Cryptocurrencies are a diverse group of digital tokens, each with its own purpose, community, and technology. There are thousands of cryptocurrencies around the world, but these are the top 5 based on market capitalization or total worth.
Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency, with a market cap of over $846 billion. Invented in 2009 by a person or group under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. It runs on a blockchain backed by thousands of computers. Because additions to the distributed ledgers must be verified. Bitcoin is kept secure and safe from fraudsters.
Ethereum
Ethereum is a favorite of developers because of its potential applications. Like so-called smart contracts that automatically execute when conditions are met and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Tether (USDT)
Over $79 billion in market capitalization
Tether is a stablecoin, which implies it is backed by fiat currencies such as the US dollar and the Euro. And theoretically maintains a value equal to one of those denominations. Unlike certain other types of cryptocurrency. In theory, this means Tether’s value should be more stable than other cryptocurrencies, which is why investors who are concerned about other coins’ extreme volatility prefer it.
Binance Coin
In 2017, the Binance Coin was launched by the founder and CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao. It has since skyrocketed in value, reaching a market cap of over $68 billion as of March 1, 2022. IBN is currently one of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap on CoinMarketCap and can be traded on a variety of exchanges.
Terra
Terra is a stablecoin network that enables its users to burn Luna, the underlying currency of the Terra blockchain protocol, in order to access additional Terra stablecoins. How it works: When market prices for a particular currency in the real world rise above (or fall below) those on the Terra blockchain protocol, users are incentivized to burn their Luna in order to access more (or less) stablecoin, thus balancing the system.
