Top 25 Cryptocurrencies By Market Cap

Dogecoin

Dogecoin was initially supposed to be a “joke” cryptocurrency, which is why its mascot uses the popular meme of a Shiba Inu dog. Although it started as a joke, many people were interested in purchasing it and thus a full-fledged economy developed around it. For instance, Dogecoin remains one of the most popular ways to donate cryptocurrency to content creators that accept cryptocurrency tips, five years after it was created.

The cryptocurrency’s friendly nature isn’t the only reason why Dogecoin is often seen in the top cryptocurrency charts. The cryptocurrency has had faster transactions than Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies, although its development has largely stagnated since inception. Dogecoin continues to remain popular primarily due to the community formed around it, who continues to promote it as a primary way to transact or donate digital money.

(Previously #25 ↑ )

VeChain

VeChain is a cryptocurrency platform designed to enhance supply chain management processes. The VeChain platform aims to connect technologies such as NFC, RFID, QR codes, and barcodes with products so the items can be tracked to prevent counterfeiting.

One of the first partnerships obtained by the Singapore-based company behind VeChain was with D.I.G, China’s largest fine wine importer, which was trying to prevent counterfeit wines from reaching its shelves. Ownership of the wines would be determined based on private keys. The bottle’s ID would be scanned each step of the way in the supply chain to ensure its authenticity.

The VeChain team is already working on expanding the platform capabilities so the platform can become a full “programmable blockchain,” much like Ethereum. There will also be a rebrand from VeChain (VEN) to VeChain Thor (VET), as well as a new Thor coin, which will be used to execute the “smart contracts” running on top of VeChain Thor.

(Previously 20 ↓ )

Tezos

Tezos calls itself a new platform for smart contracts and decentralized applications (akin to Ethereum). The project implements “on-chain governance” to allow its users to decide the development roadmap and future of the project.

Tezos also facilitates formal verification for third-party applications, in order to secure them against bugs. The cryptocurrency uses an energy-efficient Proof of Stake algorithm to validate the transactions on the network, so it won’t suffer from the same energy waste issues that affect Bitcoin and other Proof of Work-powered cryptocurrencies.

The Tezos project has risen fast in valuation only to fall just as fast. Its co-founder, Arthur Breitman, was suspended earlier this year after the French Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) uncovered that Breitman had not reported working on the Tezos project while also working for Morgan Stanley, the investment banking firm.

The project has also been hit with two class-action lawsuits, in which the people who entered in the Tezos token pre-sale last summer accused the developers of not releasing the smart tokens that they were supposed to get in a timely manner. The developers released the “betanet” test network along with the tokens at the end of June, a year after the token buyers first sent their money to the Tezos team.

(Previously 18 ↓ )

Waves

Waves is a platform that’s similar to Ethereum in that anyone can create and launch their own digital asset/token on top of it. Unlike Ethereum, it’s non-Turing complete, which the developers believe makes it more secure because the attack surface is significantly reduced.

Waves is also its own decentralized exchange, so owners of any Waves digital asset can directly exchange their coins/assets with any other owner of a Waves token straight from the Waves platform.

The Waves platform also offers users the ability to purchase fiat currency through virtual 1:1 representations of them, given names such as wEuro, wUSD, etc. This allows the fiat currencies to be transferred at much faster speeds on the blockchain, compared to transferring them via a bank.

(Previously unranked)