Top 10 cryptocurrencies in 2018: Biggest digital tokens rated
CRYPTOCURRENCIES are all the rage now thanks in no small part to bitcoin’s bullish performance in 2017. Here are the top 10 biggest cryptocurrencies according to crypto tracker CoinMarketCap.
There are various elements that factor into whether or not an emerging digital token is adopted by the diverse cryptocurrency community.
Many crypto investors might look to bitcoin as a store of value, or Ripple’s XRP for fast transaction speeds and banking approval.
Other might even stand in support of joke currencies like dogecoin or rally behind the more obscure ones such as Pokemon based Pokecoin or Bitcoin God.
CoinMarketCap tracks the value of nearly 1,500 tokens across the board and ranks them accordingly to their market capitalisation – their perceived total value.
Here are the top 10 cryptocurrencies on CoinMarketCap on Monday January 29.
- Bitcoin BTC
Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency to emerge in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Created by an anonymous programmer or group of individuals under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto, the token rose to spectacular popularity in 2017.
But despite rapidly skyrocketing in value, bitcoin’s detractors are worried about the token’s incredibly volatility, slow speeds and transaction fees.
There are currently more than 16.8 million BTC tokens in circulation, out of a predetermined 21 million token limit.
On Monday, bitcoin’s market cap was estimated to be in the region of $191billion (£135billion).
- Ethereum ETH
Ethereum is the second most popular platform in the crypto community and is often touted as bitcoin’s main rival.
But unlike bitcoin, Ethereum was developed as a “world computer” super network of sorts, for the decentralised development of apps that would do away with third party companies like Google and Apple.
All of the apps developed on Ethereum are on a distributed public platform where miners work to earn Ether to fuel the network.
Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin argued that bitcoin laid the foundation for blockchain technology but ETH has the potential to be “a more programmable money”.
On Monday, Ethereum’s market cap was estimated to be just over $116billion (£82.4billion).
- Ripple XRP
Ripple seemingly came out of nowhere towards the end of 2017, when it briefly shot past Ethereum and then settled in third place in January 2018.
Despite appearing to be a competitor to bitcoin, Ripple serves a different purpose and is in fact a centralised transaction network used by banks for money transfers just like SWIFT.
Money sent on the Ripple network is converted into the XRP token on one end and then back into the currency of choice at the other end.
Ripple’s management are certain that XRP offers a faster and reliable alternative to other tokens like bitcoin.
On Monday, Ripple’s overall value on CoinMarketCap was around $52billion (£36.9billion)
- Bitcoin Cash BCH
For a brief moment in August 2017, discord between bitcoin adopters over BTC’s technical limitations led to what is known as a fork in the blockchain.
The result of that fork was the birth of a whole new token, with new rules and a new blockchain.
A group of frustrated miners ‘forked’ the token by switching to new software, hoping it could grow and scale in a way that bitcoin could not.
Since its inception, BCH has cemented its position in the top 10 cryptocurrencies, without overcoming bitcoin in terms of use, value and popularity.
On Monday, bitcoin cash was estimated to be worth over $28billion (£19.9billion).
- Cardano ADA
Cardano is another platform used to send and receive digital money, employing the use of its digital token ADA.
Similarly to Ether, the Cardamon network aims to run decentralised apps on the blockchain.
It was created by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hopkinson in 2015 and it is sometimes referred to as the “Ethereum of Japan” because 95 percent of its initial coin offerings (ICOs) were Japanese.
Cardano is managed by an international group of scientists and academics specialising in blockchain technology.
CoinMarketCap estimated Cardano’s worth to be over $16billion (£11.3billion) on Monday.
- Stellar XLM
Stellar is another success story, having grown by 29,400 percent through 2017 alone.
As an offshoot of Ripple, Stellar was launched in 2014 by Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb and former lawyer Jouce Kim following internal disputes with Ripple.
Just like its predecessor, Stellar is a transaction network boasting fast and efficient money transfers across borders. The network is fully open source.
On Monday, CoinMarketCap tracked Stellar’s market capitalisation at $10.5billion (£7.46billion)
