Here’s the thing nobody tells you upfront. Most “top 10 crypto exchanges” lists for the Netherlands are half outdated. Half of them still recommend Binance, which Dutch users can’t even legally use anymore. So before you pick a user friendly platform or beginner friendly platform, it’s worth knowing what’s actually true in 2026.
23.07.2025
As of July 2025, over 37 million unique cryptocurrencies had been created. This suggests that the cryptocurrency market is overheated.
As some crypto users online say, “It’s time to build filters, not FOMO”. This means it’s important to identify which tokens on the market are really worth buying and holding.
Crypto investing differs greatly from traditional investing in that you need to check lots of details and data before making your final investment decision. Of course, the crypto world is rather attractive, as a successful investment can multiply your money 100-fold. However, finding this needle in a haystack is difficult. Luckily, there are lots of tools and resources that can help you with this difficult task.
In this article, we will review some of the main ones and share with you some of the most successful investment stories in crypto history.
So, what is a crypto gem?
First, let’s find out. A true gem is a promising coin with a large, stable community; an experienced team; and real utility that could transform the market.
Main crypto gem characteristics:
- Low market cap (often under $100M or even under $10M)
- Strong fundamentals: innovative background, real utility, experienced team
- Still unknown: not listed on major exchanges yet, small community
- Early stage: still in development or just launched
- High risk, high reward
Examples of true gems include MATIC (Polygon) when it was under $0.01, SOL (Solana) before its major exchange listings, and SHIB (Shiba Inu).
What do all these cryptocurrencies have in common?
They all have perfect timing. Two of the three coins mentioned above exploded during the DeFi boom in 2021, at a time when the crypto industry was in dire need of change. One of the three coins exploded during the memecoin boom. Therefore, they all appeared at the right time and in the right place. So keep up with all the global crypto trends to ensure you don’t miss any new developments.
MATIC
MATIC became a multi-chain Ethereum scaling hub at a time when it was in high demand. During the DeFi boom of 2021, it offered an enhanced, scalable solution for the Ethereum network.
Polygon offered fast and cheap transactions — just what users needed at a time when Ethereum was suffering from extremely high gas fees due to its growing popularity and the overload of the system by lots of dApps. MATIC was a real turning point and the next big thing in the crypto world.
The launch price of MATIC was ~$0.0026, reaching a peak of ~$2.92 (a >1000x return). Polygon offered real scalability, saving the entire industry and becoming the project with the highest utility on the market.
SOL
Solana is another superstar of the DeFi boom. Users of DeFi and NFTs who were fleeing Ethereum’s gas fees were extremely happy to finally be able to use a platform offering high-speed, low-cost transactions (as little as $0.0001–$0.0025).
Furthermore, the launch of Solana NFTs (such as Degenerate Ape Academy) also generated considerable interest. Thus, this coin caught two trends at once, becoming an absolute hit.
In 2021, Solana exploded from $2 to an all-time high of around $260, making all the whale investors very rich. This coin caused a stir and created a feeling of fear of missing out (FOMO) among crypto investors who didn’t buy in time. Actually, there were lots of signs that Solana would explode, and bloggers posted signals all along the way, so one can only blame oneself for not buying.
SHIB
This top-notch memecoin is already a classic. In fact, SHIBA INU (SHIB) was destined for success, given the extreme levels of promotion and hype.
Unlike coins with real utility, memecoins need a strong fanbase and support from top influencers to explode. In terms of influencers, Vitalik Buterin received 50% of the SHIB supply, burned most of it, and gained significant media attention. It also received a lot of hype from Elon Musk, despite him being mostly associated with Dogecoin.
Furthermore, SHIB was listed on major exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase. SHIB started as a joke, but later developed a real ecosystem comprising ShibaSwap, SHIB: The Metaverse, LEASH and BONE tokens, as well as Shibarium (Layer 2).
The extremely low initial price per token created even more hype and desire to buy among investors. As a result, the SHIB price went from $0.00000001 to its ATH of ~$0.000088 in 2021.
Now that you know the real reason why crypto gems appear, let’s find out how to find them! Let the quest begin!
How can you find a crypto gem?
DYOR is the cornerstone of your search
Information rules the world. Great DYOR can really change your life for the better. There are lots of crypto market data and other details you need to know about a project before investing in it. Here are some of the most important ones.
Research the team behind the project
Every successful crypto team has usually made some huge mistakes in the past. If the coin you’re considering is their first project, it’s unlikely to be a success.
Today, we refer to major successes like MATIC, so let’s take a look at its team.
Jaynti Kanani – Co-founder and former CEO: An engineer and data scientist, he previously worked at Housing.com and was a key contributor to Ethereum ecosystem tools such as Web3.js, WalletConnect and the Plasma MVP.
Sandeep Nailwal – Co-founder, Executive Chairman: Software engineer and management professional with an MBA. He was previously CTO at Welspun Group.
Anurag Arjun – Co-founder: Product manager and engineer who previously worked at IIFL and IRIS Business.
If you research the team behind MATIC, you will see that they are highly experienced and have worked on many crypto projects, not all of which were extremely successful. For example, Jaynti Kanani worked on Plasma, which was eventually deemed inferior to rollups and phased out by the wider Ethereum community. However, it didn’t gain much traction in the end. Nevertheless, the future founder of MATIC learned from the mistakes made in previous projects, which helped him to succeed with MATIC.
In summary, always thoroughly research the team, exploring their LinkedIn accounts, official bios, and previous projects.
Explore the whitepaper
A whitepaper is a project’s passport. It is the official presentation of a startup or token, explaining its purpose. Any whitepaper must answer a few key questions:
- What problem is the project solving? Look for something innovative and unique that brings value to the whole industry. Even memecoins like Shiba Inu can add value: The Metaverse, LEASH and BONE tokens, and Shibarium (Layer 2). The SHIB whitepaper describes the project’s tokenomics in detail.
- How does the technology work? As someone who is not a technician, it is difficult to understand the whole scheme, but there are some fantastic elements in the description. Overall, it is a 100% red flag.Moreover, one of the most important parts of the white paper is its tokenomics. If you want to know about the supply, demand and utility of the project, exploring the tokenomics is the best way to do so.One of the most notable examples of poor tokenomics is BitConnect, the infamous crypto Ponzi schemes. The U$2.4 billion scam was the largest cryptocurrency fraud ever charged. Although BitConnect’s charts were impressive, it was clear that the tokenomics were a classic Ponzi scheme. The project made big promises to those who invested in its tokens. The calculations were as follows: Invest $10,000 in Bitconnect and, with weekly compound interest, you will earn $337,253 in one year.This sounded too good to be true, but many investors believed it because it is digital currency and anything is possible in this world! The project promised daily profits of up to 1%, a hallmark of Ponzi schemes.Take a look at the whitepaper to see just how fantastic it was.
- What is the roadmap? When it comes to investments, timelines and specifics are crucial. A realistic plan is a positive sign.In 2021, Solana’s ecosystem already comprised dozens of projects. Moreover, according to its roadmap, this project achieved a couple of huge milestones in 2021. For example, the number of transactions reached 38 billion, and many validators were engaged. Furthermore, Solana held numerous hackathons and events this year, surpassing its own schedule.
Track the whales!
Steal like an artist! It is a more sophisticated method of tracking new, promising coins. Track whale wallets to see what they are buying and selling. It’s essentially a simpler form of copy trading.
There are a couple of signals you can take into account when deciding which coin to buy:
- A whale buying seven figures’ worth of a token that’s still on-chain only. This could be a pre-CEX listing pump signal.
- Whales buy and lock tokens in staking. This could indicate long-term interest rather than a pump-and-dump scheme.
- Multiple smart wallets enter a new microcap. There could be a gem here!
- Beware of whales exiting quickly after the hype. Watch out for a classic rug-pull or dump incoming.
Of course, none of these signals guarantees income. Make sure you take responsibility for your actions and recognise all possible risks.
Whale buys and sells can be tracked on numerous resources:
- Whale Alert, a platform that provides real-time alerts on significant digital currency transactions.
- Arkham Intelligence tracks crypto market data, including whale wallets, venture funds, influencers and on-chain identities.
- Nansen offers detailed wallet analytics and other crypto market data.
- DeBank is a wallet explorer for whales across DeFi, including token and protocol exposure.
- Lookonchain: daily X threads tracking whale trades, insiders and token launches.
Speaking of MATIC, take a look at the trader who copied the whale’s behaviour and found that SmartMoney bought 97,000 $MATIC on 20 June when the price was $0.371. He therefore supposed that the price of MATIC would go up. He used leverage to long $MATIC with $1,000 on Binance. On 20 July, the SmartMoney user sold 100,000 MATIC at a price of $0.9438. This closed the position, making a profit of $20,000!
It’s important not only to recognise signals, but also to draw conclusions from them. Make sure you have consulted some professionals or completed a trading course.
By the way, BuyCoin is a great way to buy or sell your favourite digital currency in minutes. Track all the available rates (more than 5,000 options) and select the best one.
Look at upcoming partnerhips
It mainly concerns reliable projects. Solana, for instance, had many projects underway in 2021.
There were also projects from various web3 spheres, including DeFi, exchanges, applications and wallets. Looks like success, right?
From the very start, MATIC collaborated with major players such as Meta (Instagram NFTs), Reddit (Collectible Avatars), Starbucks and Nike.
In 2021, AMC movie theatres announced that they would start accepting SHIB for tickets. Then, in May 2024, CoinGate enabled SHIB payments on Polygon and Binance Smart Chain, allowing users to purchase Airbnb stays, Nike apparel, Zalando products, Steam games and PS5 content using SHIB.
As you can see, each successful coin has a long line of partners behind it, as those who know how to make money recognise a real gem right from the beginning.
Where can you find new crypto gems?
- Cryptocurrency exchanges: Binance, Coinbase, Crypto.com, OKX and Kraken.
- Data Aggregators: CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap.
- Social media: Discord, Telegram, X and Reddit.
- Tools: Kryptview.com, BSCCheck, Token Sniffer, Dextools and BoggedFinance.
- Websites: TradingView and DEX Screener
- DeFi Platforms
- NFT Marketplaces: OpenSea, Rarible and SuperRare
- Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs)
The most successful crypto investments in history
Here’s some infotainment to motivate you!
A trader on the Tron network invested 5,000 TRX (worth ~$650) in SUNDO and sold it for 522,840 TRX (worth ~$68,000) in just seven hours — a 104x return, which is huge!
On 16 December 2020, Binance trader BatThursdayBurn earned over $2.6 million in 24 hours. At the time, Bitcoin reached $23,000 for the first time and the whole market was booming.
In January 2021, the price increased to $40,000, reaching another all-time high (ATH).
Conclusion
While finding a true crypto gem that gives 10×, 50× or even 100× returns is rare but possible. This requires a balance of strategy, research, timing and luck. However, always remember the risks and volatility, as the crypto sphere doesn’t forgive inattentiveness to detail.
