Best Crypto to Buy Now in May 2024 – Top 10 Crypto to Invest In

Last updated:

May 3, 2024 12:18 EDT
| 32 min read

In this guide, we review and rank the best crypto to buy in May 2024. Before narrowing our list down to the top 10 coins to invest in, we evaluated over 120 tokens, based on seven criteria: market performance, utility, community and adoption, development team, security, compliance, and roadmap.

In addition to highlighting the best cryptocurrencies to buy now, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, we covered 7 new cryptos with strong potential for high returns.

Best Crypto to Buy Now

We’ll start our list of the best cryptocrurrencies to buy now with 10 large-cap tokens that we think could deliver market-beating returns over the current crypto bull market.

1. Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the world’s oldest cryptocurrency and the largest by market cap by a wide margin. It’s the only cryptocurrency that’s officially recognized by many major governments, including the US, and it’s used as legal tender in countries like El Salvador. Recently, the first spot Bitcoin ETFs began trading on US stock exchanges.

Key Highlights:

• Bitcoin price as of May 5, 2024: $63,678.02
• Market cap: $1.3 trillion
• Last 24 hours change in price: +1.09%
• All-time high: $73,628.40
• Bitcoin price has increased in the last year with a change of +116.97%

Why Bitcoin made it onto our list:

Bitcoin has been driving the crypto bull market for much of the past year. It’s more than doubled in value in the past 12 months, vastly outperforming major altcoins like Ethereum.

It’s now trading well over the key $42,000 price benchmark set during the 2020-21 crypto bull run. This provides a major psychological boost that’s likely to provide BTC with important momentum over the coming months.

Bitcoin could see even more gains thanks to the upcoming Bitcoin Halving and anticipated interest rate cuts across most major economies. In fact, the Bitcoin price prediction for the end of 2024 is a remarkable $90,000.

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2. Ethereum

Ethereum is the world’s second-largest crypto by cap and the most widely used blockchain network for dApp development. The project was the first to introduce smart contracts when it launched in 2015. Ethereum successfully transitioned from a proof-of-work validation mechanism to a proof-of-stake mechanism in 2022.

Key Highlights:

• Ethereum price as of May 5, 2024: $3,110.61
• Market cap: $388 billion
• Last 24 hours change in price: +0.06%
• All-time high: $4,867.17
• Ethereum price has increased in the last year with a change of +58.17%

Why Ethereum made it onto our list:

Ethereum remains the most popular blockchain network for developers. It’s where most of the action in the crypto world is happening, including new launches, new play-to-earn crypto games, and advances in DeFi.

There’s a flywheel effect at play here. As Ethereum gets bigger, more developers build on it and encourage even more users to join. All the while, demand for ETH keeps growing and its value continuously rises.

Ethereum successfully fended off challenger blockchains like Cardano and Solana during the last crypto bull market. Now, the focus is on Layer-2 solutions that improve the speed of the Ethereum network and boost Ethereum’s value rather than building new blockchains to try to knock down the smart contract king.

Currently valued at just over $3,000, the most optimistic Ethereum price prediction points to a valuation of over $7,000 by 2025.

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3. XRP

XRP is the official crypto token of the Ripple payment network, which was built to make international payments faster and cheaper. The project is coming off a win against the SEC, which alleged that XRP was an unregistered security. XRP is now the 7th largest crypto by market cap.

Key Highlights:

• XRP price as of May 5, 2024: $0.530
• Market cap: $28 billion
• Last 24 hours change in price: +0.14%
• All-time high: $3.92
• XRP price has increased in the last year with a change of +13.94%

Why XRP made it onto our list:

XRP has been held back for years by uncertainty over whether it would be classified as a security in the US. Now, thanks to its court victory over the SEC, that uncertainty is gone.

That has cleared the way for major banks to try out Ripple’s payment network using XRP. The project has brought on major partners like Bank of America, PNC Bank, Santander Bank, and more.

XRP is up only slightly since its court victory last summer, leading many analysts to think that it is undervalued. More interest in using XRP for international payments during the current crypto bull market could send its price skyrocketing — even the most conservative XRP price prediction points to a 240% value surge by 2025.

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4. Solana

Solana is a fast and cheap blockchain created as a challenger to Ethereum. It’s been one of the most successful crypto tokens of the resurgent crypto bull market, rising more than 620% in value over the last 12 months. Solana is now the 5th-largest crypto by market cap.

Key Highlights:

• Solana price as of May 5, 2024: $145.76
• Market cap: $67 billion
• Last 24 hours change in price: +0.87%
• All-time high: $259.52
• Solana price has increased in the last year with a change of +539.88%

Why Solana made it onto our list:

No cryptocurrency has more momentum than Solana right now. It has been on an uninterrupted winning streak for the past several months, gaining nearly 5x in value and experiencing a surge in developer interest.

Solana’s performance is even more impressive considering where the project was a year ago. It was a favored project of disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, and many analysts thought Solana would simply disappear after FTX collapsed. However, the chain has demonstrated that it’s highly resilient.

While we don’t think Solana will challenge Ethereum for dApp dominance, it’s still one of the best cryptos to buy now, with potential gains of over 120% by 2025, according to our Solana price prediction.

Visit Solana on MEXC

5. BNB

BNB is the official cryptocurrency of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. It offers discounts on trading and benefits like early access to new crypto launches on Binance. It’s the 4th-largest crypto by cap.

Key Highlights:

• BNB price as of May 5, 2024: $585.60
• Market cap: $89 billion
• Last 24 hours change in price: +0.11%
• All-time high: $689.33
• BNB price has increased in the last year with a change of +79.95%

Why BNB made it onto our list:

BNB’s performance in 2023 wasn’t impressive. For much of the year, it was down because of a US prosecution of Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, for violating anti-money laundering and sanctions requirements.

Binance has now settled that lawsuit and its business has hardly suffered. More important, an investigation into Binance turned up no evidence of fraud—dispelling rumors that Binance could follow the fate of FTX. In other words, the US government determined that the exchange’s financial undergirding is solid.

As such, BNB has seen a remarkable surge in price of over 73% in the last 12 months, with most of those gains being made since February 2024. All in all, Binance is a great business at the center of the crypto world. It’s likely to see continued long-term growth as evidenced in most BNB price predictions.

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6. Dogecoin

Dogecoin is the original meme coin, launched in 2013. It was mostly unheard of until 2020-21, when it gained the attention of major celebrities including Tesla founder Elon Musk. Since Dogecoin’s explosive gain during the last bull market, it’s inspired thousands of copycat meme coins—including highly successful ones like Shiba Inu.

Key Highlights:

• Dogecoin price as of May 5, 2024: $0.161
• Market cap: $23 billion
• Last 24 hours change in price: +7.85%
• All-time high: $0.738
• DOGE price has increased in the last year with a change of +104.27%

Why Dogecoin made it onto our list:

Dogecoin has risen over 80% in value in the past 12 months, with the greatest gains coming since late February 2024. Meme coins have always fared well when the crypto market is hot, which it is right now.

In addition, Dogecoin is at this point more than just a meme coin. It’s widely accepted for payments in the crypto world, and increasingly in the real world as well.

Dogecoin has proven that it can fend off challengers like Shiba Inu and Pepe, giving us confidence that this is still one of the best meme coins to buy. While likely still far off, it’s even possible that Dogecoin could get its own ETF one day.

In fact, according to our analysts’ Dogecoin price prediction, it has the highest growth potential in this list, with possible gains of over 660% by 2024 and 1,950% by 2030.

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7. Polygon

Polygon is a Layer-2 solution for Ethereum that makes it faster and cheaper to run transactions on the Ethereum network. It recently initiated a major upgrade to Polygon v2, which includes transitioning the $MATIC token to a new $POL token. $MATIC will be transferable to $POL at a 1:1 ratio.

Key Highlights:

• Polygon price as of May 5, 2024: $0.725
• Market cap: $5.9 billion
• Last 24 hours change in price: -0.25%
• All-time high: $2.91
• Polygon price has decreased in the last year with a change of -26.51%

Why Polygon made it onto our list:

Polygon suffered badly over the past two years as network activity on Ethereum dropped and competing Layer-2 solutions like Eigenlayer, Arbitrum, and Optimism gained traction. Polygon is responding with a massive development effort that includes retooling nearly every aspect of its network.

This effort involves transitioning from the $MATIC token, which is used to pay for transactions on Polygon, to a new $POL token that will offer increased staking rewards. While this transition hasn’t yet had a major impact on $MATIC’s…