What is important is the market capitalization of the cryptocurrency and not the cryptocurrency price itself!
If I buy 500 coins each valued 0.1$ (so 50$ spent) but the project has already a market capitalization of 1b $, then you would need the market capitalization to be 2b $ for the coin to double its value. (that 1b $ comes from other people investing in it!)
If, otherwise, you buy 20 coins each value 2.5$ (so 50$ spent) but the project as a market capitalization of 10 m$, then if would *only* need 10m investment in more for the coin to double its value and worth 5$...
So, of course, what's matter is the market capitalization.
Then, moreover,
don't expect to x100 or x1000 your investment (even in 2-5 years). Because on
average it would mean that the whole cryptocurrencies market cap would be of
10 to 100 trillion $ and that
no other cryptocurrencies are developed during 2 to 5 years. For comparison, I think
Gold is 8.2 trillion $ and
whole currency exchange is 30 trillion $ (If I recall well). So, of course, it won't happen in such a small time because the market cap of all cryptocurrencies at the time of writing is already 100b$... Of course, lot's of projects might die and only the best would remain and we can hope to see fewer really good projects to invest in overall. Nonetheless, that would have meant that you would need to pick up the right project, right now and that not other better projects will show up in the next 2 to 5 years.
So, in a nutshell, don't think you can easily x100 or x1000 your investment right now (it was true in the past because the market cap of crypto wasn't that big and because of course, the risk of losing money was higher).
Also, as you are a newbie, it isn't that easy to stick to its position on a long-term... you will be tempted to look at the chart every day and see how well your investment is going. Each time there is a new coin/token you will think... well this one is a must-have and you will switch to it, and so on, and so on... there is the fear of missing out and the murphy's law...
Having said that, you should focus on low market cap coins (but not to law because the risk is too damn important to loose all and 500$ is not enough, so you cannot allow yourself to loose all right now).
You need to do your research to know which coin are the most promising because if you rely on other, people will only tell you to buy the coin they support... because, of course if you buy the coin they already
invest in, it will increase it's market capitalization and so they will gain (and you might not gain yourself).
So, do your research, it is not that easy to make money out of cryptocurrency! I personally advise you to look for coins that brings something new in term of transaction, anonymity, velocity. Don't buy shit coins like meme coins, don't buy coins that are +100% over the last hours compare to bitcoin at a certain time t (you will most likely regret it if you're new to crypto), just buy good coins with promising technology and good market cap and sleep on it
