Most Popular Types of Crypto by Market Cap: A Brief Overview
With a total capitalization of about $3 trillion, the crypto market has definitely become a major phenomenon of the entire financial world. While the market itself is going through hard times now, the number of various projects using blockchain keeps growing, introducing new applications of the technology every day. There are many different types of cryptocurrencies on the market, and we’re going to tell you a bit about the most important ones right now.
Stablecoins
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies which have their prices tied to that of some other asset, mostly of a fiat currency. This way, they are protected from sudden price movements and can better serve as a stable medium of payment. The most widely used stablecoins are tied to USD, including the already mentioned USDT and USDC as well as BUSD with a cap of $22 billion or DAI with an overall value of $6 billion. You can buy and sell Tether on the AAX cryptoexchange.
Coins
Crypto coins are very similar to real-life money. They work on their own blockchains and get used mostly for processing transactions. There are three key aspects of crypto coins as digital assets:
- Work on blockchain
- Used for payments
- Earnable by mining
Bitcoin, the first modern cryptocurrency, has defined these aspects and remains the most popular coin in the world with a market cap of about $370 billion. Ethereum https://trends.aax.com/how-to-buy-and-sell-ethereum is the second largest crypto coin ($160 billion).
Tokens
Tokens and coins are very much alike, but there’s still a difference. Tokens don’t have their own blockchains — instead, they use smart contracts built on other blockchains. They can be compared to real-life assets or deeds: while coins just change their owners, tokens are physically moved, and you can understand it better using the example of NFTs, unique tokens that represent unique assets. The most popular tokens are Tether (USDT) worth more than $68 billion and USDC worth about $43 billion.
Popular altcoins
Generally speaking, altcoin is any cryptocurrency that’s not Bitcoin. This broad definition includes Ethereum, XRP (about $23 billion in market value), Cardano ($12 billion), and Solana ($10 billion). Sometimes memecoins are viewed alone.
Memecoins
Memecoins are altcoins inspired and fueled by memes and insider jokes of their respective communities. Dogecoin was the first memecoin, and it remains the most popular one with a market cap of $8 billion.
DeFi
DeFi coins are digital money used in blockchain-based financial applications, mostly for lending out crypto. AVAX (about $4 billion) and UNI ($4 billion) are among the most popular DeFi coins.
About the Author
Sunit Nandi I'm the leader of Techno FAQ. Also an engineering college student with immense interest in science and technology. Other interests include literature, coin collecting, gardening and photography. Always wish to live life like there's no tomorrow.
