These are 2018’s top cryptocurrencies by market cap.
What are some of the biggest cryptocurrencies in the world, besides bitcoin? A few short years ago, no one would’ve imagined that the 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies in the world would enjoy a combined market value larger than Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), a giant of American capitalism born in 1837. If you’re going to invest in digital currencies, you need to keep abreast of the most popular altcoins. First-mover advantage is vital on the blockchain, so the coins with the highest market caps today are the odds-on favorites to be the biggest digital currencies of tomorrow as well. Here are the top cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
10. Tron (TRX), $1.93 billion
Though it has no relationship to the movie or video game bearing its name, Tron does share one commonality with these pop-culture mainstays: entertainment. Tron hails itself as “one of the largest blockchain-based operating systems in the world,” and, more specifically, is a decentralized platform for sharing entertainment content. With high-level employees from rising tech behemoths like Alibaba Group Holding (BABA), Tencent and Baidu (BIDU), the TRX coin is one of the top cryptocurrencies in the world largely due to its popularity in Asia. Importantly, users both monetize and pay for content in TRX tokens. Eventually, Tron aspires to disrupt content platforms taking big cuts for themselves, like Google Play (GOOG, GOOGL) and the Apple (AAPL) App Store.
9. Iota (MIOTA), $2.42 billion
All of the coins on this digital currencies list have a name and then a separate ticker, and MIOTA goes down as the longest ticker symbol here. The coin is used on the Iota open-source distributed ledger platform, which is setting its sights high: it wants to power the Internet of Things “with feeless microtransactions and data integrity for machines.” There must be something to the technology, since, despite its very recent 2017 debut, MIOTA already ranks as one of the biggest cryptocurrencies in the world. One thing investors like: The maximum number of coins have already been issued, meaning there will never be more created.
8. Cardano (ADA), $3.39 billion
One of the most popular altcoins around, Cardano was developed by an Ethereum co-founder, Charles Hoskinson. For the uninitiated, Ethereum is a widely respected crypto, playing the silver to bitcoin’s proverbial gold. Even the most valuable cryptocurrencies remain extremely volatile: Since debuting in fall 2017, the ADA coin has gyrated between 2 cents and $1.28, achieved in January 2018. Cardano is interesting for its focus on smart contracts and its claim to be the “first blockchain platform to evolve out of a scientific philosophy and a research-first driven approach.” To buy it, you must download a dedicated wallet, though Coinbase is considering adding it to its platform.
7. Litecoin (LTC), $4.27 billion
While Litecoin prices have plunged roughly 80 percent from the December 2017 peak above $366, there’s little doubt LTC has staying power as one of the top cryptocurrencies by market cap. Still up dramatically from 2017 lows below $4, the coin was created in 2011. Like others on this list, Litecoin transactions are attractive to some because there are no fees to receive payments and no chargebacks — that’s the benefit of the blockchain’s public ledger of transactions. There’s a hard limit of 84 million Litecoins that can ever exist, limiting dilution and inflation. Fifty-seven million are already in circulation. Try getting a guarantee like that from the Federal Reserve!
6. Stellar (XLM), $4.44 billion
Stellar has emerged as one of the top digital currencies in the world, despite XLM’s modest ambition for itself: It sees XLM, one unit of which is called a lumen, as a backstage player, primarily coded to provide easier conversion between the digital currencies of your choice. Its supply increases at a fixed rate of 1 percent a year, far less than the 2 to 3 percent long-term annual inflation rate in the U.S. Stellar is run on a consensus algorithm rather than mined, making transactions more seamless. Coinbase announced in July that it may add Stellar, along with Cardano and several other cryptocurrencies, to its widely used trading platform.
5. EOS (EOS), $6.36 billion
Developed by Block.one — led by Dan Larimer, a co-founder of Bitshares and Steemit, as well as Brendan Bloomer, another crypto celebrity — the EOS coin was launched to support Eosio, a sort of decentralized operating system for developers. The open-source Eosio software is designed for developers to build their own programs and blockchains on top of it. But to build on it, you’ve got to own the EOS coin. In this respect, EOS is similar to Ethereum, although unlike the latter, EOS doesn’t require micropayments to perform actions on its software, meaning applications built on it can be free. Ironically, that’s made EOS one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies on earth.
4. Bitcoin Cash (BCH), $11.95 billion
The redheaded stepchild of the almighty BTC, Bitcoin Cash is a spin-off currency that anyone owning bitcoin in August 2017 has a claim to. Despite constantly playing second fiddle to its namesake, BCH is undeniably one of the best blue-chip cryptocurrencies on the market, demonstrated in part by being one of the least volatile altcoins over time. One of the biggest gripes against crypto is the fact that so few have proven reliable stores of value. BCH has done well here, currently trading comfortably above its debut $555 price. With higher block size limits and lower fees, it’s no wonder BCH is one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies around.
3. XRP (XRP), $16.54 billion
Sometimes erroneously referred to as Ripple, the company that developed the XRP Ledger, XRP debuted in 2012 with the enterprise user in mind. A core XRP goal is to provide institutions like payment providers and banks more safety and convenience for overseas payments. Like many of the biggest cryptocurrencies, another benefit is liquidity, which could get a further boost if Coinbase Custody, an institutional-facing storage platform, adopts XRP (it announced in August it was considering this move). Former Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas has touted XRP transactions as more than 1,000 times faster than bitcoin transactions. With an institutional foothold, it’s no wonder XRP is one of the best alternatives to bitcoin.
2. Ethereum (ETH), $41.12 billion
Could you transfer car titles, mortgages and trade stocks on the Ethereum platform one day? That’s essentially the end goal of Ethereum, which, like Cardano, is built for smart contracts, and like Eosio is a platform developers can build on top of. The currency is essentially the fuel making the platform run, serving as an incentive to application developers. Unlike bitcoin and several other top cryptocurrencies on this digital currency list, Ethereum doesn’t have a hard cap on the number of ether (the individual unit of currency) outstanding — in August 2018 there were more than 101 million in circulation — but growth of outstanding ETH is expected to decelerate markedly going forward.
1. Bitcoin (BTC), $119.98 billion
No digital currency list would be complete without bitcoin, the most valuable cryptocurrency in the world by far. Shrouded in mystery, BTC was created by an anonymous person or group of people known as Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. The decentralized nature of the currency, which isn’t controlled by any government, company or person, has caused some countries to consider bitcoin a threat to national security, and several countries have even made it illegal. The only way to create bitcoin is to mine it, and with over 17 million BTC already in circulation, less than 4 million will be created by 2140, when the last new BTC will be mined.
More from U.S. News
Artificial Intelligence Stocks: The 10 Best AI Companies
Pros and Cons of Buying Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA) Stock
8 of the Best Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2018
The 10 Most Valuable Cryptocurrencies in the World originally appeared on usnews.com
