10 Largest Cryptocurrencies by Market Capitalization

1. Bitcoin (BTC): Market Cap: $458 billion Bitcoin is the largest and most popular cryptocurrency by market cap and was created by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. It is a decentralized digital currency that has transferrable ownership. This cryptocurrency is mineable and has a maximum supply of ₿21,000,000.

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2. Ethereum (ETH): Market Cap: $216 billion The closest second to Bitcoin is Ethereum, and its token which is called “Ether.” The Ethereum network is intended to replace traditional financial services firms like banks and brokerages by using decentralized applications, commonly called “DeFi,” for financial applications. Ether is the fuel that is required to run transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.

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3. Tether (USDT): Market Cap: $66 billion The third largest coin at the time of writing is quite different from Ether and BTC because it is a centralized cryptocurrency. Tether is the largest stablecoin that attempts to tie its price to the US Dollar. Tether is commonly abbreviated USD₮ or USDT. This stablecoin is owned by iFinex, which owns the Bitfinex exchange.

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4. USD Coin (USDC): Market Cap: $54 billion The second largest stablecoin is USD Coin, abbreviated to USDC. Similar to USDT, USDC is centralized and is backed by cash and US T-bills. Interestingly, you can view the underlying assets here, which consist of approximately 20% Cash and 80% short-duration T-bills. To learn more about Short Duration Products, check out the CMSA course on this topic.

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5. Binance Coin (BNB): Market Cap: $52 billion BNB use to use the Ethereum blockchain but now instead uses the Binance blockchain. BNB was created in 2017 and has wide uses today. Most commonly, it is used for payments and transaction fees on Binance. Like many other coins, BNB is centralized.

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6. Ripple (XRP): Market Cap: $18 billion XRP is decentralized and uses the Ripple protocol to prioritize speed and minimize costs. It is an older cryptocurrency that was first released in 2012. XRP is said to be a fast and secure way to send digital payments.

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7. Cardano (ADA): Market Cap: $18 billion Unlike the previous few coins, Cardano is a decentralized, open-source, public blockchain. Cardano has been around since 2017 but began development back in 2015 with help from an Ethereum cofounder.

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8. Binance USD (BUSD): Market Cap: $18 billion Binance USD is the second coin on this list from the Binance cryptocurrency exchange. It is a centralized stablecoin based on Ethereum.

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9. Solana (SOL): Market Cap: $15 billion Solana, which started in 2020, is a Blockchain platform on its own and has a native cryptocurrency with the same name. Solana is often used for smart contracts and now non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Its closest rival is said to be Ethereum, with many of the same features.

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10. Polkadot (DOT): Market Cap: $10 billion Polkadot, abbreviated DOT, is a cryptocurrency released in 2020. It was started by another Ethereum co-founder and can be used to connect blockchains together securely.