Meet Wall Street's Most Unusual Bitcoin Stock: A Coal Producer Sporting an Eye-Popping 10% Yield

Alliance Resource Partners (NASDAQ: ARLP) has quietly built up a 471,107-token position on its balance sheet, as of Jan. 27. For context, ARLP is holding 2.24% of all Bitcoin that will ever be in existence.

Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has certainly entered the scene in the early 2010s, and boy has it run circles around Wall Street's major stock indexes. Through the March 8 close, Bitcoin has gained 644%, 3,006%, and 11,663% over the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Nasdaq Composite, respectively, since March 8, 2020. To put this another way, an initial investment of $1,000 in Bitcoin at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic would now be worth close to $125,000.

But if you're a value investor, you might not be interested in an asset that's already had its big run. Instead, you might prefer to identify the next Bitcoin -- an up-and-coming cryptocurrency that could still deliver life-changing gains. With that in mind, let's take a closer look at two cryptocurrencies that could follow in Bitcoin's footsteps.

Don't get me wrong: I fully expect Bitcoin to continue generating wealth for early investors for years, if not decades, to come. However, it's also important to recognize that the cryptocurrency market is cyclical. Periods of outsized gains, like we've witnessed over the past 14 months, tend to be followed by periods of consolidation or weakness.

To continue generating market-crushing returns, investors should be pivoting away from Bitcoin and into the next generation of Web3 tokens. These tokens are powering the decentralized applications (dApps) that will onboard billions of users to the blockchain. And as these tokens appreciate in value, so too will the underlying cryptocurrencies that power them.

Here are two cryptocurrencies that could follow in Bitcoin's footsteps and make early investors a lot of money.

1. XRP is the native cryptocurrency of the XRP Ledger, a decentralized blockchain technology that's designed to facilitate fast and low-cost payments. XRP is used to pay transaction fees on the XRP Ledger and can also be used as a bridge currency to facilitate cross-border payments.

The XRP Ledger is capable of processing transactions in as little as three seconds and at a cost of just 0.0002 XRP (less than $0.0001). For context, the average Bitcoin transaction takes 10 minutes to complete and costs around $2.60. This combination of speed and low cost has made XRP a favorite among cryptocurrency enthusiasts and institutional investors alike.

In fact, XRP is the cryptocurrency of choice for payment processing giant MoneyGram International. MoneyGram began using XRP in 2019 to power its cross-border payment service between the United States and Mexico. And in 2021, MoneyGram expanded its partnership with Ripple (XRP's parent company) to include real-time payments in key markets around the world.

As of this writing, XRP is the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization with a total value of around $43 billion. Over the past 12 months, XRP has generated gains of close to 100%, easily outpacing the performance of Bitcoin. And with an ongoing legal battle between Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) nearing its conclusion, XRP could be poised for even bigger gains in 2023.

2. Chainlink (CRYPTO:LINK) is the native cryptocurrency of the Chainlink decentralized oracle network, which provides smart contracts on the blockchain with access to real-world data. This data can be used to trigger actions within smart contracts, such as releasing funds upon the delivery of a product or service.

Chainlink is used by a variety of decentralized applications (dApps) and protocols, including Aave, Synthetix, and PancakeSwap. These dApps rely on Chainlink to provide them with the data they need to function properly. For example, Aave uses Chainlink to get the latest price data on the cryptocurrencies that users can borrow and lend on the platform.

As more and more dApps are built on the blockchain, the demand for Chainlink's services is only going to increase. This should lead to higher prices for LINK, the cryptocurrency that powers the Chainlink network.

As of this writing, Chainlink is the 24th-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization with a total value of around $6 billion. Over the past 12 months, Chainlink has generated gains of close to 300%, also easily outpacing the performance of Bitcoin. And with the dApp market still in its early stages of development, Chainlink could be poised for even bigger gains in the years to come.