Bitcoin and alt coins have been trading sideways since the year started. Everyone seems to be on the edge of their seats, eagerly awaiting the influx of institutional money that is said to take the market to new heights. Until such time, we take a look at the top cryptos to buy in Q1 2019.

Top cryptos to buy in Q1 2019

Please note these are suggestions from various industry leaders and not financial advice.

Zilliqa (ZIL)

2019 should be an interesting year for Zilliqa. It is important to know that Zilliqa was one of the first projects to implement sharding as a scaling solution. Ethereum has been planning to implement it but has not done so yet. Therefore, Zilliqa is one of the first to harness the power of sharding with regards to implementing a scaling solution.

Learn more about sharding by reading Bitmart’s blog ‘Ethereum sharding is coming’.

Zilliqa announced a partnership with Maicoin that would see the pair launching an exchange for security tokens. This means that you can buy private shares in Uber and Airbnb to name but a few. This could mean big money for the Zilliqa ecosystem since the blockchain will become more popular and increase its value.

With its mainnet launch, the Zilliqa network can see an influx of Dapps on its blockchain. What differentiates the Zilliqa blockchain from the rest is that it is highly scalable thanks to sharding.

Lastly, the Zilliqa team has really gone all out to market the coin. This could lead to an influx of funds and see the price skyrocket.

Stellar Lumens (XLM)

Stellar Lumens is one of the top picks for 2019. Basically, it’s a global payment platform that is super-fast, secure and cheap. XLM’s all-time high is $0.93

In 2018, Stellar announced a partnership with Keybase and launched the Stellar Development Foundation shortly after. During the same year, Stellar made headlines by becoming the first blockchain product that is recognised by Sharia law.

There is a lot in store for Stellar in 2019. It is said that Stellar’s smart contracts far exceed those of Ethereum. For this reason, IBM is building a global payment outfit on the Stellar ecosystem. The working relationship between IBM’s blockchain World Wire and Stellar will make Stellar the next global financial system. They are also KYC compliant and is, therefore, a safe bet for institutional investors.

Ripple (XRP)

It makes sense that when institutional investors look at which crypto to buy, they would go for something that meets their needs with regards to compliance etc. This makes Ripple an outstanding candidate for institutional investors since it is ‘low risk, high reward’. The XRP token is great for quick transaction-processing times as well as cross-border payments. It is already the token of choice for many banking and financial institutions across the globe. Ripple’s products make it easy to send Japanese yen for example to the U.S. The currencies are instantly converted and processed instantly.

No one knows for sure when the next bull run will be but it is said that now is the time to accumulate the cryptos you believe will reach new all-time highs. What are your top picks for 2019?