An altcoin is a Cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin (BTC). The term “altcoin” is short for alternative coin to bitcoin.
They range from coins with large market capitalization, such as Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP), to obscure coins with small market capitalization. Altcoins are generally more volatile than Bitcoin (BTC), with some gaining attention as promising and others falling in price significantly.
In this article, we will introduce well-known altcoins and their characteristics in an easy-to-understand manner.
*This article is not a guarantee that altcoin prices will rise. Investments should be made at your own discretion and responsibility.
What is Altcoin?
Altcoin is an abbreviation for “alternative coin” which refers to all Cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin (BTC). Also called altcoin, it has the connotation of an alternative coin to bitcoin (BTC).
Bitcoin is the first Cryptocurrency created by Satoshi Nakamoto.
AltCoin vs Bitcoin
Altcoins have the following three characteristics
- There are many types
- Differences in Uses
- High volatility
Let’s take a closer look at each of these.
There are many types
There are thousands of different types of altcoins in existence. They range from currencies issued by corporations and municipalities to those used within communities.
Bitcoin (BTC) is handled by exchanges around the world, but relatively few altcoins are handled by exchanges.
In particular, minor altcoins with low market capitalization are often handled by only a few exchanges.
Differences in Uses
Altcoins have different characteristics depending on the purpose of their development. Some altcoins are intended to be used as currency, such as Bitcoin (BTC), while others are intended for use in specialized areas, such as defi, NFT, and Dapps, while others are intended to solve Bitcoin’s problems, such as resolving scalability issues and reducing transfer times. Some altcoins are designed to solve bitcoin’s problems, such as solving scalability issues and reducing transfer times.
Users considering trading altcoins should have a good understanding of the characteristics of each currency before considering a purchase.
High volatility
One of the characteristics of altcoins is their high volatility. Volatility refers to price volatility.
A financial asset with a large market capitalization has a smaller impact of large transactions on its price. Therefore, bitcoin tends to gradually become less volatile.
Altcoins are more volatile because their market capitalization is smaller than that of bitcoin. The potential for large price increases is often accompanied by large price fluctuations.
Key to identifying high potential Altcoins
Some of you reading this article may be thinking, “There are so many altcoins out there, I don’t know which one to buy.
Some of the key points to identify altcoins with high potential include the following
- Listed on a well-known exchange
- High trading volume
- Excellent performance as a currency (development team with a proven track record)
- Frequent dissemination of information via SNS, etc.
- The contents of the “white paper” are well written.
The following is a detailed explanation of each of these factors.
Listed on a well-known exchange
In order to sell the coins you issue to investors and traders, you must list them on a Cryptocurrency exchange. And the more users and the higher the volume of transactions on an exchange, the higher the fees required to list the currency will generally be.
Therefore, in many cases, if the currency is listed on an exchange that you hear about frequently, the operator has the financial wherewithal to cover the listing costs and has plenty of working capital.
High trading volume
High trading volume (daily trading volume) is also a key factor in determining whether an altcoin has a strong future.
In general, popular currencies have high trading volume (high liquidity), which means that you can buy and sell them whenever you want. Conversely, currencies that are not well-known have low trading volume (low liquidity), so you may not be able to buy or sell at your preferred time.
Currency volume can be checked on sites that provide price information, such as CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko.
Excellent performance as a currency (proven development team)
Cryptocurrencies differ in the speed of remittance, and the faster the remittance speed (higher processing power), the higher the performance.
And in general, the higher performance coins are more likely to be adopted by various businesses and tend to be in higher demand. Therefore, there is a certain segment of investors who judge the future potential of a currency based on its performance.
Related to this, the presence of a proven development team is also a determining factor when discerning the potential of a currency. Some altcoins are subject to scams, such as projects that fail to develop according to plan and end up being abandoned halfway through, or operators abscond with the funds they have collected.
In this regard, having a well-known development team with a proven track record as a member will reduce the possibility of such incidents occurring. In addition, the past track record of the company makes it easy to increase the expected value of the currency.
Frequent dissemination of information through SNS and other means
Whether or not the company frequently posts information on its development status and partnerships on social networking services is also an important indicator of the reliability of the operation.
Public relations activities play an important role in gaining trust from consumers and investors in general companies, and this is no different in the world of Cryptocurrency. Before purchasing a Cryptocurrency, it is recommended to check the coin’s social networking sites and official website to see if the information is frequently updated.
White Paper is well written.
A white paper is a kind of business plan disclosed by the issuer of a currency when raising funds through an ICO (Initial Coin Offering).
For general companies, a business plan is required when borrowing money from a bank or receiving investment from investors. Similarly, the issuer of a Cryptocurrency will prepare a white paper when raising funds.
The whitepaper generally describes the purpose of the currency issue, technical details, etc. When purchasing Cryptocurrencies, you can reduce the risk of a failed investment by reading the whitepaper in advance to confirm the plan and future potential of the currency.
Top 9 Altcoins of 2024
Among the many types of altcoins, here are nine major altcoins with particularly large market capitalization and promising future prospects.
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Ripple (XRP)
- Sibaine (SHIB)
- Avalanche (AVAX)
- Polkadot (DOT)
- Chain Link (LINK)
- Polygon (MATIC)
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
- Litecoin (LTC)
Ethereum (ETH)
First is Ethereum (ETH), which boasts one of the highest market capitalizations.
Here is a summary list of Ethereum.
| Currency Unit | ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid |
| birth | Conceived in 2013 (official release in 2015) |
| Price (as of March 18, 2024) | Approx. $3,328.67 |
| Market capitalization (as of March 18, 2024) | Approx. $391,064,814,213 (2nd) |
| record high | Approx.$4,721.07 |
| consensus algorithm | point of sale |
| white paper | https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/White-Paperr |
| Related Sites | https://ethereum.org |
The following is a description of the main characteristics of Ethereum.
No Issuance Limit
The first is that there is no limit to the number of certificates issued.
While Bitcoin has an upper limit of 21 million coins, Ethereum has no upper limit.
Although some people are concerned about the scarcity value of the lack of an upper limit, Ethereum itself was developed with the purpose of being open to a large number of people, and thus has no upper limit set.
Smart Contracts
The second point is that there is a mechanism called Smart Contracts.
In addition to transaction information, contracts can be written on the blockchain, and these contracts can be enforced automatically.
The Ethereum blockchain is also difficult to tamper with and fraudulent, so it is expected to be used in a variety of situations.
What is hoge smart contract? Explains how it works and its relationship with Ethereum (ETH)!
Often used in ICOs
The third point is that it is often used for ICOs (initial coin offerings).
An ICO is a fundraising using tokens to execute a project, and many ICOs use the Ethereum blockchain.
Ethereum can be said to form the basis of many tokens because of its many advantages, such as the ease of issuing tokens on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain and the ease of managing wallets.
Ripple (XRP)
Next is Ripple (XRP).
| Currency Unit | XRP |
| birth | 2012 |
| Price (as of March 18, 2024) | Approx. $0.575 |
| Market capitalization (as of March 18, 2024) | Approx. $31,589,443,826 (7th) |
| record high | Approx. $3.84 |
| consensus algorithm | PoC (Proof of Consensus) |
| white paper | https://whitepaper.io/document/1/ripple-whitepaper |
| Related Sites | https://ripple.com/ |
Strength in International Remittances
The first is “strength in international remittances.
Ripple was created to solve the problems of fees and time, and its features, such as its fast remittance speed, give it an advantage in international remittances. 2.
Partnerships with major companies
The second point is that Ripple is “partnering with major companies one after another.
Ripple’s issuer, Ripple Inc. of the U.S., has been partnering with major companies one after another. There have been many experiments with international money transfers using Ripple, and demand for Ripple has increased dramatically, especially since the beginning of 2017.
Issuance Limit
The third point is that there is an issuance limit.
The issuance limit of Ripple is set at 100 billion pieces, and this value is set to decrease gradually without new issuance.
Therefore, it is expected that the scarcity value will gradually increase.
Siba inu (SHIB)
Next is Sibaine (SHIB).
| Currency Unit | SHIB |
| birth | Year 2020 |
| Price (as of March 18, 2024) | Approx. $0.00002669 |
| Market capitalization (as of March 18, 2024) | Approx. $15.73B (10th) |
| record high | Approx. $0.00008819 |
| Maximum number of cards to be issued | 1,000 trillion SHIB |
| consensus algorithm | Proof of Stake (Ethereum) |
| Related Sites | https://shibatoken.com/ |
Meme Coins Made to Imitate Doji Coins (DOGE)
Sibaine (SHIB) is a “meme coin made to imitate the Doege coin (DOGE)”. Sibaine was developed in 2020 to mimic the DOGE coin.
The DOGE coin on which Sibaine is based is a meme coin developed in 2013 with the purpose of satirizing the crypto asset industry at the time. A meme coin is a crypto asset* that is inspired by memes (jokes, story images) that are prevalent on the Internet.
Dojcoin gained immediate attention in 2021 when Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc. mentioned it on a social networking site. The impact of Mr. Musk’s remarks at that time spilled over to Civaine, and like DojiCoin, Civaine also gained the support of many traders.
Demand for the currency expanded accordingly, and Cibainu is now the 10th most popular currency by market capitalization (as of March 18, 2024, according to CoinMarketCap).
Three types of tokens exist in the ecosystem
The second characteristic is that there are three types of tokens in the ecosystem.
There are three tokens in the Shiba Inu ecosystem: SHIB (Shiba Inu), BONE (bone), and LEASH (collar), each with a different role.
| Token Name | feature |
|---|---|
| SHIB | The token is the core of the ecosystem and is traded on crypto exchanges around the world. Rewarded for staking on ShibaSwap Total volume of 1,000 trillion SHIBs |
| BONE | Governance tokens for the Doggy DAO located in ShibaSwap Holders can participate in voting on ShibaSwap operations. The total amount issued is 250 million BONE. |
| LEASH | Tokens awarded to users who provide liquidity through ShibaSwap Total issued volume is 107,646 LEASH |
Although tokens with different characteristics, BONE and LEASH, like SHIB, are traded on crypto asset exchanges and DEXs (decentralized exchanges) such as ShibaSwap around the world.
Avalanche (AVAX)
Next is Avalanche (AVAX).
Avalanche is an open source platform for building DApps (distributed applications). It is intended to support the scale of global finance and has been developed with a focus on speed of processing and flexibility of development. The cryptographic asset Avalanche (AVAX) is the platform’s native token and is used to pay transaction fees and as the basic unit of account.
Polkadot (DOT)
Polkadot (DOT)is a native token of the Proof-of-Stake (PoS)-based blockchain project being developed by the Web3 Foundation
Chain Link (LINK)
Chainlink (LINK) is a web3service platform developed to connect conventional systems and data used in today’s society to the blockchain.
Polygon (MATIC)
Polygon (MATIC) is a token used in the Polygon (formerly Matic Network), which was developed to make Ethereum more popular. It is being developed as a “Layer 2 scaling solution” to extend Ethereum.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a currency created by a hard fork from Bitcoin (BTC) in August 2017. The issuance limit is set at 21 million coins, the same as Bitcoin (BTC).
Litecoin (LTC)
Litecoin (LTC) has been in operation since 2011. While Bitcoin (BTC) block generation time is estimated to be about 10 minutes, Litecoin (LTC) is adjusted to about 2.5 minutes.
Therefore, one of the attractions of trading Litecoin (LTC) is that it can be settled faster than Bitcoin (BTC).
FAQs about Altcoin
Here are some frequently asked questions about altcoins.
Q.Which do you recommend, altcoin or bitcoin?
There is a “how much risk can I take” criterion for investment.
Altcoin has an aspect that can be expected to perform better than Bitcoin due to its higher volatility.
On the other hand, during a market downturn, the price may fall more than bitcoin.
If you want to take risks and expect high performance, we recommend Altcoin, and if you want to build a solid asset base, we recommend Bitcoin.
Q.Can I buy altcoins with bitcoin?
It is possible to buy altcoins with bitcoin.
Basically, all Cryptocurrency exchanges offer them.