The cryptocurrency industry is poised to come out of the so-called crypto winter better than ever.
Everything about the crypto sector is maturing and evolving, allowing investors and entrepreneurs to reap the rewards and ensure that everything about the ecosystem will help it go mainstream. Indeed, there are already many use cases of cryptocurrencies, and once the global economy makes it past this inflationary cycle, it might be like the post-dot-com era.
Put simply, the competent cryptocurrencies will outcompete the incompetent cryptos.
But some traders – newcomers and seasoned veterans – might be wondering what exactly the most popular cryptocurrencies are around today, especially when there are approximately 21,000 cryptocurrencies available in the open market. Well, it is safe to say that the crypto realm is moving beyond the meme coins, joke coins, and alt coins and championing the more serious cryptocurrencies.
Here is a list of the top ten cryptocurrencies listed on Bitbuy, based on market capitalization as of November 14, 2022:
Market Cap: $319 billion
Price: $16,592
Circulating Supply: 19.20 million coins
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer decentralized cryptocurrency that facilitates transactions directly between two parties without the need for an intermediary to approve or help the transaction. According to a 2008 white paper, Bitcoin was manufactured to allow "online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.”
Market Cap: $152.55 billion
Price: $1,246
Circulating Supply: 122.3 million coins
Ethereum is a decentralized open-source blockchain that utilizes its own cryptocurrency called Ether. In addition, the platform enables the use of other cryptocurrencies and the utilization of decentralized smart contracts. The chief objective of Ethereum is to turn into an international platform for decentralized applications (dApps), which would permit users worldwide to create and run software free of censorship, downtime, and fraud.
Market Cap: $44.07 billion
Price: $1.00
Circulating Supply: 42 billion coins
The USD Coin is a stablecoin tied to the United States dollar, with a ratio of 1:1. What makes the cryptocurrency attractive is that it maintains the best of both worlds: the innovation of crypto and the safety of the international reserve currency. In other words, each USDC unit is backed by $1 held in reserve (a blend of cash and short-term Treasury bonds).
Market Cap: $11.36 billion
Price: $0.085
Circulating Supply: 132.67 billion coins
Dogecoin was based on the viral "doge" internet meme from a decade ago, featuring the Shiba Inu dog breed. It was initially created as a joke and a fun way to diversify the cryptocurrency audience. It was forked from Litecoin in December 2013, which eventually garnered the attention of billionaire CEO Elon Musk in 2021. He stated that it was his favourite coin and would use it for Tesla Motors and Twitter. Although it is considered a meme coin, its utility is that it fosters micro-payments.
Market Cap: $11.34 billion
Price: $0.33
Circulating Supply: 34.39 billion coins
Cardano is a PoS blockchain platform that functions with its native ADA cryptocurrency (named after 19th-century mathematician Ada Lovelace). The main aim of Cardano is to let "changemakers, innovators, and visionaries" ignite positive change worldwide that "redistributes power from unaccountable structures to the margins to individuals."
Market Cap: $4.98 billion
Price: $13.69
Circulating Supply: 362 million coins
Solana is an open-source project that depends on the permissionless infrastructure of blockchain technology, facilitating an environment of decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions, including dApps. Its other objective is to bolster scalability by launching a proof-of-history (PoH) consensus that integrates with the proof-of-state (PoS) system.
Market Cap: $8.01 billion
Price: $0.91
Circulating Supply: 8.7 billion coins
Polygon was established for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure creation, relying on a structured and simple-to-use platform. The chief feature of Polygon is its framework that facilitates the building of a vast array of applications. The MATIC token plays a role in securing the system and ensuring proper governance.
Market Cap: $6.6 billion
Price: $5.81
Circulating Supply: 1.135 billion coins
Polkadot is an open-source multichain protocol that secures a network of specialized blockchains. This helps the cross-chain transfer of multiple assets and any data, which means that blockchains can communicate with each other. Experts purport that Polkadot will be integral in the decentralization of internet blockchains. Put simply, Web 3.0!
Market Cap: $4.47 billion
Price: $5.87
Circulating Supply: 762 million coins
Uniswap is known mostly for its automated market maker (AMM) as more people get involved in decentralized finance and trade tokens. The trading protocol is integral in the aim of automated trading of DeFi tokens. In addition, thanks to its automated measures, Uniswap can resolve liquidity challenges, a common issue for first-generation decentralized exchanges.
Market Cap: $4.06 billion
Price: $56.66
Circulating Supply: 71.6 million coins
Following the explosive growth of Bitcoin, there was plenty of excitement over the development of Litecoin after its release in October 2011. When it was created, the goals were simple enough: By utilizing blockchain technology, payments would be fast, cheap, and secure. So far, these targets have been achieved, allowing it to remain in the top ten of cryptocurrencies based on market cap for much of its existence!
