Still, a few cryptocurrencies have managed to make a name for themselves and have valuations and price surges relatively irrelevant of Bitcoin. If you want to trade Bitcoin, you might want to take the time to research some other Cryptocurrencies as well, especially these four:
Ethereum
Ethereum is about as popular as Bitcoin, and in some instances, more heavily traded. It’s new compared to Bitcoin and some other initial cryptocurrencies (it went live in 2015), but it has made its mark right from the beginning and has become the second-largest crypto by market cap ($150.9billion). It’s also one of the most traded cryptos in the third quarter of 2020 when daily trade volume was over three times Bitcoin’s.
The currency saw a major theft in the early days, which was reverted using a hard fork. Like Bitcoin, Ethereum also peaked in 2017 then fell like Bitcoin, but the price curve after that is different. Ethereum’s one-year growth has been more than 2.5 times Bitcoin’s.
Litecoin
Litecoin can be considered one of the great “old ones.” It was an early spin-off of Bitcoin but couldn’t gain as much traction as Bitcoin or even newer coins like Ethereum did. Still, it has been consistently one of the top five most traded cryptos for several years. Its network went live in Oct 2011 and was revealed to the world by a Google employee who later joined Coinbase as an engineering director. So the crypto has a solid pedigree.
It’s can also be mined more rapidly than Bitcoin (one block every 2.5 minutes, which is four times faster than Bitcoin). One problem with Litecoin is that it’s difficult to mine. The rigs created to mine Litecoin are relatively more sophisticated than the ones used for Bitcoin. The current market cap is $8.6 billion.
Tether
The Tether can be considered more “legitimate” compared to many other cryptocurrencies, one of the first. It was introduced as a stable coin by Tether limited (making it a bit of a “black sheep” among other cryptos), and one tether token was expected to be backed by one US dollar. That’s what makes it “stable” crypto, i.e., its value is tied to an external asset. Though this definition changed in 2019, and the Tether coin’s value fell from $1 to $0.74. Still, thanks to a direct relation to the USD, it’s very stable compared to decentralized cryptocurrencies.
It was still one of the most heavily traded cryptos last year, despite the fact that the company and, by extension, the cryptocurrency have become quite controversial because of their relationship with a major exchange (Bitfinex) and the fact that it was accused of manipulating Bitcoin’s price. The current market cap is ($26.6 billion).
Ripple
Ripple is usually considered one of the top four cryptocurrencies, but “Ripple” is technically not the currency but the company behind the crypto XRP. Ripple is also the name of the payment protocol that uses this crypto. The company Ripple Labs, Inc. was created as a decentralized monetary system.
Ripple is quite different from Bitcoin. For one, it’s not mined. Therefore, it’s not tainted by the same “energy-hungry” reputation that Bitcoin. Secondly, it’s less famous (and useful) as an asset and better known for the digital payment protocol. This is one of the reasons why the Ripple payment system is, ironically, used extensively by the banks. Ripple transactions are also significantly easier to validate and, therefore, carry a lower transaction cost. The current market cap is $26.2 billion.
Conclusion
Visit talk-business.co.uk which offers tips for bitcoin trading, you might consider keeping an eye on these four cryptocurrencies. They might not be as exciting as an investment asset as Bitcoin is. Still, in a future where cryptocurrencies become mainstream and are widely used by both the populace and the government,these cryptos would most likely have a powerful place.
