Disclaimer: This is not financial advice nor should anyone take my thoughts as financial advisements. These are mere opinions, you should take with your financial advisor before entering into any transaction.

With the massive surge in Ripple’s XRP this month, I’ve gotten many questions about my favorite coins for the upcoming year.

While there are thousands of opportunities out there, I feel strongly about three dynamic cryptocurrencies that may be powerful enough to top the markets. This includes one coin, my favorite, which I think has the ability to overtake Bitcoin as the number one coin in the marketplace.

So without further ado, my top three coins for 2018 are:

Ripple ( XRP )

This past Thanksgiving was a milestone event. If your household was like mine, then everybody, regardless of age, was discussing Bitcoin. From middle schoolers to great grandparents, it was the hot topic because of its massive surge in 2017. Not surprisingly it was the number two searched term on Google this past year. It became a truly public coin and put crypto deeply into everyone’s mind.

Bitcoin is by far the biggest name in the sphere, it skyrocketed to almost $20,000 before facing a significant drop in December 2017. It will definitely recover from its recent dip, but there is a new player on the horizon.

Mark my words, by Easter, Ripple’s XRP will have a similar aura at your table. Grandma and your little nephew will be talking about the new top coin. Right now it has surged and is presently the #2-#3 coin in market cap terms. Ethereum and XRP seem to pass each other in the rankings every hour. I fully expect XRP to solidify the number two spot before taking aim at the Bitcoin monolith.

As previously stated in earlier articles, I expect January 2018 to be a significant month for XRP as it will surely be added to Coinbase and will likely have new partnerships announced with very public household names.

However, there is much more to the story than mere publicity. The technology that drives XRP makes it so much more efficient than Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a bloated and expensive way to transfer funds. XRP allows massive amounts to be transfered in mere seconds at a fraction of the cost of our cranky old friend Bitcoin.

Technology is one part, but recent rumblings in the financial world have led me to a new surge in Ripple’s value. Two days ago, Goldman Sachs announced that they will be paying $5 Billion in taxes to return funds from overseas. Moreover, financial analysts etimate that American companies have over $2 Trillion sitting in overseas accounts. The new Trump tax plan makes it easier for these companies to transfer these funds back to the USA, but there is more to the story.

What cryptocurrency specializes in large-scale overseas transfers?

XRP of course.

XRP’s number one utility is for large transborder transfers. Quick, cheap and safe, it offers the best way for firms to transfer funds back to America.

All it takes is a single American company to use Ripple for a transfer back to America. One company and Ripple will surge. Imagine if Apple, Amazon, Google or one of the other major players uses Ripple. That would surely cause a significant increase in price.

Keep an eye out for Ripple in 2018.

Stellar ( XLM )

Another coin that has jumped these past two month’s is Stellar’s XLM. Like Ripple, I believe it will become a household name by the end of 2018.

In the past 90 days, it has seen an approximate 30x jump in value, and I expect this to continue to rise with its strong backing by IBM. It currently sits around $0.32, and could be a value by EOY 2018.

ZenCash ( ZEN )

My third coin for 2018 is ZenCash. In the past 90 days it has increased value by 5x.

ZenCash focuses on true anonymity in online payments. As more and more consumers focus on privacy and security, I predict it will become the leader in anonymous coins. This past month there has been great discussions about upcoming US regulations on cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin specifically). If and when these regulations are announced, I expect ZEN to surge in price as the push for privacy causes an increase in demand.

Summary

For a variety of reasons, my top three coins for 2018 are Ripple, Stellar, and ZenCash.

Ethereum YTD Chart for 2017

Just think about where Litecoin ($4.33), Ethereum ($7.93) and Ripple ($0.006) were trading this time last year. I expect at least one of these to have similar success in 2018. Happy New Years and get ready for a fun year!