It’s quite obvious that the cryptocurrency market is currently experiencing bearish patterns and trends and that we may be in a bear market for a while. Consequently, the days of chasing high DeFi yields, fun memecoins, and NFT Profile Pictures are over, and only the most legitimate and promising projects will survive and thrive into another bull market. Let’s take a look at what some of these picks could possibly be and why, as well as analyze some projects that may or may not make a full recovery.

One of Bitcoin’s many nicknames is Digital Gold, and it earns this name as one of the safest cryptocurrencies to invest in. As the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin has had a massive head start on all other coins and is the most well-known digital asset. Several corporations, like Microstrategy and Tesla, have held Bitcoin on their balance sheets, something that cannot be said for other coins. Bitcoin’s perceived value comes as a way to transact money with anyone, anywhere in the world, without going through an intermediary and without the influence of world governments. Even though Bitcoin has never been through a global economic recession, it has survived every crypto bear market since the market’s existence, and that makes it all the more likely to survive the next.

Another safe cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin is Litecoin. Like Bitcoin, Litecoin has been around for a long time, over nine years, and has a similar historic path as Bitcoin. It is commonly referred to as the “silver to Bitcoin’s gold,” and thus deserves a place on this list, even if it’s not one of the most exciting assets.

Ethereum has a lot of staying power within the space and has a history of surviving previous crypto bear markets. As the main smart contract platform and hub of Web3 and DeFi activity, the collapse of Ethereum would likely mean the collapse of the rest of the crypto market, making it an incredibly safe pick. Every time someone interacts with a smart contract on Ethereum, which includes sending a token, swapping on Uniswap, or depositing into Aave, they pay a fee in ETH, a portion of which gets burned and reduces the overall supply. This supply decrease mechanism, which was introduced earlier this year in an upgrade known as EIP-1559, gives Ethereum interesting tokenomics that will help to keep it afloat during tumultuous times.

Many Web3 experts agree that smart contracts, whether hosted on Ethereum or elsewhere, will be the backbone of the future internet. If this is the case, then these smart contracts will need some sort of way to access real-world data, like coin prices, insurance-related information, and even news. Chainlink, a decentralized oracle solution, solves this problem and is blockchain-agnostic. So even in the black swan case that Ethereum becomes irrelevant in this bear market, it’s likely that a Chainlink-integrated blockchain will be the one taking its place. Additionally, there will be staking rewards offered on LINK sometime before the end of the year, which could provide a strong passive yield opportunity for holders of LINK.

Back in the 2018–2020 bear market, many projects were regarded as incredibly strong and promising and were sure-fire bets to reach new all-time highs in the next bull market. Some of these coins included NEO, EOS, Waltonchain, and ICON, all of which are probably completely unfamiliar to anyone who joined crypto after 2019. The same could be true of any project that has been released in this prior bull market, like Solana, Harmony, or Fantom. It’s likely that at least a few smart contract blockchains become zombie chains before the market rallies again, and their token holders will be left eternally waiting for a new all-time high.

In these conditions, market research and fundamental analysis become more important than ever, as many projects that are currently 90%+ down from their all-time highs will never recover. The safest bets are the ones proven by history to be able to last, but there is never a way to be 100% certain with any crypto picks. Moreover, the safest option typically comes with the lowest potential for returns, and each investor has to decide what their individual risk level is. Even though we don’t know exactly what coins will recover and reach new highs, one thing is for certain: with the general excitement around blockchain and Web3, the industry will not be collapsing anytime soon.