While Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has a market cap of $628 billion as of press time, only the market cap of 6 other cryptocurrencies exceeds $10 billion — today, we will examine those projects at the top of the digital asset food chain.
See also: How to buy Bitcoin
The Biggest Altcoin: Ether (CRYPTO: ETH) has a market cap of $246 billion and is the only cryptocurrency with a total network value exceeding $100 billion other than Bitcoin.
The Ethereum blockchain is the one that introduced smart contracts to the world, spawning decentralized applications (DApps) and decentralized finance (DeFi).
According to CoinMarketCap data, Ether is now worth $2,225 — down over 52% from its all-time high of $4,168 reported in early May.
See also: How to buy Ethereum
The Spawn Of The Crypto Overlord: Binance Coin (CRYPTO: BNB) is the coin launched by the world’s top cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, and currently has a market cap of over $44 billion.
The coin allows to receive free digital assets, fee discounts on the exchange, and to use the Binance Smart Chain and Binance Chain blockchains.
According to CoinMarketCap data, Binance Coin is now worth $288 — down nearly 55% from its all-time high of $675 reported in early May.
See also: How to buy Binance Coin
Ethereum’s Little Brother: Cardano (CRYPTO: ADA) was launched by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson and currently has a market cap of over $42 billion.
This is a proof-of-stake blockchain, so it does not need power-hungry mining hardware to keep it secure. That supports smart contracts just like its bigger brother but features faster and cheaper transactions.
See also: How to buy Cardano
The Court’s Clown: Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) has taken the world by storm this year after its community pushed its price up 15.591% from $0.004693 on Jan. 1 to $0.7364 on May 8 with the help of a tech tycoon Elon Musk.
The coin was created as a joke, but its current market cap of over $32 billion is no laughing matter.
According to CoinMarketCap data, the coin’s current price is $0.2471 — nearly 66.6% down from its May high.
See also: How to buy Dogecoin
Bankers’ Favorite: XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) is the native asset of a blockchain mainly aimed at financial institutions, and its current market cap is $30 billion.
XRP and its blockchain were adopted by numerous banks and institutions to power their international settlement systems and provide liquidity while lowering fees and cutting days of wait time to just minutes or seconds.
Still, the currency found itself in the midst of major controversy as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Ripple of having sold unregistered securities when it launched XRP.
According to CoinMarketCap data, as of press time, XRP’s price is $0.6646 — nearly 80% down from its early 2018 all-time high of $3.3778.
See also: How to buy XRP
The Glue To Keep It All Together: Polkadot (CRYPTO: DOT) is the native asset of a network…
Read more:Crypto’s Apex Predators: Coins With Market Cap Of Over $10B | Benzinga