Today only the laziest person has not heard of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology due to the activity of the media and social networks. CoinMarketCap rating is regularly updated with brand-new coins and tokens.
Nevertheless, there is one important point that investors need to take into account when compiling a portfolio. Despite the fact that more than 2000 coins are currently added to CoinMarketCap, only TOP-10 cryptocurrencies account for about 95% of the total capitalization, while the rest account for no more than 5%. That is why the coins from the TOP-10 should make up the bulk of the investment portfolio. Let’s take a look, crypto geeks!
Top 10 Cryptocurrencies
The 2017 year was marked by a general awareness of cryptocurrencies among the population. This trend was mainly triggered by the possibility of real earnings without any movements. Just buy and hold.
Certainly, first of all, everyone is interested in the main cryptocurrency - Bitcoin. But since this asset is quite expensive, and also for the purpose of diversification, investors are looking for alternative cryptocurrencies for investing.
Although 2018 was for many a disappointment in the world of crypto trading, nevertheless, cryptocurrency month by month attracts only more interest and the blockchain technology covers the financial market rapidly.
The rating is based on the parameter of market capitalization, which is calculated as the product of the number of coins and the value of one such coin.
Bitcoin (BTC)
The leader of the list and the most expensive cryptocurrency in the world is Bitcoin (BTC), which capitalization currently stands at more than $ 135 billion and the price is about $ 8 thousand. It is a natural achievement since it was the first currency and in fact, it gave life to the whole industry.
Bitcoin gained such popularity due to the p2p architecture, which formed its basis. It implies the interaction of system participants directly among themselves, without involving centralized nodes.
In other words, in the field of mutual settlements, cryptocurrency is designed to exclude intermediaries such as banks, as well as to make it impossible to influence external transactions. It turns out that Bitcoin is a decentralized, practically unregulated currency that allows you to conduct settlements directly.
Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum (ETH) is the second cryptocurrency by capitalization to date, with volumes of $ 17 billion today and value of a bit under $ 200. It is a platform for creating and maintaining independent decentralized applications based on blockchain technology.
Applications work on the basis of smart contracts, which allows you to implement almost any conditions for fulfilling financial obligations without involving a third party (intermediary). Despite other cryptocurrencies, the developers of Ethereum do not limit the role of this coin to only one payment.
It is offered as barter for resources, or registration of transactions with assets using smart contracts, and because of this, Ether is often called crypto-fuel.
Ripple (XRP)
The third cryptocurrency on our list is Ripple (XRP), with a capitalization of more than $ 12 billion and a price of about $ 0.3. As Ethereum, Ripple is also a platform, but its main emphasis is shifted towards payment systems. The system allows you to organize money transfers to anywhere in the shortest possible time.
Ripple is technically ahead of the usual ways of money transfers, such as SWIFT and Western Union. This coin was founded by the company of the same name and the system can work without the participation of the company itself.
Most recently, the company announced the intention of a number of large financial companies, such as American Express, to use the Ripple protocol.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is the number 4 cryptocurrency with a capitalization of almost $ 4 billion and a price of $ 215 per coin. Bitcoin Cash was created against the background of “forced branching” of the fork chain (codebase) of Bitcoin into two branches with different block sizes.
In other words, the basis of BCH is the fork of the main Bitcoin. Two main differences are in limiting the sizes of the blocks themselves. The block size in the Bitcoin blockchain is limited to 1 megabyte, while Bitcoin Cash (BCH) uses 8 MB blocks. BCH also adjusts complexity every 6 blocks, unlike 2016 blocks in Bitcoin.
Tether (USDT)
The Tether (USDT) cryptocurrency was released by Tether Limited. The company’s government declares that the value of their cryptocurrency is secured by stocks of US dollars, which are stored in its bank accounts. The capitalization of this currency is $ 4.1 billion at the moment with an actual constant price of $ 1.
The exchange rate of the token is equaled to the exchange rate of the US dollar and does not experience such strong fluctuations, unlike the rates of other coins. And this, in turn, provides the participants of the cryptocurrency market with the opportunity to use a stable digital asset - a stablecoin.
Litecoin (LTC)
Litecoin (LTC) capitalization at the moment is about $ 3.2 billion with a price of $ 50 per coin. Litecoin guarantees a faster financial transaction, on average 2.5 minutes, and is armed with encryption to protect and store customer data for ordinary PCs and graphics processors, which are now the overwhelming majority.
In fact, this is the main difference between Litecoin and Bitcoin. Although, in addition to the differences between these two cryptocurrencies, there is also a similarity, namely: data is written in the same way by linking blocks into chains, while each block contains a hash of the previous block.
Binance Coin (BNB)
Binance Coin (BNB) was initially launched as a token on the Ethereum blockchain, but was subsequently migrated to Binance’s proprietary blockchain. Binance Coin capitalization at the moment is about $ 2.6 billion with a price of about $ 17 per coin.
Binance Chain was created by Binance exchange with the intent of operating a native crypto asset to offer an alternative way to pay for fees charged to traders using the exchange. Binance has since developed a decentralized exchange (DEX) on top of Binance Chain2.
EOS (EOS)
The new brainchild of Dan Larimer (who is also the developer of BitShares and Steemit), which became the most successful and prosperous project in the cryptocurrency industry, while collecting 651 902 ETH during the first stage of the crowd-sale ($ 170 million at that time). Now EOS (EOS) has already entered the top ten of the most capitalized cryptocurrencies with total value $ 2.6 billion with a price of a bit under $ 3 per coin.
And the most interesting thing is that these coins do not have a fixed price at which they could be purchased during the ICO. Only after the completion of the next stage of the crowd sale is its own token price in ETH formed.
Bitcoin SV (BSV)
Bitcoin SV (Satoshi Vision) is a complete implementation of the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) node, which supports the concept of Bitcoin. At the same time, the cryptocurrency team announced the rejection of claims for the original Bitcoin Cash chain and intends to focus on creating their own applications. At the moment, the capitalization of the currency is about $ 2 billion, and the purchase amount of one coin is $ 110.
This news also had a positive effect on the price of Bitcoin SV, which showed an increase of more than 70% in one day, which is a record value for coins of this class and cost.
Stellar (XLM)
Stellar (XLM) is a technology that allowed money to travel directly between people, companies, and financial institutions without actual intermediaries, as easily as email in due time.
As a result, this means greater access to services specifically for individuals, as well as a reduction in the cost of resources for banks and an increase in business income.
The currency capitalization at the moment is $ 1.2 billion with a price of $ 0.06 per coin.
To sum up
So, you already acquainted with the most popular cryptocurrencies in 2019, you know the price of one coin, their capitalization, and how these currencies differ from each other. As you wish to become a crypto investor, we are almost convinced that you can easily decide on the investment of one or another cryptocurrency, counting on the prospect of its growth and future profit. Undoubtedly, it is worth noting that in our time in the era of super-fast software and information technologies, as well as various factors that depend on the same technologies, the price and value of certain assets are either increasing or decreasing at a relatively high speed. Therefore, we wish you success in your choice of assets for investment!