2020 has been quite an eventful year for the cryptocurrency space. From the proliferation of stablecoins to the rise of Decentralized Finance (DeFi), the crypto market has witnessed a lot of action in the last 11 months. To buttress this point, as of January 1, 2020, the total market capitalization of the crypto space was around $192 billion. By the beginning of November 2020, this value had however surged to over $400 billion.

Whilst factors such as financial uncertainty and the global coronavirus pandemic may have contributed to the increased interest for digital assets, there is no denying the fact that the space is slowly moving towards maturity. Large cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, are becoming major players in offering Blockchain-as-a-Service products.

But as the year draws to a close, here’s a rundown of five very promising tokens to watch out for.

LIBER Token (LIBFX)

The Forex market is the biggest financial market in the world, attracting millions of traders across the globe. Between 2001 and 2019, daily activity in the market increased from $1.2 trillion to $6.6 trillion. Data reveals that the global Forex trading market is worth over $2.4 quadrillion.

Liber Forex is a blockchain project that is combining a number of proprietary protocols (AI, Big Data, and Blockchain) to solve the problems of online Forex trading. The project’s goal is to provide a decentralized, low-cost, transparent and secure trading experience.

Its local digital asset, LIBFX was launched in Q3 2020 and will serve as a payment option in the Liber ecosystem.

A total token supply of only 35 million LIBFX seems to be a major plus. As a rule of thumb, a good circulating supply is one of the ingredients that create demand with investors. Looking at the tokenomics of LIBFX, so far the token is yet to have any massive bull run. As of press time, the price of 1 LIBFX token was around $45, with an all-time-high of $84.91. Looking at the precedents of other digital assets that rise by 10 to 20 times, it’s possible that LIBFX could do the same once the team starts working.

KAVA

KAVA is another token to watch out for. The project has been dubbed “the hidden gem of the decade”.

KAVA is a DeFi lending platform that allows its users to borrow USDX stablecoins while depositing a variety of cryptocurrencies. And just like LIBFX, KAVA has a reasonable total supply of 111,724,129 tokens and is still reasonably priced.

KAVA is such a big deal at the moment because the DeFi space is booming. With a total value of locked assets exceeding $12 billion, the marketing is getting a lot of attention from investors. As the DeFi space grows, the future of KAVA seems very promising.

It is also worth stating that KAVA has started off on the right foot through collaborations with industry giants like Binance, Huobi, OKEx, Kraken, and Ripple.

HARD

Hard is a cross-chain money market launched on the Kava blockchain. Looking at the precedents of other major money markets like Compound and Aave, it is only natural to conclude that HARD (the governance token of the Hard protocol) has a promising future ahead of it.

The project was launched in mid-October and has so far distributed over $800,000 worth of rewards since then. Furthermore, the total value of assets locked on the protocol is more than $12 million, suggesting rising interest from investors.

Unlike Compound and Aave, the offering of HARD extends beyond the Ethereum market. With a total token supply of 200 million, it won’t be difficult for the price of HARD to surge.

Level01 (LVX)

Level01 claims to be the “world’s first DeFi platform with AI-guided derivatives trading.” The innovative DeFi platform is licensed by European regulators and has backings from some well-known financial services providers such as Bloomberg.

Level01 has its own AI algorithm known as Fairsense. Fairsense analyzes the risk-to-reward ratio of assets using Bloomberg data. This helps traders to make well-informed decisions.

A recent partnership with AGDelta will also allow Level01 to expand its P2P services to the clientele of the AGDelta, whilst bringing enhanced digital wealth and distribution capabilities to its ecosystem.

I believe Level01’s native token LVX will perform well in the future because for a start, the firm is pioneering a new market by moving away from regular spot trading. Furthermore, the recent launch of Level01’s derivatives trading mobile app is an important milestone. The firm is tapping into the $512 trillion derivatives market and users will be able to explore different markets like Forex, Crypto, and Commodity, on the go.

Ethereum (ETH)

Number 5 on this list is an old-timer – Ethereum. Since its inception in 2014, Ethereum has been a smashing success and is undoubtedly one of the best altcoins out there. Its blockchain has become the foundation of many other blockchain projects.

Whilst there are other new tokens that may also appear promising, Ethereum is an old-timer that still has a lot of juice left. The blockchain is slowly transitioning to Ethereum 2.0, a major milestone for its community.

Ethereum 2.0 is a combination of a number of key features, including Beacon Chain, Aggregate Signatures, Sharding, and the implementation of the Proof-of-Stake mechanism.

Ethereum is quite popular and has a solid user base. If these protocols go live, the price of Ethereum is expected to increase.