Got $1,000? 2 Cryptocurrencies to Buy and Hold for Decades
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Bitcoin and Ethereum could still be great long-term investments.
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cryptocurrency
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July 6, 2025
08:17 AM
The Motley Fool
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Bitcoin and Ethereum could still be great long-term investments
Many cryptocurrencies skyrocketed during the buying frenzy for speculative investments in 2020 and 2021
That rally was fueled by near-zero interest rates, stimulus checks, social media buzz, and commission-free trading platforms
But in 2022 and 2023, many of those tokens crashed as interest rates rose and a new crypto winter began
Over the past year and a half, investors have gradually pivoted back toward cryptocurrencies as interest rates declined and President Donald Trump's crypto-friendly administration took the helm
So if you're still bullish on cryptocurrencies, it might be a great time to go shopping again
Image source: Getty Images
You shouldn't stake your life savings in cryptocurrencies, but it might be smart to set aside a modest $1,000 in a few tokens that could soar over the next few decades
I'd personally stick with the two largest cryptocurrencies -- Bitcoin (BTC 0. 71%) and Ethereum (ETH 1. 69%) -- instead of the smaller and more speculative meme coins
Bitcoin Bitcoin, the world's most valuable cryptocurrency, still has plenty of upside potential for a few simple reasons
First, it's still mined with an energy-intensive of-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, which becomes more costly every four years with each "halving" that cuts its mining rewards in half
Its maximum supply is also capped at 21 million tokens. 9 million of those Bitcoins have already been mined, and the final token is expected to be mined in 2140
There isn't much room for long-term inflation in this model
Bitcoin's increasingly difficult mining cess, scarcity, and deflationary nature make it more comparable to gold, silver, and other physical assets than many other cryptocurrencies
That makes it a potential hedge against inflation and the devaluation of fiat currencies
Bitcoin's first spot price exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which were apved in January 2024, made it easier for retail and institutional investors to invest in the coin without a crypto wallet
Big companies MicroStrategy (MSTR 0. 32%) continued to accumulate Bitcoin, the Trump administration recently established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and inflation-wracked countries El Salvador and Central African Republic even adopted Bitcoin as a national currency for a while
All of those developments supported the notion that Bitcoin was becoming "digital gold. " So even though Bitcoin might seem pricey right now at roughly $110,000, it could have even more upside potential
Standard Chartered's analysts expect its price to climb to $500,000 by 2028, while Ark Invest's Cathie Wood sees it flying as high as $1. 5 million by 2030
You should take those bullish estimates with a grain of salt, but Bitcoin could remain the best "blue chip" cryptocurrency to buy and hold for the next few decades
Ethereum Ether, the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, is the world's second most valuable cryptocurrency
It was originally a PoW token that was mined Bitcoin, but it transitioned to the more energy-efficient of-of-stake (PoS) mechanism in "The Merge" in 2022
As a PoS token, Ether can no longer be mined
Instead, its investors "stake" their tokens on the blockchain to earn interest- rewards
Ethereum's PoS blockchain also supports smart contracts, which can be used to develop decentralized apps (dApps) and other crypto assets
Its declining or rising network activity can either make it inflationary or deflationary, respectively, and it currently has a circulating supply of roughly 120. 7 million tokens
Ether is usually valued by the growth of its developer ecosystem and its transaction speeds instead of the scarcity of its tokens
Its core Level-1 blockchain is slower than PoS blockchains Cardano, but it's assisted by faster Level-2 tocols that cess the transactions off-chain before returning them to the Level-1 layer
Ether's first spot price ETFs were also apved last year, but they only held the tokens in cold storage without passing on the staking rewards ( 3% to 5% annually) to their investors
That made the ETFs less appealing than Ether itself, but the next batch of ETFs might add those rewards
Ethereum's next upgrade, "The Verge," will further imve its security features and lower its hardware requirements so it can run on smaller devices smartphones
It's also expected to reduce its Layer-2 fees with "danksharding" upgrades to more space for fresh data
At $2,600, Ethereum still trades well below its all-time highs
But Cathie Wood predicts it could climb as high as $166,000 by 2032, and big institutional investors BlackRock are still accumulating the token
Therefore, this developer-oriented token could still be a great investment for the next few decades
Leo Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned
The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin and Ethereum
The Motley Fool recommends Standard Chartered Plc
The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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