The best cryptocurrencies to hold when exchanging for Decred?
Pretty much every alt coin has limited options for a high liquidity crypto pair and even fewer options for on and off ramps. But Times They Are A-Changin'!
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This is an interesting question which is currently evolving. But the short answer is Bitcoin BTC. At the time of recording, pretty much every alternative coin has a BTC pair. This has typically been the coin that generates the highest liquidity in and out of a project like Decred.
Buying Bitcoin BTC is relatively easy and is available on all centralised exchanges. Centralised exchanges like Coinbase also have plenty of fiat currency, on and off ramps, to Bitcoin BTC from countries including USD, GBP and EURO.
The two positives of holding Bitcoin BTC to purchase Decred:
- High liquidity to all major and minor currencies
- and Easy to move in and out of projects
The downsides of needing BTC to move between currencies are twofold, expensive, and slow. It’s not uncommon for a transaction to take up to an hour to get fully confirmed and during times of high usage, it’s also not uncommon for a transaction to be costly. In the past, we’ve seen transaction fees ranging from $5 all the way up to $15.
The two negatives of holding Bitcoin BTC to purchase Decred:
- Expensive to transact with
- Slow to fully settle payments
Which other options are there?
One option, that I’ve been excited about, is getting an active pair for Litecoin LTC. This is because fees are super low, a fraction of a penny, and the transaction times are a lot faster than BTC. Typically, a transaction will fully complete in approximately 15 to 20 minutes.
The downside of Litecoin is there’s almost zero liquidity for projects that are not mainstream. Unfortunately, if the liquidity issue doesn’t get resolved, holding Litecoin will end up causing more problems than it solves.
What about in the future?
There’s one more option that isn’t currently available but will be a huge game changer in the near future for purchasing alt coins. USDC is currently undergoing some significant changes that could make it the number one coin to hold if you want to move between fiat and cryptocurrencies.
https://x.com/circle/status/1711729590539083806
USDC can be transferred in and out of centralised exchanges like Coinbase at almost no cost using one of the supported platforms like Polygon, a layer two Ethereum solution that’s a lot cheaper to transact with.
Another interesting thing about USDC is Coinbase has now merged it with the USD fiat currency, which means there is no difference between the two. It also intensifies the liquidity, as these two currencies are now seen as one.
Benefits of USDC:
- Super fast to fully complete a transaction
- Transaction fees are a fraction of a penny
- Limited price fluctuation
- High liquidity for all major cryptocurrency pairs
- and Easy and cheap to move between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies
To finish up with this question. DCRDEX is currently in the process of building the Polygon integration and before too long we’ll have a multitude of Polygon USDC pairs, including USDC to Decred.
I hope this information was useful. The aim of this series to break down the barriers for new users and provide them with the information they need to move in and out of Decred freely.
Have your say!
Which cryptocurrencies would you hold to move in and out of Decred?
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