5 Underrated Crypto Projects Bursting With Potential

There are tens of thousands of different cryptocurrencies in the world, and many of them are surely destined to fail. For investors, it seems as if it’s almost impossible to identify those undervalued, hidden gems with genuine potential to grow. In fact, it’s probably a whole lot easier to identify which cryptocurrencies are more likely to flop than pop. 

Still, those rough, uncut gems do exist, and they’re actually in fairly plentiful supply. When it comes to looking for coins with decent potential, look no further than the utility they provide in terms of their actual project. If it’s able to solve real-world problems and provide useful benefits to “hodlers”, then it could be worth buying a few. 

For every flop like LUNA, VERGE and SQUID, there are more than a few tokens kicking around that meet the above description, with strong use cases, innovation and solid momentum all adding up to real potential for growth. 

1: Kava

Kava is an innovative decentralized finance platform built on its own Layer-1 blockchain, where people can lend and borrow cryptocurrencies without intermediaries. The Kava network has an unusual “Co-Chain architecture” that combines the best aspects of Ethereum and Cosmos. For instance, the Ethereum Co-Chain supports Solidity-based applications and smart contracts, while the Cosmos Co-Chain enables faster transactions with lower speeds and interoperability with other networks using the IBC protocol. 

With Kava, users can deposit crypto tokens such as BTC, ETH and XRP as collateral to mint and borrow USDX stablecoins, which are pegged to the U.S. dollar. When borrowing USDX, users are subject to liquidation if the value of their collateral deposit declines versus the dollar, but in return they can earn KAVA tokens as rewards. 

These days, Kava has begun experimenting with AI, leveraging the decentralization and security of the Kava chain to offer AI services such as reasoning, natural language processing, meme token generation, NFT collection creation, language translation and more besides. Kava AI sits on a robust ecosystem foundation, with more than 140 protocols already building on its blockchain. 

2: CrunchDAO

A community-centred, decentralized machine learning project, CrunchDAO uses advanced data analytics to try and formulate profitable investment strategies on behalf of its members. It’s primarily focused on the identification of causal relationships between variables, using algorithms developed collaboratively by its community of data scientists and AI developers. 

One of the most promising things about CrunchDAO is that it has built up an enthusiastic community of more than 6,000 data scientists, of which, more than 600 hold a PhD. At any one time, these members are working on the development of dozens of algorithms to aid different types of investments, including trading opportunities, startups and more.  

CrunchDAO makes use of incentives, holding regular challenges known as “Crunches”, in which community members compete against one another to devise profitable, AI-powered investment strategies. The most successful projects in each challenge can earn CRUNCH tokens, in addition to the profits they gain from their investments. 

To date, CrunchDAO has created many profitable investment strategies, and so its potential cannot be ignored. 

3: HUMAN Protocol

The HUMAN Protocol has built a blockchain platform to facilitate the gig economy, where jobs can be posted and work completed and verified by the community, which earns crypto rewards for the time and effort it puts in. 

It can be thought of as a decentralized Elance or Upwork, and the idea is to connect businesses with a distributed and global workforce, so they can outsource skilled work to professionals, ensure the work is done to the standards they expect, and compensate the workers accordingly. Jobs are “tokenized” and published on the blockchain, with tasks ranging from content creation to data labeling to graphics design. The platform eliminates intermediaries, enabling “requesters” and “workers” to interact directly without any fees or middlemen. 

The platform ensures trust by using smart contracts to automate job publishing, task distribution, and payment for completed work, while a network of oracles validates that every task is completed as specified by the requester to ensure it meets the specified guidelines and quality. Workers are then paid in HMT tokens for the work they perform. To date, more than 24 billion tasks have been successfully completed on the HUMAN Protocol

4: Thetanuts Finance

The altcoins-focused Thetanuts Finance platform aims to popularize options trading for crypto assets. Options contracts give traders the right to buy or sell the underlying asset at a predetermined price before or on their specified expiry date, but they are under no obligation to do so. Generally, crypto options trading is limited to major cryptocurrencies such as ETH and BTC, but Thetanuts changes that with its focus on altcoins, differentiating it from other options platforms. 

With Thetanuts, crypto investors can access features including basic vaults, which sell out-of-money (OTM) European cash-settled options to generate yield via premiums. With these contracts, the strike price is either higher or lower than the underlying asset’s current price, but they can become extremely profitable if the value of that asset moves. 

Besides its basic vaults, Thetanuts also offers a lending market, where users can deposit basic vault LP tokens to generate yield paid out in NUTS tokens and take out flash loans for leverage, as well as an automated market maker that utilizes Uniswap v3’s liquidity pools for options trading, providing a further potential source of yield. Liquidity providers can earn a 50% share of the trading fees, and Thetanuts also holds out the prospect of additional rewards in NUTS at a future date. 

With its streamlined user interface and multiple sources of yield, Thetanuts has so far enjoyed a lot of success in its mission to make options trading feel far more intuitive and accessible. 

5: Dodo 

DODO is a DEX with a difference, setting itself apart from rival platforms thanks to its unique automated market maker and trading features, and greater flexibility offered to liquidity providers. 

The DODO DEX supports multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Arbitrum and Polygon, but where it really stands out is with its Proactive Market Maker engine, which promises to enhance liquidity and trading efficiency for users. With the PMM, DODO claims it can remove the risk of impermanent loss, improving the flow of liquidity across its platform. It adapts to market conditions in real-time, enabling the vast majority of trades to complete instantly with minimal slippage. 

DODO also stands out for its one-sided liquidity provider model, which means users only have to deposit one token into a liquidity pool rather than both. So if a user wants to provide liquidity to the ETH/USDT pool, for example, they only have to provide one of those tokens. There are some cool trading tools too, including the ability to set transaction deadlines, slippage tolerance and smart traders, where DODO automatically finds the best swap by aggregating liquidity from numerous sources to ensure the trader gets the best possible price. 

As a final interesting benefit, DODO offers a simple token creation tool, allowing anyone to design and mint their own cryptocurrency and start selling it on its decentralized marketplace. 

Final Thoughts

The above projects might be under the radar for now, but that doesn’t mean they should be ignored. In fact, with their ongoing momentum, strong communities and novel features, they’re all primed for a breakout. 

For successful altcoin investors, these are just the kinds of projects they’re always on the lookout for. Bear in mind that crypto is an industry where narratives shift quickly, and while these projects might not be making many headlines yet, that can change in a heartbeat.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay