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There's no denying that Dogecoin has been generating some buzz recently, especially with the rampant speculation that Tesla could once again accept it as a form of payment. Dogecoin is now up 10% for the year; some crypto investors think that it could gain 10x in value and hit a price of $1.

But, at the end of the day, Dogecoin is still just a meme coin . There are a lot better bargains out there, all trading for $1 or less. The three budget-priced cryptos on my radar right now are XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) , Cardano (CRYPTO: ADA) , and Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (CRYPTO: ASI) . Let's take a closer look.

XRP

Let's start with XRP, which has been a longtime favorite of crypto investors. This crypto token could easily double in value after its legal case with the SEC wrapped up during the summer. While Ripple Labs (the company behind the XRP crypto token) will need to pay $125 million in civil penalties to settle the case, it's a lot less than the $2 billion the SEC was reportedly seeking. For that reason, XRP backers have classified the outcome of this case as a big win for XRP.

In a base-case scenario, XRP can go back to business as usual. That could easily send the price of XRP soaring over the $1 mark. Given that XRP trades for approximately $0.60 today, that's a nearly 70% gain that you might be able to lock in by the end of the year. In a best-case scenario, XRP might explode in value. Some analysts have conjectured that, if Ripple Labs were to have a successful IPO, the value of the XRP token might soar to $7 or higher.

Of course, you might want to take all these projections with a grain of salt. There's a good reason why XRP is down 3% over the past 30 days, and 10% year to date. Obviously, a lot of people think XRP's future upside might be significantly capped, even with its regulatory problems seemingly behind it.

Cardano

Cardano has been beaten down so much that it almost can't help but rebound at some point. Cardano is down 13% over the past 30 days, and 44% year to date. Admittedly, based on these numbers alone, Cardano looks like an absolutely dreadful investment right now.

However, Cardano remains one of the top rivals to Ethereum , and maintains a loyal base of developers and supporters. According to these true believers, Cardano's blockchain is built using superior technology, and continues to set the performance bar for other blockchains. Case in point: Cardano recently rolled out its newest technological upgrade (known as the Chang hard fork), putting it on the path to becoming the first-ever fully decentralized blockchain.

The big question, though, is how important this upgrade really is to investors. These investors tend to prize speed and performance enhancements over factors like "decentralization." Yet, Cardano co-founder Charles Hopkinson (who also helped co-found Ethereum) says this technological achievement surpasses anything Bitcoin has ever done: "This dwarfs Bitcoin. It's unique, and books will be written about what has happened." For now, though, the market does not appear to share his excitement.

Artificial Superintelligence Alliance

My favorite budget pick is Artificial Superintelligence Alliance, an AI crypto token currently trading for just over $1. The token is up nearly 75% year to date, and has a legitimate chance to skyrocket further in value, simply due to the long-range growth potential of artificial intelligence. Currently, Artificial Superintelligence Alliance ranks as the 28th largest cryptocurrency, with a $3 billion market cap.

If you don't recognize the name, that's perfectly understandable. This token resulted from a merger of three popular AI crypto tokens: Fetch.ai , SingularityNET , and Ocean Protocol . The goal of the merger is to have one unified AI crypto token with the ticker symbol ASI by the end of the merger process. Theoretically, this should make the job of investing in AI crypto tokens much easier.

But will it? Quite frankly, the process of converting three distinct tokens into the ASI token has become much more complex than I thought it was going to be in March, when the merger was first announced. On July 1, the SingularityNET and Ocean Protocol tokens were consolidated into the Fetch.ai token, but the Fetch.ai token has not yet been converted into the ASI token. That happens in phase two of the merger process.

Confused yet? It's easy to be -- and that could be why Coinbase Global said in June that it would not support the conversion of the various tokens into the ASI token. There is a workaround, of course, but it requires the ability to swap tokens between different crypto exchanges and your digital wallet.

Caveats for investors

The big caveat here is that you need to do a lot of due diligence any time a coin is trading for less than $1. That's exactly the case for Dogecoin, XRP, and Cardano. I'd include Artificial Superintelligence Alliance in the mix as well, because it trades just north of the $1 mark. As you probably know from your own shopping experience, anything in the bargain basement bin likely has a defect of some kind.

That being said, you might be getting a diamond in the rough with any of these coins. Cardano, for example, might turn out to be a better long-term investment than Ethereum. And Artificial Superintelligence Alliance might turn out to be the best way to play the AI boom. Just make sure you do your homework, though, before making any kind of sizable investment.

Before you buy stock in Cardano, consider this: