I've been trying to do some research on some of the lower cap projects out there, and a few of them caught my interest. ARK, seems to be a pretty well funded project with a total of 3000 BTC in dev funds, constant developments, but lack of marketing and overall use case has hurt them a lot I believe.
BTW, if you buy $1,000 worth of ARK, make sure to choose your delegate and vote. It will generate at least one ARK a day for you.
Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) is the best form of "mining". 
NEO is a quasi-DPOS that it generate GAS while sitting in approved wallet.
Is this the project: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ark/
Earnings one coin a day on a thousand dollar fund isn't that much. Besides, the coin could dump and your staking reward will probably be drastically reduced. It's quite risky to invest in any kind of project
True but just looking at the current coin value is being short sighted. Gaining a coin a day is great esp after the coin value pumps. A few cents now may be $10 (or more) a day in the future.
Note that BTC used to be no more than a cent per coin.