Top 5 most popular cryptocurrencies in 2021

Currently, there are about 3,000 cryptocurrencies in existence in the market. Among them, the 5 largest and most traded virtual currencies in the world today are Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin, XRP and Tether.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is currently the leading cryptocurrency with a market cap of over $ 1 trillion. Bitcoin was released in 2009 by a mysterious figure nicknamed Satoshi Nakamoto.

This virtual currency is based on Blockchain technology, which can be exchanged directly with an Internet-connected device without going through an intermediary financial institution.

Bitcoin is characterized by decentralization, censorship-resistance, security, and borderlessness. These characteristics make it attractive for use cases such as international money transfers and payments, in which individuals in the transaction do not want to reveal their identity (like with a debit card or credit).

Bitcoin hit a record high of $ 63,000 per unit in the past month, making it the most valuable cryptocurrency to date. Many bitcoin speculators call it a store of value similar to safe haven investments like gold.

Ethereum (ETH)

Behind Bitcoin, ETH is the second largest cryptocurrency in the world with a market cap of nearly $ 300 billion. ETH was introduced in late 2013 by a cryptocurrency programming researcher called Vitalik Buterin, and the system was launched in 2015.

Ethereum offers its users a variety of great features such as seamless decentralized governance, use of smart contracts . Similar to Bitcoin, ETH works on the Blockchain, which can be mined through ETH. in Ether.

The biggest difference between ETH and Bitcoin is the intended use and core technology of the two currencies. ETH was created with the goal of becoming a platform for Smart Contract development.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin was born with the sole purpose of becoming a means of payment and a store of value.

Binance Coin

Binance Coin is the world's third largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of nearly $ 90 billion.

The Binance exchange is the largest cryptocurrency platform by trading volume and created Binance Coin (BNB) as a means of paying fees on its platform. On April 18, 2019, Binance officially launched its own blockchain, Binance Chain.

Binance's virtual currency was issued during the ICO with a total supply of 200,000,000 BNB. Binance Coin can only be exchanged for other cryptocurrencies.

Most recently, Binance hired Brian Brooks, the director of the Office of the Monetary Control Authority in the final years of the Trump administration to lead his business in the United States.

XRP

XRP is the digital currency on the Ripple payment platform. Ripple has been extremely popular since its release in 2012. This is an open source distributed system that is still in the Beta segment.

The cool thing about Ripple is that any currency, be it a digital currency or a regular currency, can be exchanged for another.

By using XRP as a bridge, users can pay with bitcoin without having to own bitcoins. Major banks have also caught up with the trend and partnered with Ripple such as Bank of America, Banco Santander and PNC.

XRP does not run on a blockchain platform but on a data structure called HashTree, which makes it different from other digital currencies. It cannot be mined and its total stash is set at 100 billion.

Despite the finite supply, the unit cost per XRP token remains fairly low, with the all-time high of each XRP unit being $ 3.40 - according to CoinDesk data. XRP's market cap is just over $ 60 billion.

Tether

At the bottom of the top 5 largest digital currencies is Tether coin, with a market cap of nearly $ 50 billion.

Like Bitcoin or any virtual currency appearing on the market today, Tether can be stored, spent, transferred, and traded normally. The purpose of creating Tether coin is to facilitate the transfer of national currencies.

To the Tether executives, as soon as the virtual currency launched, they emphasized that Tether is not an AltCoin or a rival of Bitcoin, but it helps to add technology to Bitcoin.

If understood more simply, Tether supports the wider use of Bitcoin and attracts more users, making users more attracted to Blockchain but afraid of volatility becoming an easy entry into the market.

According to data from CoinDesk, Tether's all-time high is $ 1.32 per unit. Tether is relatively stable compared to other cryptocurrencies.

This year alone, its value has skyrocketed by more than 7,800%. Tether even overtook XRP as the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market cap in April.

David Pac

Update 02 May 2021