Cryptocurrency or digital currency is an alternate virtual currency that uses encryption to safeguard transactions. Unlike fiat currencies, cryptocurrencies do not have a central or regulatory authority. Instead, they use a decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) network to record transactions and issue new coins. These 8 cryptocurrency tokens survive any bear market until today, the year 2023.
The distributed public ledger on which cryptocurrencies are based is known as a blockchain. A blockchain maintains a record of all transactions conducted by currency holders. These currencies are also held in digital wallets containing public and private keys.
Let’s examine the top 8 cryptocurrency tokens, including Bitcoin, that have survived dramatic price increases and decreases.
The Eight Most Common Cryptocurrencies
- Bitcoin
Ticker Symbol: BTC
Market Cap: Over $435 Billion
The first and largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin remains the market leader in terms of volume and economic worth despite thousands of competitors. As of writing, Bitcoin is still dominating the 1st place among of the top 8 cryptocurrency tokens Bitcoin continues to dominate the cryptocurrency market in terms of market size, user base, and popularity.
Bitcoin, introduced in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, reached its all-time high of $68,000 in 2021. Bitcoin enables smart contracts and decentralized applications due to significant modifications such as the lightning network and taproot update. As of January 2023, Bitcoin is now being traded at $22,950.
- Ethereum
Ticker Symbol: ETH
Market Cap: $190 Billion
Ethereum is an open-source, decentralized blockchain platform that supports smart contracts. After Bitcoin, Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency and enjoys a strong and dominant position in the crypto market.
Ethereum operates on its blockchain and offers smart contracts that execute automatically when certain circumstances are satisfied and run on its blockchain. Ether is the coin that runs on the blockchain of Ethereum. ETH, introduced in 2015, is presently trading at around $1,500 as of January 2023.
- Binance Coin (BNB)
Ticker Symbol: BNB
Market Cap: Over $47 Billion
BNB is the native cryptocurrency of the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance exchange. In 2018, BNB was introduced for various applications, including trading, credit card payments, payment processing, loan payments, and other transfers.
To encourage its adoption, Binance reduces transaction costs for users who pay with BNB. Binance destroys or burns a predetermined percentage of its currency in circulation to maintain its value. As of January 2023, Binance currently trades nearly $300 per coin.
- Tether
Ticker Symbol: USDT
Market Cap: More Than $67 Billion
USDT is a stablecoin created by the Hong Kong-based business Tether that is tied to the U.S. dollar. Notably, the Tether is backed by an equal amount of U.S. dollars, which means it endures the same price fluctuation. As the value of other cryptocurrencies fluctuates, the price of Tether is typically similar to $1.
It does not have a blockchain. Rather, it operates as a second-layer token on top of numerous blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, Algorand, Bitcoin Cash, and OMG, and their hashing algorithms protect it. People cannot mine Tether due to its asset-backed nature; hence, fresh Tether is provided to verified users who deposit fiat currency.
- Cardano
Ticker Symbol: ADA
Market Cap: Over $12 Billion
Cardano, often called “Ethereum Killer” is well-known in the industry for its sophisticated smart contract capabilities. It has created DeFi products that are extremely similar to Ethereum and offers solutions for interoperability between chains.
ADA is the native currency of Cardano, which was co-founded by Charles Hoskinson, one of Ethereum’s five founders. Cardano is the seventh-greatest market capitalization as of January 2023, and one ADA is worth approximately $0.37.
- Solana
Ticker Symbol: SOL
Market Cap: Over $8.8 Billion
Solana is a blockchain platform launched in 2017 to facilitate the rapid execution of decentralized applications (dApps). Solana, like Cardano, is referred to as an “Ethereum Killer” due to its capacity to process many more transactions per second (TPS) than Ethereum at cheaper transaction costs. Solana is meant to scale with the industry’s CPU, memory, and network bandwidth availability.
Solana is the name of the cryptocurrency that operates on the Solana blockchain (SOL). Solana is the eleventh largest cryptocurrency worldwide as of January 2023, trading at about $24.
Solana is one of the most competitive alternatives to Ethereum and boasts the quickest TPS of any major blockchain. The Solana blockchain processes transactions at a rate of 3,000 TPS utilizing a hybrid proof-of-history and proof-of-stake (PoH/PoS) consensus algorithm.
- Polkadot
Ticker Symbol: DOT
Market Cap: Over $7.3 Billion
Polkadot is a token that may be readily purchased or sold on exchanges. It employs a nominated proof-of-stake process for network security, transaction verification, and fresh DOT distribution. DOT is Polkadot’s native cryptocurrency, which was introduced in 2016.
It is a sharded blockchain, and as such, it unites multiple chains under a single network. It enables parallel processing of transactions and the movement of data between chains without compromising security. Polkadot is highly scalable because it can connect many blockchains in a previously impossible manner. As of January 22, Polkadot is currently traded at $6.41 per unit.
- Litecoin
Ticker Symbol: LTC
Market Cap: is over $6 billion.
Litecoin was introduced in 2011 and is renowned for its simplicity and utility. It is touted as a lightweight version of Bitcoin. However, it uses a different algorithm called Scrypt. Litecoin can be mined and has a quicker transaction processing time than Bitcoin.
Litecoin has a maximum supply of 84 million coins and was launched with 150 pre-mined coins. Litecoin’s supply, like Bitcoin’s, is meant to decrease over time to preserve the coin’s value. As of January 2023, the market price for Litecoin is $87.84.
