The most popular are usually the ones with the highest market cap. Of course, people already know about them, and that’s why they’re interested in them. This market cap is usually over $10 billion. That’s how much capital investors have pumped into the crypto asset in the market. You can get the market cap by multiplying the unit price of the coin now by its supply in circulation.
But this is not a math class. And before I bore you with all the statistical details, let’s dive right into the top 10 most popular cryptocurrencies in 2022 (so far).
1. Bitcoin (BTC)
If we’re going by market cap, you can already guess that Bitcoin comes on top of our list. Even besides that, Bitcoin owes a lot of its popularity to the fact that it was the first cryptocurrency. It was created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto as the first money without any central authority. The first fully decentralised system and the first successful application of blockchain technology. Sounds like a superstar to me. And indeed, it is.
A total supply of 21 million has been programmed for circulation, but 18.9 million is now in circulation. Today, one Bitcoin is worth $42,557.00. It has a market cap of $801.7 billion with a trading volume of $29.1 billion. A similar asset to Bitcoin is Litecoin.
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2. Ethereum (ETH)
The second most popular cryptocurrency so far is Ether (ETH). If Bitcoin was the first payment blockchain, Ethereum was the first smart contract network. It was launched in July 2019 to support decentralised applications and smart contracts. Although it runs on a proof-of-work algorithm now, the Eth2 upgrade will feature a proof-of-stake mining model.
ETH fuels the blockchain asides from serving as a currency. Today, ETH costs $3,301.70 and has a market cap of $394.4 billion. It has an uncapped supply with around 119.2 million ethers in circulation now. It is listed on most exchanges.
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3. Binance Coin (BNB)
The third most popular coin is the native token of the Binance exchange. It was created using the ERC-20 standard. BNB is a utility token for settling trading, listing, exchange, and other fees on the Binance ecosystem.
BNB was introduced in July 2017 with an ICO that lasted for a month. Out of the 200 million total supply, 31.8 million has been burnt as a deflationary mechanism. BNB costs $483.43 right now. It has a market cap of $80.9 billion.
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4. Tether (USDT)
Tether is the first and one of the most popular stablecoins. It has a market cap of $78.7 billion, with a trading volume of $56.4 billion. In July 2018, it peaked at $1.32. It is worth $1.00 right now.
It was launched in 2014 as RealCoin and started trading in February 2015. Tether is not highly volatile like most cryptocurrencies as it is pegged to USD. Also, it eliminates transaction costs and makes trade execution fast. It is listed on numerous exchanges.
5. Solana (SOL)
The “Ethereum Killer” was developed by Anatoly Yakovenko in 2017 as a fast, scalable, and secure platform. It can support the creation of decentralised applications, NFT marketplaces, DeFi, and the likes. The blockchain operates on proof-of-stake and proof-of-history consensus algorithms. Its native coin (SOL) has a market cap of $46.06 billion.
SOL reached an ATH of $259.96 in November 2021. Today, it is trading at $146.10 per SOL. 313.5 million sols are in circulation right now. It is used as a governance token to settle transaction costs and staking.
It is listed on Huobi Global, KuCoin, Coinbase Exchange, and Binance.
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6. USD Coin (USDC)
USD Coin is the second most popular stablecoin after USDT. It was launched in 2018 by CENTRE and is pegged to USD also. Initially, it was an ERC-20 token but is now on Algorand ASA, Solana SPL, and Stellar. It can be traded, held, or used in dApps and DeFi.
It is worth $1.00 right now, but it peaked at $1.17 in May 2019. It has a market cap of $45.1 billion and a trading volume of $2.7 billion. There are 45.1 billion available in circulation currently. It is on DEXs and CEXs.
7. Cardano (ADA)
Cardano’s native coin (ADA) is the 7th most popular coin with a market cap of $40.56 billion today. It costs $1.27 now after dropping by 59% from an ATH of $3.09 in September 2021. ADA allows users of the Cardano blockchain to perform transactions and participate in governance on the network. It can also be staked.
Cardano is the first blockchain to use the Ouroboros consensus algorithm. It was developed in 2017 by Charles Hoskinson and Jeremy Wood. It supports the development of dApps with its ledger and smart contracts. The blockchain has two cores, the settlement and computational layers, which aid its operations.
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8. Ripple (XRP)
Like BTC, XRP was created for settling payments. It is the native token of the XRP Ledger and other services by the Ripple Labs. Unlike most blockchains, validation is somewhat centralised on Ripple. It has a list of nodes where users can validate their transactions.
XRP is used to run trades on the XRP Ledger. It is worth $0.77 today, with a market cap of $36.9 billion now. It reached an ATH of $3.40 in January 2018. There are 47.6 billion of the pre-mined 100 billion in circulation right now.
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9. Polkadot (DOT)
Polkadot was created in 2016 and launched in May 2020 by Robert Habermeier, Peter Czaban, and Gavin Wood. It boasts of security, scalability, and decentralisation. It operates on a Nominated-Proof-of-Stake (NPoS) consensus mechanism.
DOT is its native cryptocurrency. It can be traded, staked, and used as a governance token. The price of DOT is $26.28 right now but reached an ATH of $54.98 in November 2021. It has a market cap of $29.4 billion.
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10. Terra (LUNA)
Terra is a blockchain that supports the creation of stablecoins. They can be traded and exchanged on the ecosystem or various exchanges. Terraform Labs created it. It runs on Tendermint Delegated-Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) consensus algorithm.
The ecosystem consists of CHAI, Anchor Protocol, Terra Bridge, and Mirror Protocol. LUNA is its native token for making stablecoins stable. The total supply of LUNA is less than a billion. LUNA costs $80.47 as of today and has a market cap of $28.9 billion.
If you are looking for stable cryptocurrencies to invest in, these ten coins are your best bet. They have high market caps and more security benefits. However, don’t take my word for it. Make sure to do in-depth research and average your spending before investing in any cryptocurrency.
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