terrible Year
It should be noted that the winners we mentioned for 2022 were not stablecoins, coins that track the value of gold, or other tokens with a dollar backing. These tokens will generally not have a terrible year but neither will they be stellar performers in a good year. GMX is a token for a decentralized system that clearly was not betting on crypto always going up in their contracts. Trust Wallet is a self-custody system instead of a centralized system and appears to have benefitted from massive distrust of centralized systems, especially after the FTX collapse.
Crypto Winners Will Depend on the Economy
Both of these winners had business models that protected them from the crypto winter generalized collapse. As noted by the fact that the third best performer in this category actually lost 3% on the year it seems clear that defensive, conservative strategies worked the best in 2022. If crypto surges in 2023 there could be many winners and if inflation continues, the economy slides into a recession, and the Federal Reserve overshoots with interest rate hikes we could be in for a repeat of the 2022 picture and substantial crypto losses.
Our bets are all on the not-so-great-a-year side. The Fed is not going to achieve a “soft landing” so there will be a recession but it will likely not be as severe as some expect. The one caveat is that a black swan event like Russia using nuclear weapons in Ukraine or China moving from threats to an all-out invasion of Taiwan. Barring potential catastrophes, crypto will linger in the current trading range with no impressive gains or losses.
Crypto Growth Related to Crypto Usefulness
We have been predicting for some time that long term values in crypto will have more to do with the uses that a given token is put to rather than market speculation with extreme volatility. Thus we have favored Ether to take the lead over Bitcoin as time passes. As noted by Nasdaq, coins that provide utility, will do the best in 2023. They favor Ether to do well in 2023 and similarly they favor Polygon’s MATIC and Avalanche’s AVAX which, like Ether, are native to their own blockchain platforms where developers can design and build products for decentralized finance, NFTs, the Metaverse, or blockchain gaming. Therefore crypto tokens and crypto businesses with advanced technological platforms will do the best going into 2023 and beyond. The point is that crypto has a future despite crypto winter. That future is based on the concepts that were developed early in crypto’s history before it lost its way in excessive hype, wild volatility swings, out and out fraud, tricks like Bitcoin wash trading, and the rest. The Metaverse will develop and grow. NFTs will mature and survive. Blockchain gaming will prosper. And decentralized finance will find its place in the financial ecosystem. Choosing tokens allied with these efforts will likely be the best way to find profits in 2023 and beyond.
Most Profitable Cryptocurrency in 2023 – SlideShare Version