Contents

• TRX: The power of TRON
• yOUcash: YOUC breaks through?
• Bitcoin: Still the biggest
• Ether: Trying to be green
• Trade ethereum to US dollar – ETH/USD chart
• XRP: The court case continues
• Trade ripple to US dollar – XRP/USD chart
• The Metaverse: play-to-earn and NFTs
• FAQs

What will happen next in the cryptocurrency market? Last year, 2021, was quite the year for crypto, with dizzying heights and terrifying lows coming in quick succession. While 2022 has been largely bearish, with a sluggish market at the start of the year exacerbated by an overall financial slump after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, there are still some signs of optimism.

So, which crypto will explode in 2022? While we cannot answer that question with any degree of certainty, we can look at some cryptos that have the potential to do some interesting things over the coming months.

Please note, though, that this is not investment advice. It is always crucial to do your own research and that is especially true in periods of volatility such as now. It is also worth remembering that analysts often get things wrong, and no one can predict the future with 100% accuracy.

TRX: The power of TRON

One of the biggest cryptos to significantly outperform the market is TRX. This crypto helps to power the TRON network, which aims to establish a free, global digital content entertainment system with distributed storage technology using a decentralised blockchain network.

Much like Ethereum, people can set up their own decentralised applications (DApps), which gives tech creators the opportunity to do things without having to rely on traditional tech giants such as Google and Amazon.  

One other thing that makes TRX worth a mention is that the TRON foundation dissolved itself in the summer of 2021 and, later that year, founder Justin Sun was appointed as Granada’s Trade Representative to the World Trade Organization. This meant, in short, that TRX and TRON were no longer run by a foundation, but by the users themselves. 

While these occurrences could well have proved to be a recipe for disaster, it was somewhat different in TRON’s case. If we look at the value of the TRX coin over the course of 2021, we can see that it has been one of the year’s best performing bigger cryptos. It started the year at $0.0754 and, as of 10 May, it was worth about $0.0796.

While that rise, one of around 5.5%, may not seem like that much, if we put it into the context of what the cryptocurrency market has been doing, it is pretty impressive, especially for a large and established crypto. Does this mean that TRX is going to explode in 2022? Perhaps not, but even so it is probably worth keeping ones eyes on a crypto that has quite clearly bucked market trends and delivered investors a profit in 2022 at a time when cryptocurrency in general has suffered losses.

yOUcash: YOUC breaks through?

Another cryptocurrency which has performed well at a time when it would be reasonable to assume that it would perform poorly is yOUcash (YOUC), the native token of the YOUengine network. While this is not as big a crypto as TRX, its success in 2022 is worth taking a look at. In terms of what it does, YOUengine is designed to provide a service to advertisers, with the idea being to allow them to get access to people across the world and YOUC is the token that helps to power it. 

Anyway, YOUC has been one of the crypto success stories of 2022 so far. While it has been around since 2020, it was only in May 2022 that it really hit the heights. The token switched from operating on the Ethereum blockchain to operating on the Solano blockchain and, on 5 May, it hit an all-time high of $0.5024 and, since then, it has hovered around the $0.50 mark.

When we consider that the token started the year at $0.2431, the fact that it has more than doubled might well suggest that here we have a token that has already exploded in 2022. Whether it can continue to do so is a completely different matter entirely but, for the time being, it is something that shrewd crypto investors might want to consider monitoring for signs of any further growth.  

Bitcoin: Still the biggest

It would be useful if we took a look at the largest cryptocurrency around. Bitcoin is the coin which has defined crypto, and it had quite the year in 2021, hitting an all-time high of $68,789 on 10 November. This was more than double the $28,994.01 it had been worth at the start of the year and it closed the year down at $46,311.74.

Since then, it has been on something of a downturn, reaching lows of below $35,000 on 23 and 24 January, making something of a recovery, and then dropping down below that mark on 24 February, before making a recovery to stand at around $40,400 on 16 March and crashing to below $30,000 early in the morning of 10 May. Now, while that means that BTC has dropped this year, its fall of between 12% and 13% means that, while things are nowhere near as good as they could be – and, since some experts predicted bitcoin could top $100,000, it has underperformed against what some people might have suggested – it has outperformed the market as a whole. Does this mean that bitcoin is the next cryptocurrency to explode in 2022? Probably not. That said, the size of bitcoin and the importance of bitcoin are such that it would feel wrong to look at the crypto market and not earmark BTC as one of the coins to pay attention to. 

It is worth noting that BTC is cyclical – every four years or so, bitcoin’s value drops. For example, bitcoin plunged from $20,000 in December 2017 to $4,000 by the end of 2018.

If the pattern is maintained, prices may retreat in a bear market throughout 2022 and 2023, with bitcoin’s momentum only returning in 2024, which is when the blockchain’s next halving event is due to take place.

Nevertheless, there are still some experts who believe that the road to $100,000 is a fairly straightforward one, with Ian Balina of Token Metrics suggesting that it can hit that figure, although it is unclear as to when exactly that will happen. 

Ether: Trying to be green

If we’ve talked about bitcoin, it makes sense to talk about its great rival, ether. What is of importance here is whether and when the Ethereum blockchain will make its much-vaunted move from using a proof-of-work consensus to a proof-of-stake consensus. While the coin has been tested using PoS, it is not yet certain as to when the change will happen on the main Ethereum blockchain. 

Moreover, we will also have to see what impact that has on the markets. Keep in mind that one of the longer-standing criticisms of cryptocurrency as a whole centres around the environmental impact of mining. If the switch to PoS does take place this year, that could change a lot of things. For instance, if Bitcoin’s biggest rival manages to become more environmentally friendly and, perhaps more importantly, it does a good job of explaining how and why it has done so, more people could become interested in investing, both in ETH and the crypto space in general. While it may well be some time before the Flippening — the much-heralded moment when the price of ether overtakes that of bitcoin — happens, if it ever does, a swift, successful and efficient move to proof of work could boost the price of ether. 

In March 2022, Bill Barhydt, CEO of crypto trading platform Abra, said he felt the coin could, potentially, reach $40,000, adding that, should the move to proof-of-stake work out well for Ethereum, it could give a boost to crypto coins that are not BTC – so called altcoins – too. He said that a staking system could lead to more people wanting to hold ETH, coupled with a reduction in transaction time and cost, which would drive the price up. He did warn, however: “We may have a bit of a sell-the-news effect after the initial rush to stake happens with the upgrade in June or July — whenever it happens, the upgrade to proof-of-stake — so you may see kind of sell-the-news pullback.”

It is possible that the upcoming consensus mechanism switch could, potentially, be the thing that breaks the link between the price of BTC and ether. Trying to work out which crypto will explode is not an easy task, but there is potential for altcoins in general if ether can pull off proof-of-stake. Whether it will reach or break the all-time high of $4,891.70 that it set in November 2021 remains to be seen, though. For clarity’s sake, ETH started the year at $3,683.05, but, by 16 March, it was trading at about $2,380, a drop of 35.5%, which means that ether has actually pretty much matched the market over the course of 2022 to date. It will be interesting to see if and when it can turn things round. 

Trade ethereum to US dollar – ETH/USD chart

XRP: The court case continues

When it comes to the next cryptocurrency to explode, XRP is an interesting contender. This coin has been in limbo somewhat over the last year as the ongoing court case with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been having an impact on the price of ripple. Once the case is decided, then we will know what will happen.

If XRP is found to be an unregistered security, then the price will explode, but in a downwards direction. If, on the other hand, it is cleared, then there is every possibility that it will break free of the shackles and attract investors who had previously been put off buying ripple due to the uncertainty around the court case.

Let’s remember that its unique selling point — being specifically designed to speed up the international transfer of money — should help attract more people in a time of increasing globalisation. The other notable thing is that XRP does not operate on a blockchain, meaning that brokers and dealers transfer promises of payment, rather than payments themselves. This also means that any concerns about the environmental impact of crypto are a bit of a moot point for the token, which could prove to be a big plus point in an ecologically conscious world.

Anyway, we will have to wait until the court case is over – which is not expected to be until 2023 – before we see the most important movement by XRP. As it stands, the coin started the year at $0.8313 and, as of 10 May, was worth about $0.52, representing a downturn that has been a little bit worse than the market overall.

Trade ripple to US dollar – XRP/USD chart

The Metaverse: play-to-earn and NFTs

Finally, we need to take a look at the Metaverse. This has been the real boom area of crypto over the last year, and there is a definite possibility that a metaverse token or coin could be the next cryptocurrency to explode. For instance, over the course of 2021, MANA went from $0.07825 to $3.27, up more than 4,000%, while axie infinity rose by more than 17,000% from $0.5384 to $93.30. Again, we need to recognise that these coins probably won’t return the same sort of profits in 2022 as they did in 2021, but there is still potential for growth there.

As it stands, it is worth pointing out that MANA has dropped more than 64% to $1.17 by 10 May 2022, while AXS has lost more than 70%  of its value in the same time period, falling to $27.08. On the other hand, though, there is an argument that suggests buying in the dip, so it would be wrong to completely write off the metaverse altogether at this stage, especially with it becoming a buzz topic for many tech organisations. Either way, it is entirely possible that the metaverse’s largest cryptocurrencies are on their way to finding their natural level after the initial wave of excitement that characterised last year, or else they are poised to make a comeback at some point when the markets get better. 

There is also the potential for profits in newer, smaller, cryptos operating in the metaverse, whether it is in play to earn, NFTs, or online streaming. While we don’t know for certain which metaverse coins and tokens will hit the jackpot for investors, it makes sense to keep a look at this particular sphere to see what might pop up and deliver the goods. Anyway, you will have to do your own research before jumping in and investing. 

FAQs

Further reading

Bitcoin price prediction 2022: Can BTC continue to make a comeback?

SOL coin price prediction: What will SOL be worth?