The world of cryptocurrency is continuously expanding and the market has become increasingly appealing to mainstream investors.

For investors new to the crypto space, there are numerous coin available in the market. Listed below are five of the world’s most prominent cryptocurrencies:

BITCOIN

Currently worth more than $1.2 trillion, Bitcoin has always been the biggest player in the crypto world.

Launched in 2009, its new all-time high makes it more than 10 times more valuable per unit than the next biggest crypto. The digital currency runs on blockchain technology, another crypto buzzword.

Essentially, the blockchain is a decentralized ledger system where records of transactions are stored. That’s the key difference between Bitcoin and traditional fiat currencies like the US dollar or the euro, which are controlled by central banks.

Many Bitcoin investors call it a “store of value”, a label historically reserved for safe haven investments like gold. They argued that the Bitcoin is a good tool to hedge against inflation, something a lot of investors are worried about at the moment.

ETHEREUM

Ethereum is one of the most popular and valuable digital currencies and is currently worth nearly $560 billion.

The goal behind Ethereum is to create a decentralized suite of financial products that anyone in the world can freely access, regardless of nationality, ethnicity or faith.

Launched in 2015, Ether is currently the second-largest digital currency by market capitalization after Bitcoin, although it lags behind the bitcoin by a significant margin.

The applications on Ethereum are run on ether, its platform-specific cryptographic token. Ether is like a vehicle for moving around on the Ethereum platform and is sought mostly by developers looking to develop and run applications inside Ethereum.

BINANCE COIN

Binance Coin, also known as BNB tokens is worth more than $100 billion and was created as a means to pay for fees on its own platform.

Binance Coin is different in that it can be exchanged only into other cryptocurrencies and not into dollars or any other fiat currency.

The coin is used as a utility token for the Binance exchange and allows users to pay for transactions and trading fees at a lower rate than they would be with other tokens.

TETHER

Tether (often called by its symbol USDT) is a cryptocurrency with tokens issued by Tether Limited, which in turn is controlled by the owners of Bitfinex. Tether is called a stablecoin because it was originally designed to always be worth US$1.00, maintaining $1.00 in reserves for each tether issued.

In 2019, Tether surpassed Bitcoin in trading volume with the highest daily and monthly trading volume of any cryptocurrency on the market.

Tether has moved up to the fourth rank among the five biggest digital currencies, with a market cap of nearly $74 billion.

SOLANA

Solana, a competitor to Ethereum is a blockchain network with its own digital currency called Sol.
Solana was founded in March 2020 and since then, the crypto has skyrocketed more than 10,000% over the past year, according to data from CoinGecko.

The crypto went from being worth a modest $2 per unit to a value of over $200, bringing its market cap to more than $70 billion and outpacing fellow cryptos Cardano and XRP, both of whom have also spent time in the top five.

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