Weiss Reviews 3,000 Cryptocurrencies, Recommends XRP, Stellar, Cardano and EOS as ‘Buys,’ Bitcoin as ‘Hold’

Weiss Ratings, a company that rates financial institutions, banks and stocks, has recently released an updated list of cryptocurrency ratings. After reviewing 3,000 cryptocurrencies, they rated over 111 and determined that only four were considered a “buy” (B- or higher). Those four are XRP, Stellar, EOS and Cardano.

XRP and Stellar received their ratings based on high transaction speeds that businesses might find attractive, while EOS and Cardano got “buy” signals based on their community and app building capabilities. They noted that all four have improved adoption metrics despite the bear market.

Weiss used the following metrics:

• Technology model focuses on the blockchain technology to evaluate its potential for performance: What kind of speeds could it run at? How would it scale? How advanced is its governance? How does it deal with energy consumption? Can smart contracts be used on the ledger? How flexibly can it be upgraded? What other unique features does it have?

• Adoption model measures performance in the real world. What are the actual transaction speeds and costs? How decentralized is the network? How big is the developer community? How popular is the project? Are people using it? And much more.

• Investment risk model evaluates volatility and downside price risk. Essentially, it seeks to answer the question: “How much money can I lose?” And …

• Investment reward model deals with the upside potential –  “How much money can I make?” 

Based on these parameters, each coin is given a grade from “A” to “E”. “B-“ or higher is considered a “buy,” while “D+” or lower is considered a “sell.” “C” is considered a “hold.”

Bitcoin received a grade of “C+” or “fair.” This is the same grade it received in January despite pushback from crypto developers such as Cardano and IOHK founder Charles Hoskinson.

According to Hoskinson,

“Any rating that doesn’t give Bitcoin an A has got some screws loose. Nearly ten years of wealth creation, innovation, massive growth, proven resiliency against crashes and billions worth of infrastructure. And all without a leader. Bitcoin is the standard.”

Weiss pins the low grade to “outdated technology, including slow transaction speeds, difficulty in scaling, weak governance” and “poor risk/ reward metrics.”

Weiss has gotten attention for making bold crypto predictions. In September they tweeted out that Bitcoin would lose half of its market share to Ethereum, before backtracking to say that “in 5 yrs we see #ETH-LIKE platform dominating the market – not necessarily ETH.”

Crypto predictions continue to see retractions, particularly as 2018 winds down to a close. Analyst Ran NeuNer, the host of CNBC’s CryptoTrader, recently dialed back his prediction that Bitcoin will reach $50,000 by the end of the year.

Likewise, Arthur Hayes, CEO of crypto derivatives platform BitMEX, has rescinded his prediction that Bitcoin will finish the year at $50,000. He now sees a deep freeze setting in that could prolong the bear market for 18 months.