The Next Cryptocurrency to Explode in 2023

Which project do you think will become the next cryptocurrency to explode in 2023? While 2022 has so far been difficult for the crypto space, opportunities to make money arise even in a bear market. Many analysts and traders have already started discussing the potential for a market reversal in 2023. As intelligent investors, you want to try to get into promising cryptocurrencies before everybody else. The right time to do this is during a bear market like the one we find ourselves in now (2022).

This guide highlights cryptocurrency projects with the biggest potential to explode next year. We analyze the market from fundamental perspectives since they play the biggest role when it comes to long-term investment.

The cryptocurrency market has been highly saturated, with thousands of projects trying to compete for attention and hype. While many of them are overhyped, some cryptocurrencies are building value, and these projects have the biggest chance to provide significant long-term return on investment (ROI).

Note: this article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. While we have confidence in all of the tokens we discuss here, you should always do your own research and make investments based on your own situation.

Here is the list of our top ten candidates for the next cryptocurrency to explode in 2023:

1. Ether (ETH) - the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain
2. Binance Coin (BNB) - the utility token of Binance cryptocurrency exchange and BNB Chain
3. FTX Token (FTT) - the utility token of FTX cryptocurrency exchange
4. Polkadot (DOT) - the native cryptocurrency of Polkadot blockchain
5. Cosmos (ATOM) - a cryptocurrency that energizes an ecosystem of blockchain interoperability
6. Polygon (MATIC) - the most popular Ethereum scaling ecosystem
7. Optimism (OP) - one of the most active Layer-2 solutions on Ethereum
8. Stargate Finance (STG) - composable native asset bridge utilizing Layer-0 technology
9. DeSpace Protocol (DES) - native cryptocurrency of DeSpace protocol
10. Aave (AAVE) - the crypto token of one of the most popular DeFi lending apps

You might be wondering why we chose those 10 projects over the thousands of other cryptocurrencies on the market. Let’s dive deeper into each of the cryptocurrencies in the list above to give you more information to make an informed decision.

This is the most obvious and perhaps the safest bet on the list. Ethereum is the most popular smart contract blockchain platform on the planet, and the competition isn’t even close. With the Ethereum Merge and other upcoming improvements, it’s predicted that Ethereum will be able to become even more dominant than ever before. 

Ether (ETH) is the utility token of the Ethereum blockchain. For every token or NFT transaction or smart contract deployment on the Ethereum blockchain, you always need to use Ether (ETH) for gas fees. When the Ethereum blockchain gets more traffic, Ether (ETH) naturally gets more demand. 

In the previous market cycles, ETH didn’t disappoint. In both 2017 and 2021’s bull markets, ETH pumped significantly and even produced better ROI compared to other top altcoins. Investing in ETH long-term is perhaps one of the safest bets you can make in the cryptocurrency industry.

Another safe bet on the list is Binance Coin (BNB). Binance is currently the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world and has a massive ecosystem. Binance offers everything you might want from crypto, including a launchpad, staking service, and its own blockchain called BNB Chain (BSC).

If there is anybody who can survive the bear market and come out on top, it is Binance. The good thing is that they integrate their utility token (BNB) in everything they do. They use a portion of their revenue to buy back and burn BNB and you need to use BNB for every transaction and smart contract deployment onBNB Chain.

BNB is already in the top 10 market cap rankings at the time of this article’s publication. The upside potential perhaps won’t be as explosive as other cryptocurrencies on the list, but it remains one of the most attractive investments you can make.

FTX is considered one of the biggest winners of the current bear market. Earlier, FTX committed $1 billion to acquire crypto companies and provide loans to some other troubled crypto platforms. Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX, is betting big that the bull market will come back, and when it does, he’ll likely have the biggest rewards to reap.

FTX token (FTT) is the utility token of the FTX platform. You can use FTT to lower your trading fees on FTX or as collateral against your futures positions. On top of these two major use cases, you can also stake FTT to get interested and even win NFT rewards from time to time.

Even though FTT is already popular, it still has a lot of room to grow. If we have another bull market in 2023, it’s easy to see why FTT might be the next cryptocurrency to explode. FTX’s fundamentals are great, and they have a decent chance of becoming one of the most successful cryptocurrency companies in the upcoming bull market.

Polkadot is a blockchain protocol with a goal to create decentralized Web3.0 and multichain interoperability. Founded by Gavin Wood (ex-CTO of Ethereum Foundation and the creator of Solidity), Polkadot has been considered one of the frontrunners in blockchain interoperability solutions.

Polkadot received quite a bit of hype back in 2020-2021 thanks to its unique parachain concept, where every blockchain inside the Polkadot network can share blockchain security without the need to attract new validators. The parachains are also interconnected and can natively transfer data between them.

If blockchain interoperability becomes a major narrative in 2023, it’s easy to see how the Polkadot (DOT) token will become the next cryptocurrency to explode.

Another promising crypto interoperability project is Cosmos Network. Just like Polkadot, Cosmos’ main idea is to connect different blockchains inside the same ecosystem. The vision here is to promote data and asset transfers across multiple blockchains while sharing the same blockchain security.

The native cryptocurrency of Cosmos Network is ATOM. This cryptocurrency has many fanatic followers, and they also often give surprise airdrops to those who stake ATOM for long periods.

Just like the above prediction for Polkadot, the ATOM price can also explode if blockchain interoperability becomes the next big thing in the next bull market. 2023 might be ATOM’s biggest year yet.

Polygon is a sidechain to the Ethereum blockchain. As a Layer-2 solution, Polygon provides different scaling tools for Ethereum. It is specifically designed to help the Ethereum ecosystem expand.

Polygon main blockchain utilizes a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm where each participant can stake Polygon’s native cryptocurrency (MATIC) for transaction validations. You also need to spend MATIC for gas fees, just like how ETH works in the Ethereum blockchain or BNB in BNB Chain.

Polygon has plenty of scaling solutions for Ethereum, including Plasma Chains, Avail, Nightfall, zk-Rollups, and others. When Ethereum becomes more popular, some of its users might want to find scaling solutions like Polygon to pay cheaper gas fees. You might as well say Polygon’s popularity will be affected by Ethereum’s popularity itself.

Just like Polygon (MATIC), Optimism is scaling solution that is designed to help the Ethereum blockchain grow. It’s one of the most popular layer-two blockchains for Ethereum. Optimism takes advantage of Ethereum’s security, and its optimistic rollups are the most exciting feature that separates Optimism from its competitors.

Optimistic rollups are basically layer-2 constructions that work by transferring data storage and computation off-chain. Inside its ecosystem, Optimism has a native cryptocurrency called the OP token, which gives voter rights in The Optimism Collective. The idea is that you can vote on both technical and funding decisions when you hold OP tokens in your wallet.

Due to how popular Optimism is, the OP token is predicted to be one of the mid-cap cryptocurrencies to go significantly higher in 2023. 

Bridging ecosystems in the crypto space are often considered the most promising during the bull markets. Many people want to find the perfect solution to bridge their stablecoins from one chain to another. However, many of these bridging technologies are often risky and illiquid because they use the concept of wrapped tokens.

LayerZero Network technology tries to solve this problem. On top of LayerZero, we have Stargate Finance, an omnichain liquidity transport protocol where each user can “bridge” native assets cross-chain without being dependent on the utilization of wrapped tokens.

Stargate Finance users are allowed to access its unified liquidity pools. Those who hold STG tokens can vote for governance proposals. If the market goes back to a bullish cycle, Stargate might become the frontrunner in the crypto bridging race.

This might sound biased since this is our university, but we strongly believe that our native token should be on the list. Think of DeSpace Protocol as a solution to DeFi fragmentation problems. With DeFi applications currently on a lot of different chains, users often waste their time and money moving their funds from one chain to another.

DeSpace Protocol is a unifying solution that lets you access multiple chains within the same UI. DeSpace Protocol leverages its own blockchain, DeChain - a layer-two chain that’s compatible with various layer-one blockchains. 

DeChain utilizes a unique DPoTs mechanism that rewards users with DES tokens for every transaction. With a Decentralized Exchange (DEX), NFT platforms and an upcoming lending protocol, DeSpace is set to unify the various chains and create a user-friendly experience for experienced traders and crypto newbies alike.

Aave is one of the oldest DeFi protocols and yet maintains its relevance today. Aave is basically a DeFi protocol where users can borrow and lend various crypto assets without needing a middleman.

Its concept is basic (lend/borrow), but it has a first-mover advantage and it is able to keep going and stay in the top three rankings of most active DeFi apps throughout time. Due to how battle-tested Aave is, it might become one of the next big things in 2023. The AAVE token is the governance token of the Aave protocol. The AAVE token price should appreciate as the protocol itself succeeds.

While nobody can say for certain what the market will do in the future, it’s possible to make some educated plays based on the information you have at hand. As we mentioned at the top of the article, you should always do your own research and only invest what you can afford. Still, this list is a good starting point for you to begin planning your investment strategy.

With a bit of work, you might be able to to predict the next big thing and position yourself to take advantage of it before others.