A big bubble? A trick? Whatever some want to call Bitcon, its current value is over $ 17,000 and is just growing.
The fear of being left without it can have a powerful - and risky - influence on people's financial decisions
There are many people who are making such risky financial decisions, and they're investing their last dime in other small cryptocurrencies, which believe they will grow as Bitcoin.
But is there such a cryptocurrency and is it worth the risk of investing?
George Tung, co-founder of 'Cryptos R Us', says there are still great opportunities to be enriched by small cryptocurrencies.
"Will we see any other cryptocurrency that will pass Bitcoin on the market? Yes, I believe this is very possible within the next three or five years, "he said.
Even Hitesh Malviya, a cryptocurrency adviser, says that in the long run, the biggest gains may be from cheap-price cryptocurrencies.
"The altcoins industry is new and will take at least a few years to become commonplace. We will see up to tenfold profits in most of these cryptos, like Bitcoin, "he says.
But considering that in the market of these digital coins there are more than 1,300 altcoins, it is not easty at all to discover the cryptocurrencies which will increase in price.
To understand this, you should first analyze the market. To analyze the market, you should consider these things:
Find out the team that created the cryptocurrency
Look at how much that cryptocurrency is needed. Does it solves any problem or does not have any impact
Where are they currently?
- Litecoin (LTC)
Trade value: $ 17.23 billion
Current Price: $ 289.70
Performance in 2017, according to December 11 statistics: + 4,800%
Who created it? Former Google Company worker Charlie Lee
Established by Lee in 2011, Litecoin is known as an alternative to Bitcoin. Lee had intended to cut the amount of time required to confirm new transactions and adjust it in such a way that everyone can access them. "My vision is that people will use Litecoin every day to buy things," Lee said
About 54 million Litecoin supplies are in circulation at the moment, while Bitcoin has only 16.7 million in circulation.
- Monero (XMR)
Trade value: 4.84 billion dollars
Current Price: $ 347.94
Performance in 2017: + 1,930%
Who created it? Like Bitcoin, Monero's creator is anonymous
The stronger weapon of Monero? Anonymity. With Monero, the details of each transaction, including sender, recipient, and size, are stored in a public account book, but are configured in a way that can not be tracked. Use Monero and, at least in theory, no one will be able to understand who the sender is, who is the recipient or what is the value of a transaction.
This coin is particularly attractive to cybercrime criminals. The hackers behind the virus scandal 'WannaCry' - a virus that had infected more than 230,000 computers - had demanded payment through Moneros.
At present there are 15.5 million XMR in circulation and, unlike Bitcoin and Litecoin, Monero does not have a certain currency supply limit.
- NEO
Trade value: $ 2.6 billion
Current price: $ 69.52
Performance in 2017: + 24.685%
Who created it? Da Hongfei, director of Onchain, along with Erik Zhang
Tung predicts that Neo, named as "The Ethereum of China," will explode if China changes positions regarding Bitcoin and ICOs.
There are a total of 65 million NEO in circulation, while the limit is 100 million.
- Cardano (ADA)
Trade value: $ 3.06 billion
Current price: $ 0.45
Performance in 2017 (since the beginning of trading in October): + 406%
Who created it? 'Hong Kong Input Output' (IOHK)
Cardano has just been in the market for a few months, but has exploded in price increases. In November it has managed to enter among the top 10 cryptocurrencies in terms of trade value.
For the moment, there are 26 billion in circulation out of a total of 45 billion.
- Ripple (XRP)
Trade value: 11.22 billion dollars
Current Price: $ 0.75
Performance in 2017: + 3.803%
Who created it? Web developer Ryan Fugger, businessman Chris Larsen and programmaker Jed McCaleb
Ripple's launch in 2012, from former Bitcoin developers, is seen by many as the logical successor to Bitcoin.
The New York Times had once described Ripple as the "junction between the Western Union and a foreign currency exchange without high taxes" because it is not only a digital currency, but also a system in which each encryption, including Bitcoin, can be traded .
"Ripple connects banks, payers, digital and corporate asset exchangers through RippleNet and provides amazing experiences of world-wide delivery," the creators of this cryptocurrency have explained.
- Iota (MIOTA)
Trade value: 12.66 billion dollars
Current price: 3.83 USD
Performance in 2017 (since market launch in June): + 623%
Who created it? David Sonstebo, Sergey Ivancheglo, Dominik Schiener, and Dr. Serguei Popov - a team of entrepreneurs, mathematicians and developers
Iota intends to become the backbone of safe car payments in the Internet of Things economy, while it is the first cryptocurrency that was created without the use of a blockchain.
- Bitcoin Cash
Trade value: $ 26.1 billion
Current price: $ 1,860
Performance in 2017 (since market launch in July): + 245%
Who created it? Bitcoin Cash is controlled by multiple independent programmers
Bitcoin Cash is among the newest cryptocurrencies, while it has more capacity to cope with transactions, offers cheaper taxes and faster transaction confirmations.
In mid-November, Bitcoin Cash had managed to pass Etherum out of trading value, and since then it is in third place.