Categories
- DeFi (decentralized finance)
- NFT
- Utility tokens
- Store of value tokens (e.g. Bitcoin, Litecoin)
- Yield farming tokens (e.g. Aave)
Most popular cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin (BTC)
- 21 million BTC limit
- THE currency of the Internet in less than 10 years (when there are fewer scammers)
- global currency payment
- if you bought $100 in 2009, at its all-time high it would have $58 million
- by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009, became popular in 2017
- no single place in the world to shut it down
- every other cryptocurrency price is dependent on Bitcoin’s price
- it it crashes, everything else crashes
Ethereum (ETH)
- process transactions faster than Bitcoin
- up 35,000% since inception
Tether (USDT)
- called a stablecoin and is anchored at $1 per coin
- tied to USD
- acts as a medium when traders move from one cryptocurrency to another
Binance Coin (BNB)
- issued by Binance, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world
- can now be used for payments as well as purchasing various goods and services
- originally created as a token to pay for discounted trades
USD Coin (USDC)
- Like Tether, its value should not fluctuate
- backed by fully reserved assets
XRP (XRP)
- useful in cross-border transactions
Terra (LUNA)
- currency Luna
- a platform that helps backstop a range of stablecoins based on real currencies such as the dollar or euro
- helps stabilize the price of stablecoins through various technical means
- supports smart contracts
Cardano (ADA)
- technologically superior
- Created by the co-founder of Ethereum
- currency: ada
- cryptocurrency platform behind ada
- also uses smart contracts to enable identity management
Solana (SOL)
- currency SOL, capped at 480 million coins
- launched in 2020
- speedy transactions
Avalanche (AVAX)
- users can process transactions in the native AVAX token
- fast and low-cost smart contracts-based blockchain platform
- building decentralized apps and facilitating the creation of custom blockchains
Polkadot (DOT)
- Launched in May 2020
- connects the technology of blockchain from many different cryptocurrencies
- A co-founder of Ethereum is one of Polkadot’s inventors
Litecoin
- newer algorithm
Binance USD (BUSD)
- dollar-backed stablecoin from top crypto exchange Binance
- launched in 2019
- regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services
- runs on top of the Ethereum blockchain