10 Best Crypto Winter Tokens To Buy In 2024

Bitcoin remains at the center stage as the pioneer of modern-day blockchain design and advanced technology for p2p financial settlement. Since its inception, Bitcoin has assumed dominance in the crypto world as a lead indicator of the general market outlook. Bitcoin is one of the most solid crypto assets and a known commodity across mainstream financial sectors.

Over the years, Bitcoin has outperformed popular digital assets like gold, other precious metals, stocks, and Bonds. It has survived several harsh market conditions and has emerged stronger each time. The Bitcoin user base is ever-growing and mainstream interest in the asset has grown in the past year as well. In the first quarter of 2024, Bitcoin reached a new all-time high of over $73,700 per coin on March 14. Since this time, it has continued to consolidate within the $55,000 – $65,000 region.

Regardless, it has had a major breakthrough in terms of mainstream relevance. Earlier this year, notable mainstream financial institutions like BlackRock, VanEck, and Fidelity added Bitcoin ETF to their financial services. Data from the ETFs shows mainstream accumulation. Individual firms like MicroStrategy and countries like El Salvador have also revealed significant Bitcoin purchases. Bitcoin is also a key topic of political discussions, including the ongoing US presidential campaign.

Bitcoin also completed its fourth halving in the second quarter of the year, reducing block rewards to just 6.25 BTC. The growing scarcity of Bitcoin and the increasing demand have sustained the price despite the cryptocurrency winter. Bitcoin is one of the most reliable cryptos for the down market and one of the top crypto winter tokens. It stands a chance of significant growth as the market recovers.

Ethereum launched in 2015 and introduced the idea of decentralized virtual machines (VM) and smart contract technology. Ethereum provides a platform for not only p2p financial settlements but also for the development of decentralized applications such as decentralized exchanges. Smart contracts are code blocks that give instructions to the virtual machine.

The VM translates the codebytes to automate operations like the transfer of assets. Several utilities have been developed using smart contract technology and many of them have are steadily gaining popularity like DeFi, Memecoin, ICOs, and DePIN. Ethereum is a leader in each of these sectors and designs first deployed on the network are adopted by developers on other networks.

Ethereum’s low efficiency has been one of its biggest issues, however, this has triggered several developments in the past few years, and Ethereum developers appear determined to solve these issues. Several scaling solutions like Layer-2 networks and Layer-1 EVM-compatible networks have been developed in the last three years to reduce the workload on the Ethereum mainnet. Ethereum remains the most used smart contract blockchain in terms of applications deployed on the network and active wallets.

Ethereum has also gained traction in mainstream sectors as a financial instrument and a piece of technology. Mainstream firms like PayPal have adopted the platform for the issuance of its dollar-backed stablecoin. Other firms like Circle and Tether also issue stablecoins on the Ethereum network. on May 23, 2024, the SEC approved the Ethereum spot ETF, allowing several traditional financial institutions to offer Ethereum ETFs among their services. Ethereum reached an annual high of over $4,000 but has since dropped below $2,300 thanks to the cryptocurrency winter. It remains one of the best cryptocurrencies for the bear market.

Solana is one of the fastest-growing blockchain networks. Since its launch in 2020, Solana has grown into a notable crypto project and a growing favorite among cryptocurrency investors. Solana runs the Proof of Stake (POS) consensus mechanism in addition to the Proof Of History (POH) consensus algorithm. According to the project’s whitepaper, Solana is designed for high throughput and cost efficiency. Transactions on the Solana Blockchain cost a fraction of a cent and are confirmed within minutes. Solana’s high efficiency is thanks to modifications in its transaction execution model, the Solana Virtual Machin (SVM), and its consensus algorithms.

Solana adopts the parallel transaction processing model, this is a relatively faster way of executing transactions as it makes better use of the network resources by routing several transactions through every available cores and confirming them at the same time. Solana claims to be well-adjusted for speed and security. Its efficiency is its biggest appeal and has resulted in exponential growth in user activity. For the majority of the year, Solana has recorded higher daily transactions than any other blockchain network. Hundreds of smart contract tokens and applications are deployed on the network daily. Solana has also benefitted from the memecoin trend as thousands of traders wager on memecoins on the platform, this has also boosted DeFi activities on the network.

Solana has also shown considerable resilience, despite being relatively young, it has survived through two crypto winters and one of the most affected projects during the infamous FTX insolvency. Solana has emerged stronger from these events and registered impressive performance in 2024. It recorded an annual high of over $200 on March 18 and has gained mainstream recognition as well. Solana ETF was also approved in Q3 2024, allowing mainstream financial institutions to offer Solana spot ETFs. Solana is one of the best crypto to buy in 2024.

Dogecoin was launched in 2013 by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. It is a fork of Bitcoin with a lower mining difficulty. DogeCoin adopts Kabosu, a Shiba Inu dog breed as its brand image. Since its creation, it has grown into a dominant project in the crypto space and one of the biggest meme coins in terms of community size and market capitalization.

While DogeCoin is not a hot new meme crypto, it is still a fun meme coin with a huge community. DogeCoin and its community have witnessed several crypto winter cycles and have survived each one, emerging even stronger. Due to its resilience and the unwavering support of the DogeCoin community, Dogecoin is not just the best dog meme coin, it is also the best memecoin project that is likely to survive the crypto winter.

The DogeCoin community has shone in community-driven marketing efforts, the project has gained recognition from industry leaders and mainstream icons including Elon Musk.  DogeCoin reached an all-time high of over $0.73 during the 2021 crypto bull market, it has dropped significantly below this figure and is trading at just above $0.1 at the time of writing. However, it has performed considerably well, relative to other assets over the crypto winter. Dogecoin has grown by over 59% YTD, reaching an annual peak of over $0.2 on March 29. For investors interested in dog meme coins with a solid narrative, DogeCoin could be a solid choice.

Arweave is a decentralized network for data storage. Arweave was launched in June 2018 and presents a facility for permanently storing data on the web, it pioneers the Permaweb concept. On the Arweave network, nodes contribute disk space, store data in a decentralized manner, and serve data requests. Users who contribute disk space and play these roles are known as miners and are rewarded with $AR tokens.

Miner’s rewards are calculated using Arweave’s Proof of Data (POD) consensus algorithm, it computes the amount of data stored on each node and adjusts for factors related to performance. Users who wish to store data on the network are required to pay a one-time fee for storage space. The Arweave Lightpaper describes an incentivized network for cryptographic data storage and retrieval with the aim of improving the security and longevity of data stored on the web.

In addition to storing data, developers can also build advanced applications on the Arweave network. Applications on the Arweave network utilize the decentralized storage technology to develop advanced solutions. Arweave equips developers with resources to build efficient smart contract applications. Arweave network can process smart contract codes and supply data to applications.

Arweave ($AR) survived the 2018 crypto winter, even as a new project, and has performed strongly in the current crypto market. It has grown over 300% in 2024, despite a torrid market. Arweave is one of the top tokens to survive crypto winter and the best decentralized storage projects to invest in. 

Fantom is a POS EVM-compatible layer-1 blockchain network. Fantom adopts Ethereum’s smart contract and Virtual Machine technologies and refined them for speed and performance. It offers developers a platform to build high-performance decentralized applications. The Opera chain is a relatively low-fee and high-speed network capable of hosting applications for diverse sectors.

As an EVM-compatible network, developers on Ethereum or other EVM chains can deploy their existing applications on the Fantom network without making significant changes to their original codebase. Fantom Opera Chain has a reported speed of 200 transactions per second. In 2023, Fantom announced plans to develop Sonic – a lightweight layer-1 network that improved on everything the project achieved with the Opera Chain.

According to the team, Sonic network will offer speed, interoperability, overall agility, and cost-efficiency. Key facilities of the Fantom Sonic include the Fantom Virtual Machine (FVM), Carmen Database storage, and the Lachesis consensus mechanism. These facilities contributed to the reported 2,000 TPS on the network. Fantom Sonic will be connected to the older Opera Chain and allow the cross-transfer of assets between both networks.

Fantom has garnered investors’ interest with the Sonic network launch and has seen tangible growth during the 2024 crypto winter. The Sonic Network is scheduled to launch later in 2024 and will feature investor incentives like airdrops for old Opera Chain users. Fantom will also rebrand its native token ($FTM) to $S according to the Fantom Sonic documentation.

Kaspa is built for individual and enterprise-grade financial settlement. It serves a similar purpose as the Bitcoin network but is enhanced for performance. Kaspa runs the POW consensus mechanism and implements the GhostDAG protocol. The GhostDAG protocol enables the network to process transactions in parallel, saving time and cost for each transaction.

Kaspa adopts the Bitcoin economy model with a community-style development and a reported fair distribution. It has had an impressive year with growing token holders in the project as mainstream firms seek a flexible decentralized payment solution.

Several stores have reportedly added Kaspa as a payment option, the asset has climbed to the top 20 position in the crypto asset ranks following exponential growth. To improve developers’ experience, Kaspa has migrated to Rust as a more advanced and secure programming language for decentralized networks. Following the launch of the KRC20 smart contract standard on the network, developers will not only be able to build payment solutions on the network but also launch smart contract tokens. Kaspa is shaping up to be a significant project in the crypto space, it has grown by over 250% in 2024 and is arguably one of the best coins for bear market. 

Bittensor network was launched in 2019 as a parachain on the Polkadot network and developed their own blockchain later in 2023. Bittensor is an exciting new crypto project that has advanced decentralized network for compute resources and AI models. It uses a challenge-based strategy to source the most effective and cost-efficient solution among a group of participants in an autonomous network known as subnets. Clients who wish to obtain a solution from the network create a subnet and define the task as well as the reward after completion. Contributors on subnets are known as miners.

Validators feed miners with details of the task to be performed, this task could be the development of an AI model or provision of GPU power and each miner attempts to run the task. Validators assess every solution using the Yuma consensus and select the best one, the miner proceeds to claim the reward for the task. This way, Bittensor hopes to develop a go-to network for diverse solutions.

$TAO reached an all-time high on March 07, 2024, trading above $750 per coin. The asset has since retraced below $300 but has continued to hold strongly to its support levels. As a key player in the DePIN and AI categories, Bittensor could grow impressively as the market recovers and is a solid choice for the next crypto bull run. 

Render Network is a solid choice for investors in search of safe tokens for crypto winter. Render Network was launched in 2017 and immediately followed by a successful ICO for the native token under the $RNDR ticker. Render Network has become a notable project in the crypto space and one of the best DePIN projects to invest in the 2024 crypto winter. Render Network is a decentralized facility for compute resources.

Render Network’s whitepaper outlines the project’s vision for a decentralized network for rendering high-quality graphics for content creators. Render Networks provides on-demand GPU power for content creation through a decentralized marketplace for GPU and CPU power. Render Network’s marketplace allows device owners to commit their idle GPU power to rendering graphics for content creators.

Render Network has since expanded its services to AI model developers. Due to the high demand for GPU power for developing AI models, Render Network contributes to the progression of AI development by offering developers a scalable and cost-efficient way of accessing unlimited GPU power. Render Network also expanded to the Solana networks in the last quarter of 2023 as the project seeks a more efficient network for its services. GPU providers on Render Network are rewarded in the project’s native tokens for proven rendering operations. Clients also pay a fee for the work done.

Render Network has also survived three crypto winters and has remained a relevant project. It is a key player in the DePIN sector and social metrics suggest that the project’s community has grown consistently since 2023. $RENDER has recorded a net 190% growth in 2024. Render Network announced the rebranding of its native token from $RNDR to $RENDER on July 17, 2024.

Ondo Finance was launched on July 27, 2021, with a vision to introduce institutional finance to blockchain technology. Ondo Finance enables mainstream financial institutions and individuals to create a representation of real-world assets on the blockchain. Ondo Finance is a key player in the RWA tokenization narrative and the best cheap crypto to buy. Ondo Finance has successfully tokenized US treasuries and yield-bearing stablecoins worth over $500 Million. It has gained mainstream recognition from reputable firms like BlackRock.

Ondo Finance uses a mint-and-burn algorithm to tokenize and manage RW assets on its platform. To tokenize an asset on the platform, a client presents an equivalent amount of the asset they wish to mint, this is held in the custody of the issuer while Ondo Finance securely mints the tokenized version of these assets. The issuer is committed to satisfying redemption requests by any confirmed holder of the token. Ondo Finance offers up to 5% yield on its tokenized US treasury (OUSG) and US dollar stablecoin (USDY).

Ondo Finance has had a positive year and has delivered a strong performance amidst the crypto winter. ONDO reached an all-time high of over $1.4 on June 03, 2024. It continues to consolidate between $0.8 and $0.5. Regardless, the project’s fundamentals remain solid, and the RWA tokenization narrative is growing strong. Ondo Finance is one of the top RWA tokens to buy in 2024.

Crypto winter is a period of persistent decline in the value of crypto assets, it is also known as a bear market. The value of crypto assets is known to respond to investors’ emotions towards internal and external factors. Crypto winter marks a point where a majority of investors or traders exit the market. Indicators like the greed index and market strength are usually at their lows during this period and the price of cryptocurrencies responds to a wide selloff. Phenomena like this also applies to other financial markets, including stocks.

Crypto winter might be a response to periods of mainstream financial difficulties like economic recessions and inflation, or just long-lasting profit-taking after a healthy market period. Crypto winters are known to follow a bull run. Other internal factors like the collapse of popular cryptocurrency projects are also known causes of crypto winter, an instance is the infamous collapse of Luna and FTX.

During a crypto winter, there is a recorded decline in investors’ interest and cryptocurrency market viability. Known metrics of a thriving market like daily trading volume, liquidity, and number of orders per second (on exchanges) are usually in a decline. On-chain activities like active wallets, daily active wallets, and transactional activities like p2p transfers and operations on DeFi platforms are also in decline. A crypto winter lasts anywhere between a couple of months to several years.

The crypto winter is a torrid period for cryptocurrency traders, crypto investors, and project teams. Despite the challenges of a crypto winter, there are several benefits of being active and investing in the space during this period. Here are some reasons why you should invest during a crypto winter;

Affordability Of Crypto Assets

The bear market could present an interesting opportunity, especially for crypto enthusiasts looking to buy into an asset. As a result of the long selloff during the crypto bear market, some of the best crypto winter tokens notably trade significantly below their record highs.

For altcoins, the correction could be as much as over 90% of the previous highs, even the most promising projects succumb to the bear trend. Investors will be able to purchase these assets at a discount during the crypto winter.

Opportunity To Join Active Communities

Thanks to declining interest, cryptocurrency communities record low community activity during the crypto winter, only the strongest communities survive the bear market.

It is, therefore, easier to discover and join active communities and invest in the potentials of a dynamic community. This is relatively harder to do during healthier market conditions as every community appears to be active during the bull market.

General Low Barrier To Participation

In the bear market, it is easier to join communities and get involved in crypto events. Crypto assets also trade at relatively cheaper prices during this time. These factors lower the barrier to participating in the crypto space.

Another point is the willingness of support teams to assist investors due to the low volume of requests. The crypto winter could be the best time to get into the crypto space as a newbie. Even experienced investors benefit from the low activity and prices during this time.

High ROI During Market Recovery

Crypto assets that survive the bear market tend to score high profits when the market recovers. As the assets retrace to previous highs and progress to new highs, investors who bought in during the bear market score significant profits. Crypto Winter investment tokens are known to be one of the biggest movers in the bull run.

Low Risk Of Further Dumps

While it is impossible to estimate how much the value of an asset (especially crypto) will fall in a bearish market, assets that have lost significant value have lower chances of declining further. Many assets hit new all-time lows in the crypto winter, investing in these assets reduces the chances of suffering huge losses due to a decline in value. 

Here are some risks to look out for while investing in cryptocurrencies during a crypto winter;

Bearish Trend And Capital Risks

The crypto winter is characterized by the downward movement of asset prices, even some of the most stable and strongest assets decline significantly during the crypto winter.

The general market outlook during this period is bearish. Therefore, investors are likely to score losses while investing in crypto assets during the crypto winter.

Spike In Unfortunate Events

Due to the harsh market conditions and market capitalization, there is a noteworthy spike in unfortunate events in the crypto space during the crypto winter, most of these events result in grave losses for investors.

During the crypto winter, events such as the de-pegging of algorithmic stablecoins, the collapse of crypto ecosystem, technical exploitations, exchange hacks, and malfunctioning of loan markets are on the rise. Investors of projects that suffer any of these events could run into losses.

Irregular Price Development Patterns

Trading during the bear market is one of the toughest trading decisions. Despite the bearish trend of the general market, taking short positions on crypto futures trading platforms could still result in a lost trade as the market moves haphazardly. Investors are therefore advised to adjust their positions according to their risk tolerance levels despite personal conviction levels.  

To stand a better chance of surviving or benefiting from the crypto winter, here are some of the best crypto winter investment strategies.

Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) And Long-Term Holding.

Dollar Cost Averaging involves splitting up your capital and purchasing an asset gradually over time. While buying or selling, DCA enables investors to capture key price points and minimize losses or maximize profits depending on the price development. Due to the irregular price movement during crypto winter, DCAing is a good technique and offers several advantages in addition to capturing the different price points.

After DCAing, holding on to your investments for the long term is another viable strategy, however, the efficiency of this depends on the fundamentals of the project you DCAd into. If the is one of the reliable cryptos for the bear market, it will stay resilient during the crypto winter, it stands a high chance of growing impressively when the market recovers.

Gradual Taking Of Profits

During the crypto winter, crypto assets tend to experience perioding spikes in prices, usually, this is followed by a pullback. Considering the state of the market, it is recommended to set personal and realistic targets when the asset you invested in starts going up, when each target is reached, ensure to take profits according to factors that apply to you.

Day Trading

Day trading involves purchasing an asset and selling it within the 24hrs mark, this strategy enables traders to benefit from the periodic changes in the value of an asset. The crypto winter is known for fluctuations in the value of assets, by day trading during this period, investors stand a chance of avoiding significant losses and accumulating the asset as the market moves sideways.

Momentum Trading

The irregular movement of the general market during the crypto winter follows a loose pattern. Between the lows are periods where the asset gains significant momentum. A popular strategy to use in such cases is momentum trading, this can be done manually or using crypto trading bots. You can set up your trading systems to detect market momentum and trade accordingly.

Capital Preservation And Trading Without Emotion

Another winter-time investment strategy is capital preservation. This involves protecting your initial investments as you trade or accumulate an asset. To preserve capital during crypto winter, investors take profit that is equal to or close to the initial amount they invested and allow the remainder of their position to run with the market.

This strategy is primarily a risk management strategy and protects investors from significant losses. It is also advised to avoid trading with emotions and adhere to set targets. Preserve your capital where possible, regardless of the level of confidence you have in an asset.

The crypto winter is unarguably the most challenging period for investors. Regardless of your experience in trading digital currencies, navigating the crypto winter could be tedious. Many investors simply stay away from the market during this time, however, with the right strategy, the crypto winter also offers several advantages, including an opportunity to purchase promising coins at a significant discount.

Throughout this article, we discussed several cryptocurrencies with high chances of surviving the crypto winter and our basis for selecting them. Regardless, it is important to note that this list is not exhaustive, it is advised to perform thorough research before investing in any crypto asset, especially during the crypto winter. Also, adjust your investments according to personal factors such as your risk tolerance levels.