While Bitcoin arguably remains one of the best cryptocurrencies to buy and hold for the long term, it's hard to ignore the fact that the oldest name in crypto hasn't done much of anything recently. Bitcoin has largely been trading sideways for the past two months, and is not showing many signs of going full beast mode anytime soon.

With that in mind, it could be time to forget about Bitcoin for a little while and find other cryptocurrencies that have strong catalysts in place right now. The three cryptocurrencies that are on my radar right now are Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), Fetch.ai (CRYPTO: FET), and Chainlink (CRYPTO: LINK).

Ethereum

The obvious non-Bitcoin pick right now is Ethereum, and that has everything to do with the SEC's recent pre-approval of new spot Ethereum ETFs. Once these ETFs start trading, perhaps as early as this summer, they could lead to a massive influx of new investor money into Ethereum, and that could push up its price for the foreseeable future. The current thinking from JPMorgan Chase is that these ETFs could see an influx of $3 billion in 2024.

We saw the same pattern with Bitcoin as soon as the new spot Bitcoin ETFs started trading. Massive new inflows led to Bitcoin hitting a new all-time high of $73,750 in March before settling into its current trading range. So could we see the same thing with Ethereum, which is just 22% below its all-time high of $4,891? Ethereum super-bulls are already projecting that the ETF investment narrative could be enough to send this crypto soaring past $5,000.

Fetch.ai

If we're really going to forget about Bitcoin, then we need to find a crypto alternative with truly stratospheric upside. That alternative is Fetch.ai, which is currently one of the hottest AI crypto tokens in the world right now. For the year, Fetch.ai is up a blistering 195%, and the upward trajectory could continue as long as investors are interested in everything AI-related.

What makes Fetch.ai particularly interesting right now is that it is becoming part of a new "AI super-alliance" featuring two other popular AI crypto tokens: SingularityNET (CRYPTO: AGIX) and Ocean Protocol (CRYPTO: OCEAN). Starting on June 11, Fetch.ai will be rebranded as the Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) token, and FET tokens will be converted into new ASI tokens on a 1:1 basis.

From my perspective, the creation of a new "super-token" makes the task of investing in AI crypto tokens much more appealing, because you're essentially getting three tokens for the price of one. Fetch.ai will become an integrated AI crypto token that combines the resources and intellectual property of three distinct AI projects. If you combine the market caps of these three tokens right now, it would give you a value of nearly $3.5 billion, good enough to rank among the Top 30 cryptos in terms of market cap.

Chainlink

Finally, there's Chainlink. Long-time crypto investors probably remember this so-called oracle coin from the previous crypto bull market cycle, when it absolutely exploded in value. Back then, the investment thesis was all about decentralized finance (DeFi), and how Chainlink was becoming an integral part of this exciting new blockchain niche.

Fast forward to 2024, and the new investment thesis for Chainlink is all about real-world asset tokenization. Often referred to as just RWA tokenization, this describes the process of transforming real-world assets (such as stocks and bonds) into digital assets that can be traded on a blockchain.

RWA tokenization is one of the hottest topics on Wall Street right now, and one of the pet projects of BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager. As BlackRock CEO Larry Fink sees it, real-world asset tokenization could be the next big step after the introduction of spot Bitcoin ETFs.

So it's definitely worth trying to understand how this powerful new trend could revolutionize Wall Street. According to a growing number of experts, Chainlink could play a very important role in how this trend develops. For example, its new CCIP (Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol) platform was specifically designed with the transfer of tokenized assets across blockchains in mind. In September 2023, a test case involving ANZ Bank in Australia showed how this could be done using stablecoins.

Is it really possible to forget about Bitcoin?

So there you have it: Three big trends, and three cryptos that could be well-positioned to benefit from those trends. While it's close to impossible to forget about Bitcoin (which should be part of your crypto portfolio if it is not already), these three cryptos arguably have much stronger tailwinds heading into the second half of 2024. Adding a light sprinkling of these cryptos to your overall portfolio could be the key to supercharging your returns for the year.

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JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Fetch. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Chainlink, Ethereum, Fetch, and JPMorgan Chase. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Forget Bitcoin: 3 Cryptocurrencies to Consider Instead was originally published by The Motley Fool