The first cryptocurrency built on a decentralized blockchain still holds the palm in terms of market capitalization. Moreover, bitcoin does not let competitors get close to it, becoming a household name when it comes to digital money. However, the brand new blockchains like DecimalChain with its Decimal cryptocurrency have become worthy rivals to BTC.
It would be silly to say that the whole crypto industry is built on Bitcoin. Alternative currencies, better known as altcoins, are constantly entering the market. There are now 18 thousand cryptocurrencies in circulation - the number the fiat money can only dream of...
Of course, most of them have not gained much fame, but almost any such startup cannot do without attracting investments in the expectation that this particular project will "skyrocket" in the future. Some really manage to become leaders, both in capitalization and in other parameters (for example, the exchange rate to the dollar).
TOP 10 Leading cryptocurrencies
All users who want to learn to trade cryptocurrency should be aware of the projects deserving attention and investments. Here are the TOP 10 cryptocurrencies that have managed to become the TOP ones.
Ethereum
For a long time, Bitcoin reigned supreme in the crypto market, until the Ethereum blockchain was launched in 2015. Its developers not only solved a number of problems that were peculiar to BTC, but went even further. The ecosystem of the Ethereum cryptocurrency was initially focused on the possibility of using decentralized applications developed as smart contracts.
It must be admitted that this opportunity was quickly realized - in terms of the number of smart contracts, Ethereum has gone far ahead of its followers. This success was facilitated by the fact that for residents of many countries, dApps became a bridge between them and banking products such as insurance or loans, to which they had no access.
A feature of the platform's smart contracts is the need to use ether (ETH), an internal token, which today is the second cryptocurrency after bitcoin by market capitalization. And if the gap between ETH ($1200) and BTC ($22000) is quite significant in terms of the cost of one token, more than an order of magnitude, then by capitalization as of the beginning of July 2022, ether reached $148 billion, which is slightly less than half of bitcoin's capitalization. This data should be taken into consideration by any trader who aims to make money with cryptocurrency.
Tether (USDT)
The high volatility of the cryptocurrency market leaders, on the one hand, is a guarantee of interest in them from aggressive investors, but the market still needs to be stabilized. And this opportunity was provided by stablecoins - a kind of cryptocurrencies tied to a real financial asset. In the case of Tether, such an asset is the US dollar, which is reflected in the mnemonics of the stablecoin (USDT). This asset would be useful for those who want to learn to trade cryptocurrency as it allows you to keep money in crypto without losing it during market corrections.
The 1 to 1 rate is maintained algorithmically due to cryptocurrency reserves that are used in jumps caused by external reasons. The popularity of Tether is due to the fact that it makes it much easier to convert fiat money into cryptocurrency and vice versa, rather than using direct conversion methods.
The Tether blockchain was launched in 2014, and today it is the third largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization ($70 billion).
USD Coin (USDC)
An alternative stablecoin, which is also tied to the dollar. The stable exchange rate of the cryptocurrency is maintained at the expense of fiat reserves. Another feature of the USDC token is that its blockchain was launched by the Center consortium with US jurisdiction, and one of the co-founders, Circle Company, is subject to state regulation.
It was this fact that allowed USD Coin to become the fourth cryptocurrency by market capitalization with an indicator of $56 billion.
Binance Coin (BNB)
Despite the desire for total decentralization, the crypto industry has not managed to avoid the emergence of major players. In the field of crypto exchanges, such is Binance, which accounts for most of all exchange transactions.
As an internal service cryptocurrency, a BNB token is used here, which is necessary to pay fees on the system. When using it directly to exchange cryptocurrencies, users receive a discount.
Initially, Binance Coin was deployed on the Ethereum blockchain, that is, it belonged to the ERC-20 token family, but later its own blockchain was launched.
At the beginning of July 2022, the market capitalization of Binance Coin was $39 billion, and the BNB rate was $242.
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Binance USD (BUSD)
The exchange has also decided to launch its own stablecoin, providing a stable exchange rate pegged to the dollar at the expense of fiat reserves. The deployment of the stablecoin was approved by the New York Department of Financial Services. The capitalization of BUSD in July 2022 was $18 billion.
XRP
An internal token created for the XRP Ledger platform, characterized by high transaction processing speed. This is achieved with the help of an original consensus-building algorithm that does not use common share/work proof mechanisms.
The principle of operation of the blockchain is as follows: user applications form transactions that are sent to the blockchain servers. They analyze them and conclude whether they should be included in the list of candidates for inclusion in the register. And only after that, the approved transactions are sent to the validators for final approval.
At the cost of XRP 34 cents, the capitalization of the token amounted to $16.5 billion in early July 2022.
Cardano
Despite it's quite a young project, Cardano cryptocurrency is considered the main competitor of Ethereum, because a number of experts, including those with experience in developing the Ethereum blockchain, worked on the creation of the platform.
The PoS consensus mechanism used is considered to be more effective than that of ETH, but the cryptocurrency is still far inferior in the number of DeFi applications running.
At a cost of 47 cents, Cardano's market capitalization is $15.7 billion, and this is the 7th place.
Solana
This is the second candidate for the role of the " Ethereum killer", and there are good reasons for this, too. At least, the transaction processing speed is much higher here, and the fees for such work are lower.
As in the case of Ethereum, the possibility of using smart contracts, DeFi and NFT is provided here, but a more progressive PoS consensus mechanism is used. The value of SOL at the beginning of July 2022 was $38 with a token market capitalization of $12.5 billion.
Dogecoin
Created in 2013, this memcoin was not taken seriously for a long time until it shot in 2021 on the wave of interest in NFT. As a means of payment, the DOGE token with an avatar depicting the Shiba Inu dog breed is used by several well-known brands.
At a price of 7 cents, the total capitalization of the cryptocurrency is $9.2 billion.
Polkadot
A platform whose main purpose is to facilitate the use of different blockchains together with their oracles and other internal mechanisms. This versatility is achieved due to a special relay chain. It is also allowed to use parachains (parallel operation of two or more blockchains, including with original tokens).
The market capitalization of Polkadot in July 202 was $6.9 billion, and DOT was worth about $7.
Decimalchain (DEL) and other cryptocurrencies
Capitalization is not the only factor in assessing the importance of cryptocurrencies. From the point of view of the impact on the market, the target audience and functionality, several dozen more tokens that are popular can be distinguished. Among them are cryptocurrencies such as DAI (Dai project), TRX (Tron), Del (Decimal), SHIB (Shiba Inu) and many others.
For example, the Decimalchain platform with its Decimal token is focused on the smart contract market, offering users a modern, user-friendly and convenient tool for creating their own tokens. Here you can also learn specifics of trading cryptocurrencies in order to form the best crypto portfolio and find out how to start earning on your cryptocurrency investments. So join the world of digital assets and make money with cryptocurrency!
