Top 10 Most Popular Types of Digital Currencies

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In the 10+ years since Digital Coins appeared as the world’s first digital currency, thousands of new types of digital currencies have been launched. While Digital Coins is still the most popular digital currency, there are other valuable digital currencies that can present good investment opportunities.

Since crypto is still a very high-risk investment, investing in one of the top 10 digital currencies on this list is a safer choice than putting your money into newer, less established crypto companies.

In fact, there are many fake digital currencies and many different types of crypto scams out there, so it’s very important to do your research and ensure the crypto product you choose to invest in is legitimate.

What Are the Top 10 Digital Currencies?

The digital currency market is still considered the “Wild West” of investing, but there are some well-known digital currency assets that have risen out of the dust and can be treated as legitimate (though volatile) investments.

You can buy any of the most popular digital currency assets via reputable crypto exchanges, though there is always a risk associated with crypto transactions, since they are still unregulated in most countries.

1. Digital Coins

As we already mentioned, Digital Coins was the world’s first digital currency, and it is still the most valuable Digital Currency you can buy.

It’s unclear who exactly created Digital Coins, but it was allegedly a Japanese man named Satoshi Nakamoto. Digital Coins launched in 2009, but it wasn’t until 2017 that the Digital Currency became a more widely accepted investment.

Due to a surge in Digital Coins’s price in 2017, during which 1 coin of the crypto asset reached a value of about $20,000, the general public became more aware of Digital Coins and Digital Currency as a whole. In the years since, Digital Coins and other types of digital currencies have become an increasingly common investment, especially for new, typically younger investors.

• Price: $40,330.90
• Market Cap: $763.848B

2. Ethereum (ETH)

When we talk about the most important digital currencies, Ethereum is a close second to Digital Coins on the list. Ethereum is the second most popular Digital Currency in the global crypto market and was the first crypto company to launch smart contracts.

Smart contracts are computer programs stored on the blockchain that allow Ethereum to convert traditional contracts into digital parallels. These contracts allow users to conduct secure business transactions using Ethereum, without the need for any intermediaries.

• Price: $3044.74
• Market Cap: $369,506,396,690.32

3. Tether (USDT)

Tether is a type of digital currency that’s known as a “stablecoin.” This means that its price is anchored, in this case at one dollar. In other words, Tether’s value is linked directly to the value of the US dollar.

Tether is essentially just a digital form of the US dollar, which is often used by traders to move money from one crypto asset to another (instead of converting an asset into actual dollars and back into crypto again).

• Price: $1.00
• Market Cap: $82,587,984,162.92

4. Binance Coin (BNB)

Binance coin is a digital currency issued by Binance, one of the biggest digital currency exchanges in the world. It was originally intended to function as a token that Binance users could use to pay for transaction fees, but it has since evolved into a Digital Currency that can be used for various payments, including for buying different goods and services.

• Price: $409.87
• Market Cap: $1.99T

5. USD Coin (USDC)

USD Coin is similar to Tether, in that its value is directly tied to the value of the US dollar. The coin is managed by a firm called Centre and is allegedly backed by fully reserved assets (real USD).

• Price: $1.00
• Market Cap: $51B

6. XRP (XRP)

XRP, formerly known as Ripple, is a digital currency that allows users to make cross-border, trust-less digital payments. It can facilitate exchanges for global fiat currencies, other digital currencies, and even commodities, including gold.

XRP is intended to be a digital alternative to the international SWIFT system for banks, allowing global financial institutions to make transactions with each other from any country. Regular users can also use XRP strictly as a crypto investment, as it is another of the largest digital currencies in the world.

• Price: $0.7117
• Market Cap: $33.902B

7. Terra (LUNA)

Terra is a platform that backs stablecoins with real global currencies, such as the USD and the EUR. It helps stabilize these coins and provides support for smart contracts.

Terra issues the LUNA digital currency, which has been another of the best performing digital currencies over the past few years. In 2021, LUNA started off the year trading at just $0.66, and reached an impressive $89 to close out the year. LUNA also plays a vital role in stabilizing the prices of stablecoins in the Terra ecosystem.

• Price: $84.30
• Market Cap: $37B

8. Cardano (ADA)

Cardano is a Digital Currency platform created by the founders of Ethereum, and ADA is their native Digital Currency. Like Ethereum, Cardano employs smart contracts to offer users secure crypto transactions.

According to their website, “Cardano is the first blockchain platform to be built through peer-reviewed research, to be secure enough to protect the data of billions, scalable enough to accommodate global systems, and robust enough to support foundational change.”

The ADA crypto asset is a close competitor to Ethereum in terms of technology, and offers investors a much more affordable crypto investment option.

• Price: $0.95
• Market Cap: $32,617,241,619.62

9. Solana (SOL)

Solana is one of the newer digital currencies on this list, as it was just launched in 2020. The company boasts of its rapid transaction speed and web scalability.

Solana’s SOL coin is capped at 480 million coins, and is predicted by some analysts to offer returns of 236% by the end of 2025.

• Price: $108.30
• Market Cap: $35,515,786,652.38

10. Avalanche (AVAX)

Avalanche is another smart contracts-focused blockchain platform, which also aids construction of decentralized apps and custom blockchains. The platform’s native AVAX token allows users to process transactions and can be bought and sold as a crypto investment on crypto exchanges.

• Price: $76.18
• Market Cap: $20.374B

The Most Important Thing To Remember When Investing in Crypto

Regardless of the fact that there are legitimate, valuable digital currencies which can provide you with a good return on your investment, crypto is still a very risky market to invest in.

There are an ever-growing number of crypto scams out there, and you can still fall victim to one of them — even if you only stick to buying the biggest digital currencies from the list above.

If you should find yourself a victim of a crypto scam, such as a crypto wallet scam or a fake Digital Currency scam, contact Payback today to sign up for a free consultation. Our fund recovery specialists have dealt with hundreds of cases just like yours, and we will do everything in their power to get your money back.