A Brief Explanation of the Top 5 Cryptocurrencies
While Bitcoin is often the first thing that comes to mind when discussing cryptocurrencies, there are dozens of other possibilities. Crypto currencies that are money and investments aren’t Bitcoin are often seen as altcoins, which stand for alternatives to Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is the first big cryptocurrency released in 2009, but since then, several others have gained significant popularity. Using the Bitcoin Era app, investors can effortlessly invest in the most prominent cryptocurrencies traded on the market.
A few of the most well-known crypto coins and their respective applications are discussed here.
- Binance Coin (BNB)
Binance Coin is a cryptocurrency used on Binance, one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. Binance Coin, which debuted in 2017, has now gone beyond the confines of the Binance trading platform. It may now be used for buying, selling, processing payments, and even making vacation reservations.
In addition, it may be bought, sold, and exchanged for other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. In 2017, a single BNB cost just $0.10. Its value increased to over $413 by the start of March 2022, representing a growth of almost 410,000%.
- Monero (XMR)
Monero is a cryptocurrency that prioritizes anonymity and is introduced in 2014. It is an open-source project. Because its blockchain is opaque, transaction information and the amounts of all transactions may remain anonymous.
Investors don’t have to spend money on expensive specialized gear since they may mine Monero using their very own computer processors. Because of its strong privacy protection, Monero is an ideal cryptocurrency for use in illegal transactions and it can be used by the dark web.
As of August 26, 2021, the price of one Monero was $295.05, and the cryptocurrency has a market value of $5.3 billion. This is a significant change compared to the price at which trading was completed on August 26, 2020, which was $89.12. The market cap on that day was $1.58 billion.
- DogeCoin
Dogecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency that uses a proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain network like Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, there is no limit to mine this coin. Dogecoin is mostly used as a tipping system on social media platforms like Reddit and Twitter. Dogecoins may be obtained through a Dogecoin faucet or as a reward for contributing to a community that employs digital currency. It is a meme coin that gained a huge popularity after the tweet done by Elon Musk.
To help you get started with the Dogecoin community, there are websites called “faucets” that will offer you a tiny quantity of Dogecoin for free. Some of the biggest stories in cryptocurrency include Dogecoin, such as when investors used it to send the Jamaican bobsled squad to the 2014 Winter Olympics at roughly $30,000.
- PolkaDot
Polkadot (DOT) is a cryptocurrency and blockchain interoperability protocol launched in 2016. Parachains, or parallel blockchains, may securely share information and conduct transactions through parallel blockchain, and developers can add their own crypto to this network. Blockchains protected by Polkadot may be built from scratch by programmers.
Polkadot was designed by Gavin Wood, a primary creator of Ethereum. One appealing aspect of DOT is that its overall supply is not limited. Rather, fresh tokens are always being issued into circulation. The price of polka dots peaked in May 2020 at $6.30 and again in May 2021 at $55.11.
- Stellar (XLM)
Stellar is a decentralized system built on open-source technology that enables users to convert digital currency to fiat money inside and across countries. Lumens, also known as XLM tokens, are the cryptocurrency used by the Stellar blockchain. Lumens may be traded using the sign XLM. With a market worth of little more than one billion dollars, Stellar is one of the alternative cryptocurrencies that has performed the best over the last five years.
Even if the worth of a lumen on Stellar has decreased by more than two-thirds as of May 2020, the cryptocurrency is still one of the top-performing alternative cryptocurrencies. As of March 25, 2021, the coin’s market capitalization was around $8.3 billion.
Conclusion
People who want to speculate in cryptocurrencies should not invest more money than they can afford to lose since the market is a Wild West. The value of the cryptocurrency has fluctuated widely in 2022, and the market volatility has been high. Since hitting record highs in November 2021, the market has been falling steadily. Additionally, rookie traders face the risk of competing with professionals.