Best Cryptocurrencies to Buy Right Now for Long-Term Investors

Key Points
Although Bitcoin may not repeat its performance of the past decade, it still has a $1 million upside.
Solana is now growing faster than Ethereum, and could be ready to supplant it as the top Layer-1 blockchain.
Chainlink is at the forefront of exciting new trends in decentralized finance, including RWA tokenization.
- 10 stocks we like better than Bitcoin ›
If you're willing to take a long-term perspective, then there are plenty of good crypto buying opportunities right now. In some cases, major cryptocurrencies are trading at steep 70%, 80%, and even 90% discounts to their all-time highs.
Just keep in mind: the crypto market is highly cyclical, trading in four-year boom-and-bust cycles. So don't expect the price of any cryptocurrency to go straight up. With that in mind, here are three cryptocurrencies to buy right now for long-term investors.
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Bitcoin
Let's start with the obvious pick: Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC). Bitcoin is typically the first cryptocurrency in any portfolio, and for good reason. For much of its history, Bitcoin has been one of the top-performing assets in the world. In fact, in seven of the past 14 years, Bitcoin has turned in triple-digit percentage gains.
Bitcoin has been on an absolutely epic run during the past decade, increasing in price from $100 in April 2013 to $100,000 in December 2024. Where else can you find an asset capable of soaring in price by 1,000-fold in such a short period of time?
Although historical performance is no guarantee of future returns, there's plenty of reason to think that Bitcoin still has plenty of fuel left in its tank. After all, the pace of institutional adoption of Bitcoin continues to grow at a rapid clip, and Wall Street continues to introduce new financial products tied to the price of Bitcoin.
At the same time, Bitcoin now has solid support in Washington, where the White House has promised to make Bitcoin central to its pro-crypto strategy. The creation of a new Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in March 2025 was just the start.
So, if you're willing to buy and hold for a minimum of five years, you could see some truly extraordinary returns from Bitcoin. Many investors and enthusiasts suggest that Bitcoin could hit a price of $1 million sometime before 2030. And some have already said that a single Bitcoin could be worth upward of $20 million within the next two decades.
Solana
If Bitcoin was an obvious pick, then Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) is a contrarian pick. For most investors, Ethereum, not Solana, is the second cryptocurrency added to any crypto portfolio, and I completely understand why.
For more than a decade, Ethereum has been the primary innovator in every new niche within the blockchain and crypto world. Moreover, Ethereum's returns during the past decade have been truly stratospheric.
But if you look at the cold, hard numbers of blockchain usage, it's clear that Solana is rapidly gaining on Ethereum. Within the world of decentralized finance (DeFi), for example, Solana continues to chip away at Ethereum's market-leading position. In terms of 24-hour trading volume on decentralized exchanges, Solana has already surpassed Ethereum.
Although it might be easy to dismiss it as simply a blockchain for speculative meme coin traders, Solana is already starting to rival Ethereum as the top blockchain for stablecoins, and that's going to bring in more institutional investors. Moreover, Solana is still the only major Layer-1 blockchain network with a mobile-centric growth strategy.
The key to Solana's success has been its superior speeds and lower costs. Quite simply, it's cheaper, faster, and more efficient to use the Solana blockchain than the Ethereum blockchain. Cathie Wood of Ark Invest has already extolled the virtues of Solana, calling it a potentially disruptive force in the blockchain world.
Chainlink
For my third cryptocurrency, I'm going with Chainlink (CRYPTO: LINK). As a decentralized blockchain oracle network, Chainlink is blockchain-agnostic. In other words, it's designed to work with any public or private blockchain and is already operating across dozens of major Layer-1 blockchains and Layer-2 scaling solutions.
As a blockchain oracle network, Chainlink is central to the future of decentralized finance. After its launch in 2019, it played a major role in the DeFi boom of 2020-2021. And now it is poised to play a major role in the next DeFi boom involving real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, or converting assets such as stocks and bonds into tradeable crypto.This is a potential multitrillion-dollar market opportunity, according to top consulting firms.
Chainlink is leading the way with innovations such as the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), which makes it possible to move digital assets across blockchains in a seamless manner. Some have already compared CCIP to TCP/IP, the internet protocol that makes it possible for different computer networks to talk with each other.
What types of returns can crypto investors expect?
If you hold on to these cryptocurrencies for a decade or longer, just how much can you expect to make? That's a difficult question to answer, given that it's almost inconceivable that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin can turn in encore performances during the next decade.
However, the data is certainly enticing. For example, Solana is up more than 10,000% since its launch in 2020. And Chainlink is up almost 6,000% since its launch in 2019.
As long as you're willing to endure the stomach-churning ups and downs of the crypto market, all three could turn out to be fabulous long-term buys.
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Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin, Chainlink, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Chainlink, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.