20 Popular Altcoins to Know

In the decade since the dawn of Bitcoin’s genesis block, thousands of alternative cryptocurrencies — altcoins — have spawned in the wake of the blockchain breakthrough. All coins and tokens external to Bitcoin are considered to be altcoins. Given blockchain’s open-source nature, altcoins, along with their respective platforms, can be created by anyone with an internet connection and come in a growing variety.

Of the $2.4 trillion cryptocurrency market cap, more than 53 percent is portioned to Bitcoin, as of the time of writing. Ethereum follows, making up over 17 percent in market capitalization, while altcoins fill out the remaining share.

Needless to say, altcoins have come a long way since Namecoin, the flagship altcoin, which prefaced the concept of colored coins in likeness to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), or one-of-a-kind digital assets that can never be replaced.  

What Are Altcoins?

Altcoins are created to fulfill demands that develop from perceived gaps in the market, unaddressed by Bitcoin. Each digital asset is created for a specific purpose, some of which overlap.

Here are six major types:

• Utility tokens: These provide services within a network, like purchase services, pay network fees or redeem rewards.
• Payment tokens: These are used as currency to exchange value.
• Security tokens: These are tokenized assets offered on stock markets that are held by an entity and regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• Stablecoins: A stablecoin’s value is pegged to an external reserve asset, like fiat currencies or precious metals, in order to offer relative price stability.
• Memecoins: Crypto inspired by viral internet trends, memecoins are often created to exploit short-term gains.
• Governance tokens: These utility tokens grant users voting rights within a decentralized blockchain.

Altcoins can be made from scratch, or, more commonly, forked from an existing code. Forks occur when a blockchain splits from its original chain in order to create a new network that follows a parallel software protocol, with parentage most often linked to Bitcoin or Ethereum. Generally, forks occur when developers disagree on a platform’s direction and modify the source code to initiate a separate chain.

How Do Altcoins Compare to Bitcoin?

Altcoins are the “better mousetrap” to Bitcoin, meaning that they exist on upgraded versions of their former blockchain networks. Altcoins are a result of ingenuity that answers software bugs, inefficiencies and vulnerabilities previously unresolved. 

Altcoins also provide more utility and have a better chance at survival in the long run due to their versatility. Their ability to perform different functions in the crypto economy provides adaptability unmatched by Bitcoin, better preparing them for future developments in the market.  

That said, altcoins are considered a riskier investment. Despite relative resilience to price fluctuation, altcoins suffer from thin liquidity, high market saturation alongside a smaller market cap, a lack of credibility and susceptibility to scams. 

Top Altcoins to Know 

The following rankings are pulled from CoinMarketCap, a market standard in the cryptocurrency space. Its algorithm determines prime performers by multiplying the number of coins in circulation with the live market price of a single coin. 

Ethereum (ETH)

Developers’ blockchain of choice, Ethereum is a decentralized global software platform powered by blockchain technology that introduced smart contract functionality at the heart of decentralized finance (DeFi). Essentially, Ethereum allows for computer programs to automate transactions between two parties, removing the need for an intermediary or transaction costs while increasing reliability. It acts as a Layer 1 or base network that allows anyone in the general public to build off of it.

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Tether (USDT)

Stablecoin vanguard, Tether is a first-generation centralized coin fixed to the valuation of the U.S. dollar, guaranteeing a 1-to-1 fiat currency match. Tether works across popular blockchains — like Ethereum and Bitcoin — and has since expanded to support multinational currencies, including the euro, Mexican peso and offshore Chinese yuan. Its native coin, the USDT, remains a fixture in the top cryptocurrencies with high trading volumes.

Binance (BNB)

Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of global daily trading volume. A portmanteau of “binary” and “finance,” Binance aims to grade cryptocurrency alongside traditional finance practices. Its platform regularly processes tens of billions of transactions per day, with four times the spot-trading volume of its nearest competitor. 

Solana (SOL)

The third-generation “Visa of Crypto,” Solana leverages a unique hybrid consensus mechanism, which uses a proof of history in tandem with a proof of stake protocol. Together, validation is secured by a historical record of exchanges as well as a selected group of validators. Solana prioritizes expedited exchange and scalability — yielding relative risk to security and criticism of unfair tokenomics that favors venture capitalists.

USD Coin (USDC)

Akin to Tether, USD Coin is a stablecoin pegged 1-to-1 to the U.S. dollar. Peer-to-peer payment services company Circle and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, formed USD Coin to create a currency for the next major era of the internet — one that will facilitate an open, inclusive and evenly distributed global economy. USD Coin is regarded as one of the most transparent coins. Its reserve is held entirely in cash and short-dated U.S. government obligations, which can be tracked in monthly independent reports. 

XRP (XRP) 

Ripple owns the decentralized public blockchain known as XRP Ledger, home of the XRP native coin. This decentralized exchange (crypto’s first) is managed by a global community — software engineers, server operators, users and businesses — and was created as a greener, sustainable alternative to Bitcoin in 2011 to aid cross-border transactions. XRP is often referred to as “the banker’s coin” because it offers access to liquidity on demand. 

Dogecoin (DOGE)

Software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created the viral memecoin Dogecoin in 2013 as a joke. Featuring Kabosu, a Japanese Shibu Inu, DOGE forked from Bitcoin counterpart Litecoin and took on a life of its own. Tipping a hat to the internet’s frontpage, Reddit, and cheeky celebrity endorsements from Snoop Dogg, Gene Simmons and Mark Cuban, the market’s beloved mascot has been dubbed “the people’s crypto,” by Elon Musk.

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Toncoin (TON) 

Toncoin is the native cryptocurrency of The Open Network (TON) and designed by Telegram to make transactions more seamless on the messaging app. With Toncoin, TON users can exchange Toncoin for other cryptocurrencies, transfer tokens from Ethereum to TON, build decentralized games and sell collectibles. Toncoin also works well with a range of digital wallets, making it easy to buy Toncoin with a bank card. Since TON mining ended, TON has beefed up its security by increasing its number of validators, who are rewarded in Toncoin.   

Cardano (ADA)

ADA is the native coin of Cardano, an open-source, proof-of-stake blockchain by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson. In contrast to Bitcoin’s proof-of-work protocol, Cardano is the first large-scale platform to successfully operate on a peer-to-peer consensus mechanism, also known as a proof of stake. The energy-efficient PoS system relies on an academic process, vetting ideas among the community before granting validation, to better democratize its digital network. 

Shiba Inu (SHIB)

Shiba Inu is one of six dog tokens that sprouted from DOGE’s $2 billion legacy. While the original top dog runs on a proof-of-work mining system modeled after Bitcoin, Shiba Inu differentiates itself on an Ethereum blockchain — a competitive advantage as it allows interactions with other popular DeFi projects. 

Avalanche (AVAX)

Avalanche, like Ethereum, is a Layer 1 blockchain that functions as a platform for decentralized applications (dApps) — software that can run entirely on a blockchain — and custom blockchain networks. Ava Labs, founded at Cornell University, aims to solve the blockchain trilemma, which posits that decentralized blockchains can only provide two of the three ideal attributes, choosing between security, decentralization and scalability. Avalanche’s answer is to run up to 6,500 transactions per second across three interoperable chains, preserving scalability. 

Tron (TRX)

A blockchain-based operating system with no central authority, Tron launched in 2017 with the objective to provide ownership rights to content creators. Tron allows content creators to override commissions lost to intermediaries — like YouTube, Facebook or Apple — and forgo frigid terms of service regulations, often forfeiting influence via shadow bans and frozen accounts. Users are compensated with TRX tokens for uploading intellectual property to the platform. 

Chainlink (LINK)

Chainlink is a platform that addresses blockchain’s oracle problem, which refers to blockchain platforms relying too much on a single oracle, or third-party system, to access external data. Chainlink connects smart contracts directly to off-chain data, removing the need for oracles and maintaining blockchain’s decentralized nature. By providing fast and secure access to on- and off-chain data, Chainlink makes it easier to mint stablecoins, better secure transactions and enhance the DeFi experience. 

Polkadot (DOT)

Polkadot is a scalable, interoperable network metaprotocol that allows arbitrary data — not just tokens — to be transferred across blockchains. Users can also create a bridge to Ethereum or Bitcoin while remaining connected to the blockchain-building framework. Polkadot’s highly flexible framework is made possible by a cross-consensus communication format known as XCM, which creates a common language between independent blockchains that trustlessly share information and transactions. 

Uniswap (UNI)

Uniswap is an Ethereum-based decentralized exchange that automates DeFi token transactions via smart contracts, sans permission. Crypto traders are able to swap out any ERC-20 — a token standard built into Ethereum that allows dApps to create their own coins or tokenized assets using smart contracts — tokens through Uniswap’s automated exchange formula, X x Y = K. This equation computes the balance between ERC-20 tokens — fixed to their respective supply and demand at the time of exchange — to determine the price of a particular token.

Dai (DAI)

Another stablecoin, DAI is a decentralized, Ethereum-based coin soft-pegged to the U.S. dollar with aims to provide “financial freedom without volatility.” It’s the first cryptocurrency to operate off of a lending system, sealed in smart contracts and backed by crypto-collateral, rather than a government-issued, fiat currency sustained via a burn-and-mint method.

Litecoin (LTC)

The “silver to Bitcoin’s gold,” Litecoin leverages Bitcoin properties to become a lighter, faster version of its predecessor. Litecoin is built for speed, boasting a block time — the time in which it takes a verification system, per transaction, to add a block to the blockchain — four times faster than that of Bitcoin, while Bitcoin prioritizes maximum security and immutability. Early crypto adopter and computer scientist Charlie Lee created Litecoin two years after Bitcoin’s genesis block debut, making Litecoin one of the first altcoins to enter the market. 

Polygon (MATIC)

Commonly referred to as “the internet of blockchains,” Polygon is a Layer 2 scaling solution that upgrades Ethereum to a multi-chain system. Polygon’s scalable infrastructure enables the favored DeFi hub with the functionality of multi-chain systems, like Polkadot, Cosmos and Avalanche, while maintaining the security, ecosystem and accessibility unique to Ethereum. Through the use of proof-of-stake sidechains, Polygon can achieve more than 65,000 transactions per second, with an average confirmation time of less than two seconds. 

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UNUS SED LEO (LEO) 

Also known as the Leo coin, LEO is a dual-chain utility token created by iFinex and features a finite life cycle built into its protocol. The token, which runs on Ethereum and EOS blockchains, launched in 2019 after the U.S. government seized $3.6 billion in funds held by Crypto Capital, Bitfinex’s former payment processor. As a way to regain trust and recover money lost to the iFinex ecosystem, the company’s buy-back scheme commits 27 percent of its gross revenues until no tokens remain in commercial circulation. 

Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC)

Wrapped Bitcoin is Bitcoin’s entryway into DeFi. By tokenizing the crypto kingpin with ERC-20 compatibility — a scripted standard used within the Ethereum blockchain — it becomes eligible for trading across all applications on the Ethereum network. This mechanism flows Bitcoin’s billion-dollar liquidity pool to the rest of the main net market, where fully developed blockchains are deployed for public use. As an added bonus, WBTC holders enjoy a 15-second block time average versus the 10-minute, proof-of-work process used on the original platform. 

Frequently Asked Questions