The Globe and Mail (2024)

The two dominant coins in the crypto market right now are Bitcoin(CRYPTO: BTC) and Ethereum(CRYPTO: ETH). Together, they account for an eye-popping 70% of the market capitalization of the entire crypto market.

But that doesn't mean that Bitcoin and Ethereum will remain dominant forever. That's why investors should be keeping an eye on up-and-coming cryptocurrencies with the potential to skyrocket in value. The three on my watchlist right now are Sui(CRYPTO: SUI), Artificial Superintelligence Alliance(CRYPTO: FET), and Toncoin(CRYPTO: TON).

Sui

Of all the cryptocurrencies that have a chance to replace Ethereum as the top Layer 1 blockchain network, one of the most interesting is Sui. Founded in 2021 by a group of former Meta Platforms(NASDAQ: META) blockchain developers, Sui comes with an absolutely first-rate pedigree. It now boasts a market cap of $2 billion, making it one of the top 40 cryptocurrencies as ranked by market cap.

Where Sui really stands out is the speed and efficiency of its transaction processing. Sui aspires to be faster than even Solana(CRYPTO: SOL), which is generally recognized to have the fastest transaction processing speed of any major blockchain. With a new technological upgrade, Sui says it can process 100,000 transactions per second. By way of comparison, even top credit card processing networks can only handle 65,000 transactions per second.

Is speed enough to set Sui apart and win over developers, users, and enterprise customers? That's the big question. But some are already calling this crypto a "Solana killer."

Artificial Superintelligence Alliance

If you think that artificial intelligence (AI) is the future, then you need to take a closer look at Artificial Superintelligence Alliance. This new entity is planning to create a new token called ASI, which will effetively merge three top AI crypto tokens: SingularityNET(CRYPTO: AGIX), Fetch.ai(CRYPTO: FET), and Ocean Protocol(CRYPTO: OCEAN). Artificial Superintelligence Alliance aspires to make ASI be a decentralized, blockchain-powered alternative to big corporate AI players in Silicon Valley.

What impresses me the most about the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance is the founding team. For example, the CEO of the new alliance will be Ben Goertzel, widely acknowledged as one of the foremost AI scientists on the planet. The chairman will be Humayun Sheikh, one of the founding investors in DeepMind (now owned by Alphabet's Google).

While there's obviously a lot of AI domain expertise here, it remains to be seen how well it translates into actual products and services people are willing to use.

The good news is that the alliance sees ASI becoming a new "super token" with a $7.5 billion market cap. If that happens, a lot of early crypto investors could become very wealthy. Right now, the three crypto tokens have a combined market cap of about $3.6 billion according to CoinMarketCap, so early investors could double their money if the projections are correct.

Toncoin

Finally, there's Toncoin, which has emerged out of seemingly nowhere to become one of the top 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies on the planet. Up a whopping 102% year to date, Toncoin now has a market cap of $12 billion.

Toncoin has a number of key advantages going for it, including a close affiliation with the messaging app Telegram, which boasts 900 million users around the globe. In a best-case scenario, a significant number of those users could eventually become users of the Toncoin blockchain ecosystem.

Toncoin is at the forefront of a new trend called play-to-earn gaming that is generating buzz across social media. While some might claim that play-to-earn gaming (in which you tap on your mobile phone all day for points and rewards) is nothing more than a fad, there's reason to think that it could have serious staying power. For example, Notcoin, the first play-to-earn game from Toncoin, is now valued at $750 million.

Being right too early is the same thing as being wrong

Just keep in mind: All three of these coins are still very early in their development. All of them appear to have huge future upside potential, but you never know what's going to happen in crypto, which remains a very volatile and risky market.

For example, consider Toncoin's affiliation with Telegram. That sounded fantastic until this August, when CEO Pavel Durov was arrested at a Paris airport, putting the future of Telegram very much in doubt. And while the future of AI seems secure for now, what happens if Nvidia(NASDAQ: NVDA) starts to stumble?

So definitely do your due diligence before investing. Before making any kind of sizable investment, make sure you are investing for the long haul, and not just to profit from a short-term trend.

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Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Fetch, SUI, and Solana. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, Fetch, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, SUI, and Solana. The Motley Fool recommends TON. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.