The market continues to fluctuate in value and provide traders with plenty of opportunities. The overall volatility is also providing more long term holders with suitable entry points, and this may be a good opportunity to pick up some coins that may go on to be strong performers over the final quarter of the year. Here’s 5 coins that are worth keeping an eye on in October.

Cardano (ADA)

Cardano is a blockchain project led by former Ethereum veteran Charles Hoskinson and developed by the IOHK firm. Cardano aims to build a next generation blockchain and is slated to become a fully-fledged smart contract platform with a library of protocols that developers can use to build decentralized apps. The platform uses ADA as its native currency, and is in the middle of performing important updates.

The release of the testnet running Cardano 1.4 will take place in October and update the way data is stored and changes are logged, alongside other improvements. This follows on from the Cardano 1.3.1 release in September that improved upon the main 1.3 release, and led to the Yoroi Chrome extension wallet entering testnet mode. Cardano is also approaching its 1-year anniversary and is a project to keep an eye on.

ChainLink (LINK)

ChainLink allows smart contracts to interact with real world data, and allows a series of decentralized oracles to link with blockchain APIs. Users can create cross-chain connectivity between their main smart contract and any other public or private chain, and send payments from their smart contract to existing bank accounts over widely used payment networks.

ChainLink is working with SWIFT on their SWIFT Smart Oracle. This will allow smart contracts on various networks to make payments, send governance instructions, and release collateral with over 11,000 banks.

With the Sibos 2018 Summit set to run from the 22nd to 25th, and the Web3 Summit from the 22nd to the 24th, a number of significant developments are set to be unveiled with the team close to announcing their mainnet and masternode program. LINK has been a solid performer over the last few months, and has almost doubled in value since the end of July.

Elastos (ELA)

Elastos is a smart web project that aims to build a safe and reliable version of the internet. By utilizing the blockchain, the team provide a safe environment where decentralized applications are detached from the internet and Elastos also enables the ownership and exchange of personal data and digital assets.

The team recently unveiled the Elastos TV Box that utilizes the Elastos Carrier peer-to-peer network and the number of specially equipped TV boxes has reached 230,000 consumer owned units.

The widespread Shijiu TV will promote and market Elastos Carrier, and the box will build P2P connections between TV Boxes and mobile phones that will give customers a direct connection between devices and customer support. As a result, the project is on course to reach a potential 1 million Elastos Carrier nodes by the end of the year.

Stratis (STRAT)

Stratis is a blockchain platform and digital currency that is designed for enterprise users, with the project acting as a business-friendly blockchain and platform that developers can easily build upon. Stratis makes it easier for businesses to get involved with blockchain technology, and allows applications to be built using its native C# programming language.

Stratis is another project that focuses on achieving real word results and has a number of key developments lined up for the end of the year. These include full production version releases of Full Nodes, Sidechains, and C# Smart Contracts. The team are also close to announcing their ICO Platform 2.0 which will make it easier for projects to launch on Stratis and these developments all follow other milestones, such as the release of the alpha version of smart contracts, the Breeze privacy protocol released to the mainnet, working sidechains, and the Stratis Academy.

Zilliqa (ZIL)

Zilliqa is a high-throughput public blockchain platform that is designed to scale and process thousands of transactions per second. The project makes sharding a reality and Zilliqa uses a novel consensus protocol that increases transaction rates as the network expands, and the blockchain processes more transactions per second as more mining nodes join the network.

The project’s mainnet launch was recently rescheduled, and it is now set for the end of 2018 or January 2019. This gives the team extra time to work on aspects such as the token swap wallet integration. In addition, they can also work on growing adoption and onboarding more dApps. Once announced, the mainnet launch could result in a significant uptrend for Zilliqa.