It's time to get distracted from bitcoin and notice new players on the red-hot market.

2017 was the year of bitcoin , the price of cryptocurrency reached a five-digit value, and the financial world began to recognize a new class of assets. Even hedge funds, such as the Founders Fund of Peter Thiele, made big bets on bitcoin, and the appearance of bitcoin futures helped popularize the trading of cryptocurrencies in the financial world.

Nevertheless, bitcoin is just one of many growing crypto-currencies, and prudent market participants should watch for emerging trends. Here are three cryptocurrencies, which became widely known due to a sharp jump in prices for them in the past year. In addition, they are quite innovative and recognizable among investors, and this could cause their growth to continue in 2018.

Ripple

Ripple rose by 35,000% in 2017, by December 31 its price was $ 1.96 and for some time he managed to hold the second position in the capitalization of the crypto currency. The sharp increase was followed by a number of project steps aimed at applying blockade technology in the financial industry.

Already now Ripple attracts partners in the banking industry, in particular, in November last year American Express and Banco Santander announced their intention to use Ripple for cross-border payments. Several other international banks have also tested Ripple technology in the last couple of years.

The key advantage of Ripple is that, despite its sharp rise in 2017, the price of the coin is still lower than all major crypto-currencies. This attracts newcomers to the crypto currency market, as they hope that the price of Ripple can someday reach the same high levels as the bitcoin price. Given that there are currently 38.7 billion Ripple coins in circulation and only 16.8 million bitcoins, this level of assessment is unlikely. At the same time, for the first few days of 2018, Ripple was able to rise more than 35%, although in the last 24 hours it experienced a correction of 27%.

Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash appeared in August 2017, and since then until December 31 it has risen in price by 840% to $ 2,379, but so far its growth is difficult to compare with the growth of competitor-currency competitors.

The reason for the appearance of Bitcoin Cash was the decision of the bitcoin community to split the blockade of the leading crypto currency. Many members of the community tried to make changes to speed up the processing of transactions, while others were in favor of avoiding major changes and instead, in the long term, to get a bigger block. As a result, the bitcoin chain received an update, and Bitcoin Cash got an unreinforced block.

Now the price of Bitcoin Cash is only a small fraction of the cost of bitcoin. Nevertheless, some market participants believe that Bitcoin Cash is still as attractive as bitcoin, and expect that the new cryptocurrency will approach parity with it when the community gets used to the idea of ​​separating the blockbuster.

Whether this happens depends on whether the public consciousness can accommodate this idea, but in general the position of those who expect parity seems reasonable considering the common origin of the two cryptocurrencies.

Lightcoin

Lightcoin over the past year has risen in price by 5300% and by December 31 reached the level of $ 224. He also has common roots with bitcoin, this crypto currency appeared as a result of the fork back in 2011. The task of both crypto-currencies is to simplify payments and both are limited in the number of coins available for mining . However, lightbox has some advantages faster, for example, updates that accelerate the processing of transactions are introduced more quickly, and it takes less time to mine one block .

Perhaps the key difference is that there is a specific person behind the lightcoin. Charlie Lee became the founder of the project, as a result of which appeared lightcoin, and his active support of cryptocurrency is something that is so lacking bitcoin. A lower price also makes buying whole lightcoins more affordable, and this can attract investors looking to earn more than bitcoin allows.

Take into account possible volatility

It should be taken into account that the prices of all listed crypto-currencies, like bitcoins, are subject to significant fluctuations. After the rally in 2017, there is a great chance of correcting both one and all the listed crypto-currencies. However, the adherents of the blockade argue that the growth trend of Ripple, Bitcoin Cash and lightcoin will continue in 2018 and beyond.