Recently, Charlie Lee, the founder of Litecoin, went on record stating that he believes investors should own at least one bitcoin before buying altcoins, including Litecoin. His fundamental reasoning is sound, given the inherent scarcity built into Bitcoin, as there will only ever be 21 million in existence.

Add to that the fact that Bitcoin is undoubtedly the most adopted of any digital currency, and will be the market standard for the foreseeable future.

So, while investors should probably look into owning bitcoin, that doesn’t mean that they should not be hunting for the best deals leading up to the next altcoin bull run. Given that altcoins have taken a beating in 2018, with many down anywhere between 60 to 90% from their January highs, there’s plenty of deals available.

Here are five altcoins to consider picking up in July:

Ethereum Classic (ETC) | $16.68 | $1.72 Billion Market Cap

Ethereum Classic, the chain that Ethereum (ETH) was forked from, has received a giant boost in attention since Coinbase announced it will be listing ETC any day now.

According to a recent report, the average number of transactions on the Ethereum Classic blockchain have more than doubled from 17,000 to 47,000 per day (+175%). Additionally, the social following for Ethereum Classic has grown rapidly. The project’s subreddit (r/EthereumClassic) grew 70% from 12,000 to 20,500 subscribers, while it’s Twitter account (@eth_classic) grew 60% from 125,000 to 200,000 followers.

At its current market value, it would not be crazy to see massive upside once listed on Coinbase.

ZCash (ZEC) | $215.04| $950 Million Market Cap

Zcash is a privacy coin that leverages zero-knowledge proofs to enable anonymous transactions. Zcash’s private transactions hide the sender, recipient, and value of transactions on the blockchain. Notably, the Winklevoss Twin-led Gemini Exchange recently became the first licensed Zcash exchange in the world, which also makes the NYSDFS the first regulatory agency in the world to supervise Zcash.

Zcash has had some extremely bullish news over the last month, including the addition of Amber Baldet to its advisory board and Coinbase’s recent announcement that it is considering adding Zcash to its trading products. (more)

Augur (REP) | $29.67 | $326 Million Market Cap

Augur leverages real-world, crowd-sourced information to enable the creation of decentralized, peer-to-peer prediction markets. Augur’s platform went live on July 9, and already has 543 markets currently active with more than $1.4 million at stake, making for one of the most successful DApp launches to date.

Given that the great majority of DApps have laughable daily active users, Augur stands apart and becomes a logical play moving forward. (more)

MCO (MCO) | $7.66 | $121 Million Market Cap

Formerly known as Monaco (MCO), MCO offers a variety of debit card options, coupled with a mobile wallet, a credit system, and an automatic trading platform. Monaco is a Visa program manager, as such, they can issue their own Visa-branded cards and leverage the Visa transaction network.

The project recently announced the purchase of the crypto.com domain name for an undisclosed amount believed to be in the multi-millions of dollars. According to the announcement, Monaco will officially rebrand as CRYPTO.com, in an effort to accelerate adoption of its consumer-facing products. Monaco’s flagship products, including its debit card and wallet app, have also been rebranded as “MCO.”

With the expansion of the brand, it’s clear that MCO is becoming a platform play, which ultimately bodes well for value creation. (more)

Loom Network (LOOM) | $0.1977 | $116 Million Market Cap

Loom Network is a platform as a service built on top of the Ethereum blockchain, enabling developers to create and run large-scale decentralized applications (DApps). Loom Network leverages a system of sidechains that allows each DApp to run on its own blockchain, working to reduce the network load facing these applications to further promote speed and scalability.

Loom Network is arguably the most advanced blockchain project functioning within the gaming industry. Given that this industry is closely adjacent to the crypto sphere in regards to users, it’s fair to assume that when it comes to mass adoption, Loom will be one of the top projects. (more)

Final Take

While there are arguably 20-30 solid altcoins to consider for an investment prior to the next bull run, it’s important to develop a focused portfolio that assures the most future value creation. These five projects all have some exciting things in the works and it would not be surprising to see some significant inflection points moving forward.

Disclaimer: This article’s author has cryptocurrency holdings that can be tracked here. This article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. Always conduct your own due diligence before making investments.