Got $1,000? 3 Cryptocurrencies to Buy and Hold for Decades

Key Points

• Bitcoin's scarcity is turning it into digital gold.

• Ether's value will climb as Ethereum's developer ecosystem expands.

• USD Coin is a conservative way to earn higher yields than the U.S. dollar.

• 10 stocks we like better than Bitcoin ›

To many investors, the cryptocurrency market might seem like an unregulated casino. Some tokens generate massive multibagger gains within a short time, while others seem to fizzle out overnight. That's why it still isn't a safe place to park your life savings.

But if you have $1,000 to spare, it might be a smart move to put that cash into three of the market's most promising cryptocurrencies -- Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), and USD Coin (CRYPTO: USDC) -- and simply forget about those investments for a few decades.

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1. Bitcoin

Bitcoin, the world's most valuable cryptocurrency, is still a compelling long-term investment for three reasons. First, it's still mined with the energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism with a maximum supply of 21 million tokens. Each halving, which cuts its mining rewards in half every four years, makes it harder to mine new Bitcoins. That scarcity makes it more comparable to gold, silver, and other commodities than other cryptocurrencies.

Second, its first spot price exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were approved last year. Those approvals made it easier for retail and institutional investors to invest in Bitcoin without a crypto wallet. Third, inflation and currency devaluation issues drove more countries (like El Salvador and the Central African Republic) to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. The Trump administration even launched a "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" to store the U.S. government's own Bitcoins.

These tailwinds are all turning Bitcoin into "digital gold," and its value should continue to climb as inflation erodes the value of fiat currencies. So while Bitcoin's price might remain volatile, it should deliver impressive long-term gains for investors who can tune out the near-term noise.

2. Ethereum

Ether, the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, is the world's second most valuable cryptocurrency. It was once an actively mined PoW token like Bitcoin, but it transitioned to the more energy-efficient proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism in 2022. That shift made Ether, which has a circulating supply of 120.7 million tokens, impossible to mine.

But Ethereum's blockchain also gained the ability to support smart contracts, which are used to develop decentralized apps (dApps), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other tokenized assets. Some of its circulating tokens are burned off as a "gas fee" for every transaction, so its supply decreases as its network activity rises, but increases when that activity declines. In other words, more developers make Ether deflationary, but sluggish developer activity makes it inflationary.

Ethereum's native Layer-1 blockchain is actually slower than other PoS blockchains like Solana, but its transactions can be bundled together and processed at higher speeds on Layer-2 blockchains, which are built on top of its Layer-1 blockchain. That flexibility continues to draw developers to Ethereum -- and that support should drive Ether's price even higher over the next few decades.

3. USD Coin

If Bitcoin and Ether are too volatile for your tastes, then it might be smarter to invest in a stablecoin that is pegged to the U.S. dollar. Buying a USD-backed stablecoin might seem odd, since its value is always set to $1 and won't appreciate like Bitcoin or Ether, but it has several long-term advantages against the U.S. dollar.

Unlike real U.S. dollars, USD-backed stablecoins can be held without a bank account, used for faster and cheaper cross-border transfers, and utilized as a hedge against currency devaluation issues. They're also often used as a "bridge currency" to support direct trades between two volatile or illiquid assets.

For investors, USD-backed stablecoins can be lent out across a wide range of centralized exchanges, decentralized finance (DeFi) pools, and other stablecoin staking platforms to earn higher yields than traditional savings accounts and CDs. The two most popular stablecoins are Tether and USD Coin. Tether has a bigger market cap than USD Coin, but its parent company is based in Hong Kong and it's backed by an opaque mix of cash, commercial paper, and other assets.

USD Coin is issued by the American peer-to-peer payments company Circle (NYSE: CRCL), only backed by U.S. dollars and short-term Treasuries, and submits its reserves to regular audits. If you're looking for a reliable cryptocurrency to buy, hold, and forget about, USD Coin might be a safe alternative to volatile tokens like Bitcoin and Ether.

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Leo Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.