Altcoins, Explained

That means we’ll see a different kind of altcoin season, where specific sectors experience a surge, rather than the entire market moving simultaneously, similar to sector rotations in traditional markets. Gino Matos is a law school graduate and a seasoned journalist with six years of experience in the crypto industry. His expertise primarily focuses on the Brazilian blockchain ecosystem and developments in decentralized finance (DeFi).

Types of altcoins and their functions

These developments could lead to a targeted rally, driven by improved frameworks and increased participation from institutional investors. Getting into crypto can be daunting, if you’re new to cryptocurrencies you may benefit from our beginner-friendly articles and youtube videos. For seasoned investors, you can track the performance of your holdings & watch coins you’re interested in with CoinGecko’s customizable crypto portfolio. Despite relative resilience to price fluctuation, altcoins suffer from thin liquidity, high market saturation alongside a smaller market capitalization, a lack of credibility and susceptibility to scams. Bitcoin’s primary focus is functioning as a decentralized store of value and peer-to-peer cash. Potential opportunities include short-term trading strategies, as scalp traders and day traders could benefit from price fluctuations by anticipating steep price movements.

Traders may also choose to trade altcoins via a derivative, a financial product that takes (or ‘derives’) its value from the price of the underlying asset. Altcoins often run on decentralised blockchain networks that are active 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. This means you can trade altcoins like ETH, XRP, SOL and DOGE at any time, including weekends and holidays. Potential risks include unproven technologies that fail to deliver on promises, eroding market confidence. The ambitious goals of some altcoin developers can increase the likelihood of failure. Moreover, with thousands of altcoins competing for market share, adoption may be limited for projects lacking differentiation or resources.

• Beyond USD-denominated prices, you may also track prices in your local currency and your local language.
• A scalable technology can efficiently handle a growing number of users and transactions.
• The collected gas fees are then distributed back to the authorities and their delegates based on their staked amount and contribution to the network’s operation.
• The network is based on the Litecoin protocol and was originally created as a humorous project.
• This momentum reflects consistent demand and positions CC as a relatively safe bet amid broader volatility.

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Cryptocurrencies

Through close collaboration within these open-source projects, the entire altcoin ecosystem moves forward, laying the foundation for the next generation of blockchain innovation. If you want to invest in altcoins, you’ll need a basic understanding of market trends in the crypto space. The prices of many cryptocurrencies, including altcoins, often follow Bitcoin’s movements. So in addition to metrics like your altcoin’s market capitalisation, you should also keep an eye on Bitcoin forecasts and trends.

Bitcoin Touches 9-Month Low as Selling Hits Crypto, Metals, and Energy

This phenomenon helps explain the memecoin craze over the past year; many retail investors view memecoins as the quickest path to profit. However, this perception is misleading, as most investors end up making losses. RENDER surged 57% over the past week, ranking among the top-performing tokens. Alongside meme coins, AI-focused cryptocurrencies have gained strong traction since 2026 began. This renewed sector interest has driven speculative and fundamental demand, positioning RENDER as a notable beneficiary of the broader risk-on environment. Lists or overviews of promising altcoins are regularly published online.

What Is Crypto Market Cap?

Bitcoin consolidated after a sharp Tuesday selloff alongside a broader risk-off move in equities, while altcoins suffered deeper losses in light of elevated volatility. In its ‘Navigating Crypto in 2026’ outlook, the fund says non-bitcoin tokens have been sliding since late 2024, weighed down by weak value capture, slowing on-chain activity, and fading retail flows. Bitcoin and ether traded little changed on weak liquidity as gold and silver rallied, highlighting a risk-off rotation that’s also lifting niche crypto tokens.

As a way to regain trust and recover money lost to the iFinex ecosystem, the company’s buy-back scheme commits 27 percent of its gross revenues until no tokens remain in commercial circulation. Cardano (ADA) is the native coin of Cardano, an open-source, proof-of-stake blockchain by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson. Cardano is one of the first large-scale platforms to successfully operate on a peer-to-peer consensus mechanism, also known as a proof-of-stake. The proof-of-stake system relies on an academic process, vetting ideas among the community before granting validation, to better democratize its digital network. There are many other altcoins out there, each with their own unique characteristics. This means that you can use Ethereum for things like real estate transactions or even buying a cell phone plan.

ETH has a dynamic supply mechanism with both inflationary and deflationary components, while many stablecoins peg their value to fiat currencies, commodities or algorithms to ensure price stability. As of December 2024, there are over 10,000 active cryptocurrencies worldwide, each designed with a specific purpose or function in mind. These can range from practical applications like powering decentralised networks to more speculative assets driven by community support. HYPE has emerged as the only positively performing DEX token over the past seven days, gaining 34%.