Altcoin refers to any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin. In 2017, altcoins primarily included Bitcoin competitors such as Litecoin and Dogecoin and pump-and-dump schemes with fancy modern websites.
Now, with the explosion of decentralized finance (DeFi) and the mainstream acceptance of smart contracts, the best altcoins belong to the best projects and companies in the blockchain space.
Blockchain companies issue their own cryptocurrency tokens and make those tokens a requirement to interact with their platforms. If a platform adds value and people want to use it, they will need to purchase their respective token, driving up the price of the asset.
Take a look at our top altcoin picks for 2021. They include a few of the most promising ideas in the blockchain space today.
The Best Altcoins Right Now
The modern market for altcoins continues to expand. The rise of smart contracts and new DeFi products have continued to weaken Bitcoin’s cryptocurrency market cap dominance, which currently sits around 60% compared to its 2017 highs above 85%.
Check out a list of the most promising altcoins and DeFi projects in the crypto space.
Ethereum, a smart contract platform for creating decentralized apps (DApps), was created by Vitalik Buterin in 2013 and comes with its own programming language, Solidity. To run your Solidity smart contracts on Ethereum’s blockchain, you pay a network gas fee in Ethereum’s token, Ether.
Ethereum laid the foundation for what is now known as decentralized finance (DeFi). Ethereum’s early success has led to a large portion of the DeFi space relying on Ethereum’s blockchain.
As Ethereum converts to version 2.0 over the coming year, fees will decrease dramatically and a whole host of new DApps will get their chance to shine.
The ticket to ride on the Ethereum blockchain is the Ether token (ETH), which is becoming more useful each day.
More info:
https://www.benzinga.com/money/best-alt-coins/