Altcoins are all cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin. The name is short for "alternative coins." They include payment coins such as Litecoin, smart contract platforms such as Ethereum and Cardano, stablecoins such as USDC, utility tokens, exchange tokens and meme coins such as Dogecoin. Many are smaller than Bitcoin and trade less, so their prices can swing sharply.
Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency. Its software was first released in January 2009, and the cryptocurrencies that came after it are known as altcoins, short for “alternative coins.” If you are new to crypto, start with what cryptocurrency is and what Bitcoin is.
This is the main guide to the Altcoins section of the Coinmama Academy. It explains the main types of altcoins, how they differ from Bitcoin, what gives them value, what can go wrong and how to check a coin before you buy it, with links to our guides on individual coins. For current prices and payment options, see Coinmama’s cryptocurrency pages.
What is an altcoin?
An altcoin is any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin. The word joins “alternative” and “coin,” because the first altcoins were built as alternatives to Bitcoin, often by copying its code and changing some of its rules.
The first was Namecoin, announced in April 2011. It reused Bitcoin’s design to run a decentralized naming system: a way to register names, such as website addresses, without a central registry. Its developers still describe it as the first fork of Bitcoin. Litecoin followed in October 2011, with faster blocks and a larger supply.
Today the word covers very different projects. Some are small variations on Bitcoin. Others are new networks built to run apps, move money between businesses, keep a steady price or pay for services such as data or file storage.
People use the word in slightly different ways. Some count every cryptocurrency except Bitcoin, including Ether and stablecoins. Others treat Ether or stablecoins as groups of their own. This guide uses the broad meaning. For a short definition, see the glossary entry for altcoins.
How are altcoins different from Bitcoin?
Each altcoin has its own rules, software and community. It can differ from Bitcoin in what it is for, how its network confirms transactions, how many coins can exist and whether it has a blockchain of its own.
| Feature | Bitcoin (BTC) | Altcoins |
|---|---|---|
| Main purpose | Digital money that people can send to each other without a bank | Varies: payments (Litecoin, XRP), apps (Ethereum, Cardano), a steady price (USDT, USDC), network services (Chainlink, Filecoin) or community and fun (Dogecoin) |
| How transactions are confirmed | Proof of work (mining) | Proof of work (Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dogecoin), proof of stake (Ethereum, Cardano, Tezos) or other methods |
| Supply | Limited to 21 million BTC | Varies: about 84 million LTC planned for Litecoin, 100 billion XRP created at launch, no maximum for Dogecoin |
| Blockchain | Its own | Coins have their own blockchain; tokens run on another one, such as Ethereum |
Proof of work secures a network through mining: computers compete to add the next block of transactions. Proof of stake relies on validators who lock up coins as a deposit instead. Ethereum switched from the first to the second on September 15, 2022.
Many early altcoins began as a copy of Bitcoin’s code with some rules changed, which is called a fork. Read what forking is and whether Litecoin is a fork of Bitcoin to see how this works.
What is the difference between a coin and a token?
A coin is the native currency of its own blockchain. A token is created on an existing blockchain by a smart contract, a program that runs on that blockchain.
BTC, ETH, ADA, XRP and DOGE are coins: each one pays the fees on its own network. Shiba Inu (SHIB), Uniswap (UNI) and The Sandbox (SAND) are tokens that run on Ethereum.
Many tokens on Ethereum follow a shared standard called ERC-20, first proposed in November 2015, so wallets and apps can handle them in the same way. Two things follow from this:
- Fees are paid in the host network’s coin. To move an ERC-20 token, you pay the Ethereum network fee in ETH, not in the token itself.
- Names can be copied. Anyone can create a token with any name or ticker symbol, so a real token and a fake one can share a name. The contract address, published on the project’s official website, is what identifies the real token.
What types of altcoins are there?
Altcoins are usually grouped by what they are designed to do. The table shows the main types, and the sections below explain each one and link to our guides. Some coins fit more than one type.
| Type | What it is for | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Payment coins | Sending value from one person to another | Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), XRP |
| Smart contract platforms | Running apps and other tokens | Ether (ETH), Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), Polkadot (DOT) |
| Stablecoins | Keeping a steady price, usually 1 US dollar | Tether (USDT), USDC |
| Utility tokens | Paying for a service on a network | Chainlink (LINK), Filecoin (FIL), The Sandbox (SAND) |
| DeFi and governance tokens | Using decentralized finance apps or voting on how they are run | Aave (AAVE), Compound (COMP), Uniswap (UNI) |
| Exchange tokens | Fee discounts on an exchange, or fees on a blockchain linked to it | BNB |
| Meme coins | Community and internet culture | Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB) |
What are payment coins?
Payment coins are built mainly to send value from one person to another, like Bitcoin, but with different trade-offs, such as faster or larger blocks.
- Litecoin (LTC) launched in October 2011. It adds a block about every 2.5 minutes on average, a quarter of Bitcoin’s 10 minutes, and was designed to produce about 84 million coins, four times Bitcoin’s limit. Read whether Litecoin is a fork of Bitcoin, what Litecoin is and what the Litecoin halving means.
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH) split from Bitcoin on August 1, 2017, at block 478,558, after a disagreement over how Bitcoin should grow. It uses larger blocks so that more payments fit into each one. Read what Bitcoin Cash is.
- XRP runs on the XRP Ledger, which was created in 2012 for payments. XRP is not mined: all 100 billion XRP were created at launch, and no more can be made. According to XRPL.org, transactions on the ledger settle in 3 to 5 seconds. Read what Ripple (XRP) is.
Dogecoin is also used for tips and small payments. It is covered with the meme coins below.
What are smart contract platforms?
Smart contract platforms are blockchains that run programs, so developers can build apps and create tokens on them. Their coin pays the network’s fees and, on proof-of-stake networks, is staked to help secure it.
- Ethereum (ETH) launched in 2015. Ether pays for transaction fees, called gas, and is staked to secure the network. Read what Ethereum is, how Ethereum works and how Bitcoin and Ethereum differ.
- Cardano (ADA) is a proof-of-stake platform that its builders say was founded on peer-reviewed research. Read what Cardano is.
- Solana (SOL) is another platform for apps. SOL pays transaction fees on Solana and is used to take part in securing the network.
- Polkadot (DOT) lets many blockchains run side by side and share security. DOT is used for governance votes and staking. Read what Polkadot is.
- Tezos (XTZ) is a proof-of-stake platform that can upgrade its own rules without a hard fork. Read what Tezos is.
- Qtum (QTUM) combines Bitcoin’s way of tracking coins, called the UTXO model, with Ethereum-style smart contracts. Read what Qtum is.
- Polygon runs Polygon PoS, a proof-of-stake network connected to Ethereum that runs Ethereum-compatible apps. Read what Polygon is.
What are stablecoins?
Stablecoins are altcoins designed to keep a steady price, usually 1 US dollar. That makes them useful for moving between crypto and dollars, but it also means they work very differently from other altcoins.
Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC are two well-known examples. Both issuers say their coins are backed by reserves: Tether says each USDT is pegged 1-to-1 to the US dollar, and Circle says USDC can be redeemed 1:1 for US dollars.
A stablecoin is only as stable as what backs it. TerraUSD (UST) was an “algorithmic stablecoin” meant to hold its value by being swappable for another token, LUNA, rather than through cash reserves. In May 2022, UST lost its dollar peg and its price fell close to zero, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Past performance does not predict future results.
Start with what a stablecoin is, then read what Tether (USDT) is, what USDC is and how USDT and USDC compare.
What are utility tokens?
Utility tokens pay for a specific service on a network, such as data, file storage or items in a game. Demand for that service is one reason people hold them, alongside trading.
- Chainlink (LINK) connects blockchains to real-world data, such as prices, through a network of oracles. LINK pays for the network’s services and rewards the operators who provide them reliably. Read what Chainlink is.
- Filecoin (FIL) is a decentralized storage network. Users pay storage providers to keep their files, and providers lock up FIL as collateral, which they lose if they repeatedly fail to prove the files are still stored. Read what Filecoin is.
- VeChain (VET) aims to connect blockchain technology to real-world uses for businesses. VET is the token that secures and powers its network. Read what VeChain is.
- Ankr (ANKR) provides infrastructure that apps use to connect to many different blockchains. Read what Ankr is.
- The Sandbox (SAND) is a virtual world on Ethereum where players build and own game content. SAND is its utility token. Read what The Sandbox is.
What are DeFi and governance tokens?
DeFi (decentralized finance) apps offer lending, borrowing and trading through smart contracts instead of a bank or broker. Many of them issue governance tokens, which let holders vote on changes to the app.
- Aave (AAVE) is a lending protocol: users supply crypto that others can borrow, or borrow against collateral. Read what Aave is.
- Compound (COMP) is another lending protocol. It is governed by COMP holders and the people they delegate their votes to. Read what Compound is.
- Uniswap (UNI) is a decentralized exchange, where people swap tokens from their own wallets. UNI launched in September 2020 as its governance token. Read what Uniswap is.
- Loopring (LRC) ran a decentralized exchange built on Ethereum. In June 2026, its team announced that the exchange was closing, citing a lack of adoption. Read whether Loopring is safe.
DeFi apps add risks of their own, such as bugs in their smart contracts that attackers can exploit. Start with what DeFi is.
What are exchange tokens?
Exchange tokens are created by a crypto exchange, often to give discounts on its trading fees or to pay for transactions on a blockchain linked to it. Their value is closely tied to the company behind them.
BNB is a well-known example. It launched in 2017 through an initial coin offering (ICO), began as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum and is now the native token of BNB Chain, where it pays transaction fees. Binance says BNB can also be used to pay trading fees on its exchange at a discount, and that it regularly burns (permanently removes) BNB, with a long-term goal of 100 million BNB in total.
If the company behind a token fails, the token can fail with it. FTT, the token issued by the FTX exchange, collapsed along with FTX in late 2022, according to the SEC’s charges against former FTX executives. Past performance does not predict future results.
What are meme coins?
Meme coins are coins or tokens that became popular through internet jokes and online communities rather than a specific technical use. Their prices depend heavily on attention, so they can rise and fall very quickly.
- Dogecoin (DOGE) launched in December 2013 as a joke based on the Doge meme, a photo of a Shiba Inu dog. It runs its own proof-of-work blockchain and has no maximum supply. Read what Dogecoin is.
- Shiba Inu (SHIB) is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum named after the same dog breed. Read what Shiba Inu is.
Anyone can launch a new meme token, and some are created only to take buyers’ money. Learn how pump-and-dump schemes and rug pulls work before you buy one.
How do altcoins get their value?
An altcoin is worth what buyers will pay for it. Apart from stablecoins, most altcoins are not backed by reserves or earnings, so their price comes down to supply and demand.
- Demand comes from people using the network, for example to pay fees or use apps, from traders, and from attention in the news and on social media.
- Supply depends on the coin’s rules: whether there is a maximum, how fast new coins are created and whether some are burned. Check the circulating supply (the coins on the market now) and how many coins held by the team or early investors will be released later.
- Market cap is the price multiplied by the circulating supply. It shows a coin’s total value better than its price per coin does. Read what market cap is.
A low price per coin does not make a coin cheap. For example, a coin priced at $0.01 with 100 billion coins in circulation has a market cap of $1 billion, the same as a coin priced at $100 with 10 million coins in circulation. (This is an illustration, not real coins.)
Many traders also compare altcoins with Bitcoin using Bitcoin dominance, Bitcoin’s share of the total value of all crypto. To understand how sharply prices can move, read what volatility is.
What are the risks of altcoins?
Altcoins carry the same basic risks as Bitcoin, such as sharp price swings and transfers that cannot be reversed, plus some of their own. Smaller and newer coins usually carry the most risk.
- Price swings and thin trading. A coin that few people trade can move sharply on a single large order, and it can be hard to sell at the price you expect.
- Projects that fail. Teams can run out of money, users or interest. The closure of Loopring’s exchange, described above, is one example.
- Delisting. Exchanges can stop trading a coin, which makes it harder to sell.
- Concentrated ownership. When a few wallets, often the team and early investors, hold much of the supply, their sales can move the price.
- Code and security risks. Tokens and DeFi apps rely on smart contracts, and bugs in them can be exploited by attackers.
- Stablecoin risk. A stablecoin can lose its peg if its backing fails, as UST did in 2022.
- Changing rules. Laws and tax rules for crypto differ by country and can change. Read crypto taxes before you buy to see what to check.
Past performance does not predict future results, for any coin.
How do altcoin scams work?
Most altcoin scams play on the hope of quick profits. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) warns that pump-and-dump schemes can occur in thinly traded or new “alternative” coins and tokens.
- Pump and dumps. Organizers hype a small coin, often in chat groups or with fake news, then sell once the price jumps, leaving later buyers with losses. See pump and dump.
- Rug pulls. The creators of a token or app take the money investors put in and disappear. See rug pull.
- Fake tokens. Scammers create tokens with the same name or ticker as real ones. Check the contract address on the project’s official website.
- Fake giveaways. Impersonators, often using a celebrity’s name, promise to multiply any crypto you send them. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns that only scammers promise sure profits or big returns.
The CFTC advises against buying coins or tokens because of social media tips or sudden price spikes. Learn the warning signs in common scams in the crypto industry and how to protect yourself from fraud.
How can you check an altcoin before you buy it?
Start with what the project does and who runs it, then check its supply, trading and security. If you cannot answer these questions, treat the coin as high risk.
- Find out what it is for. Read the project’s official website and whitepaper, the document that explains how it works. You should be able to say in one sentence what the coin does and why it needs a coin or token of its own.
- Check who builds it. Look for a named team or foundation, recent software updates and an active network. A project with no visible activity may have been abandoned.
- Study the supply. Check the maximum and circulating supply, how new coins are created, how much the team and early investors hold and when their coins are released.
- Look at how it trades. Compare its market cap and daily trading volume on independent price-tracking sites. A coin that trades in few places, or in small amounts, can be hard to sell.
- Confirm the network and address. For a token, copy the contract address from the official website and check which blockchain it runs on before you buy or send it.
- Watch for red flags. Promises of sure profits, pressure to buy quickly, heavy paid promotion (shilling) and sudden price spikes are all warning signs.
If you do buy, only use money you can afford to lose. No one can reliably predict an altcoin’s price.
How do you store altcoins safely?
Use a wallet that supports the coin’s network, back up its recovery phrase offline and check the network and address before every transfer. A crypto wallet holds the keys that let you move your coins.
- Match the network. Each blockchain has its own address format. Sending coins or tokens over a network your wallet does not support can mean losing them, because blockchain transactions generally cannot be reversed.
- Keep some of the network’s coin for fees. To send an ERC-20 token, you need a little ETH in the same wallet to pay the network fee.
- Add a tag or memo when asked. Some networks, including the XRP Ledger, use a destination tag to show who a payment is for when many people share one address, such as at an exchange. Leaving it out can delay a payment or get it rejected.
- Protect your recovery phrase. Write your seed phrase on paper, keep it offline and never share it or type it into a website.
- Choose hot or cold storage. Compare the options in hot wallet vs cold wallet.
Sources
- Satoshi Nakamoto Institute: Bitcoin v0.1 released (January 8, 2009) (checked September 2026)
- Bitcoin.org: Frequently asked questions (checked September 2026)
- Bitcointalk: Namecoin, a distributed naming system based on Bitcoin (announcement, April 18, 2011) and Namecoin project home page (checked September 2026)
- Bitcointalk: Litecoin, a lite version of Bitcoin (launch announcement, October 2011) (checked September 2026)
- Bitcoin Cash: bitcoincash.org (checked September 2026)
- XRPL.org: XRP and Source and destination tags (checked September 2026)
- ethereum.org: What is ether (ETH)? and The Merge (checked September 2026)
- ethereum.org: ERC-20 token standard and How to identify scam tokens (checked September 2026)
- Cardano: cardano.org, Solana: What is Solana?, Polkadot Wiki: Getting started, Tezos: tezos.com, Qtum: qtum.org and Polygon docs: Polygon PoS (checked September 2026)
- Tether: USDt and Circle: USDC (checked September 2026)
- US SEC: SEC charges Terraform and CEO Do Kwon (February 16, 2023) (checked September 2026)
- Chainlink: chain.link and Chainlink economics (checked September 2026)
- Filecoin docs: What is Filecoin, VeChain: vechain.org and Ankr: ankr.com (checked September 2026)
- Etherscan: The Sandbox (SAND) token, SHIBA INU (SHIB) token and Uniswap (UNI) token (checked September 2026)
- Aave: aave.com, Compound docs: Governance and Uniswap blog: Introducing UNI (September 16, 2020) (checked September 2026)
- Cointelegraph: Loopring announces DEX closure, citing no adoption (June 29, 2026) (checked September 2026)
- Binance Academy: What is BNB? (checked September 2026)
- US SEC: SEC charges Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang (December 21, 2022) (checked September 2026)
- Dogecoin project: History of Dogecoin and Dogecoin inflation (checked September 2026)
- US CFTC: Beware virtual currency pump-and-dump schemes (checked September 2026)
- US Federal Trade Commission: What to know about cryptocurrency and scams (checked September 2026)
