Cryptocurrency is one of the hottest thing in finance right now, and for good reason. The world’s top cryptocurrencies have absolutely skyrocketed this year, with the global market peaking at $179 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

That being said, the market for cryptocurrency remains highly volatile. For example, the market shed $65 billion through the first two weeks of September after China moved to ban initial coin offerings (ICOs) and bitcoin exchanges.

Below is a list of the ten largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. As you can see, all ten of these tokens have a market cap of $1 billion or more.

 

  1. Bitcoin (BTC)

  • Market Cap: $61.3 billion
  • Current Price: $3,700.00
  • The preeminent Bitcoin leads the cryptocurrency asset class. It was founded in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of a person or entity who designed the original blockchain protocol.

 

  1. Ethereum (ETH)

  • Market Cap: $26.9 billion
  • Current Price: $284.00
  • Ethereum is a decentralized platform that has gained tremendous mainstream appeal for its technical specifications, smart contracts and role in facilitating initial coin offerings (ICOs).

 

  1. Bitcoin Cash (BCH)

  • Market Cap: $7 billion
  • Current Price: $422.00
  • On 1 August, Bitcoin Cash forked from the original Bitcoin to form its own cryptocurrency. In other words, Bitcoin essentially split into two, giving us BCH. The new coin operates a different software with its own rules and blockchain.

 

  1. Ripple (XRP)

  • Market Cap: $6.7 billion
  • Current Price $0.175
  • Released in 2012, Ripple is a cryptocurrency built on a distributed open source Internet protocol, consensus ledger and native currency called XRP. It has many of the same characteristics as the major cryptocurrencies.

 

  1. Dash (DASH)

  • Market Cap: $2.5 billion
  • Current Price: $336.00
  • Dash offers many of the same features as Bitcoin, but specializes in instant transactions and private transactions. The system launched in 2014.

 

  1. Litecoin (LTC)

  • Market Cap: $2.5 billion
  • Current Price: $48.00
  • Launched five years ago, Litecoin is widely considered to be the silver to Bitcoin’s gold. Litecoin has some technical improvements over Bitcoin, but essentially serves the same function.

 

  1. NEM (XEM)

  • Market Cap: $1.9 billion
  • Current Price: $0.217
  • NEM is one of the newest digital coins to crack the top-ten list. Founded in 2015, NEM has introduced new features to the blockchain market, including the proof-of-importance algorithm and encrypted messaging.

 

  1. IOTA (MIOTA)

  • Market Cap: $1.5 billion
  • Current Price: $0.530
  • IOTA is said to combine the attributes of cryptocurrency, blockchain and the Internet of Things (IOT) into a powerful digital token. As the IOT phenomenon explodes, IOTA could be poised for bigger gains.

  1. Monero (XMR)

  • Market Cap: $1.4 billion
  • Current Price: $90.00
  • Created in 2014, Monero is another popular cryptocurrency focused on privacy and scalability. It runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android.

 

  1. Ethereum Classic (ETC)

  • Market Cap: $1 billion
  • Current Price: $10.00
  • Ethereum Classic came on to the scene in 2015 as a result of disagreement over The DAO Hard Fork. A segment of the Ethereum network rejected The DAO protocols on philosophical grounds, leading to the hard fork.

 

[1] Cryptocurrency Market Capitalizations. CoinMarketCap.com.

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