Bitcoin gets all the headlines when people talk about cryptocurrencies, but there are literally thousands of other options when it comes to these digital currencies. In fact, cryptos that aren’t Bitcoin are usually considered an “also ran” – what are called “altcoins,” or alternatives to Bitcoin.
While Bitcoin may have been the first major cryptocurrency to hit the market – it debuted in 2009 – many others have become highly popular, even if not quite as large as the original.
Largest cryptocurrencies by market cap
1. Bitcoin (BTC)
Price: $43,701Market cap: $855 billion
As the harbinger of the cryptocurrency era, Bitcoin is still the coin people generally reference when they talk about digital currency. Its mysterious creator — allegedly Satoshi Nakamoto — debuted the currency in 2009 and it’s been on a roller-coaster ride since then. However, it wasn’t until 2017 that the cryptocurrency broke into popular consciousness.
2. Ethereum (ETH)
Price: $2,228Market cap: $268 billion
Ethereum — the name for the cryptocurrency platform — is the second name you’re most likely to recognize in the crypto space. The system allows you to use ether (the currency) to perform a number of functions, but the smart contract aspect of Ethereum helps make it a popular currency.
3. Tether (USDT)
Price: $1.00Market cap: $91 billion
Tether’s price is anchored at $1 per coin. That’s because it is what’s called a stablecoin. Stablecoins are tied to the value of a specific asset, in Tether’s case, the U.S. Dollar. Tether often acts as a medium when traders move from one cryptocurrency to another. Rather than move back to dollars, they use Tether. However, some people are concerned that Tether isn’t safely backed by dollars held in reserve but instead uses a short-term form of unsecured debt.
4. BNB (BNB)
Price: $272.75Market cap: $41 billion
BNB is the cryptocurrency issued by Binance, among the largest crypto exchanges in the world. While originally created as a token to pay for discounted trades, Binance Coin can now be used for payments as well as purchasing various goods and services.
5. Solana (SOL)
Price: $86.60Market cap: $37 billion
Launched in March 2020, Solana is a newer cryptocurrency and it touts its speed at completing transactions and the overall robustness of its “web-scale” platform. The issuance of the currency, called SOL, is capped at 480 million coins.
6. XRP (XRP)
Price: $0.6151Market cap: $33 billion
Formerly known as Ripple and created in 2012, XRP offers a way to pay in many different real-world currencies. Ripple can be useful in cross-border transactions and uses a trust-less mechanism to facilitate payments.
7. USD Coin (USDC)
Price: $1.00Market cap: $25 billion
Like Tether, USD Coin is a stablecoin pegged to the dollar, meaning that its value should not fluctuate. The currency’s founders say that it’s backed by fully reserved assets or those with “equivalent fair value” and those assets are held in accounts with regulated U.S. institutions.
8. Cardano (ADA)
Price: $0.5996Market cap: $21 billion
Cardano is the cryptocurrency platform behind ada, the name of the currency. Created by the co-founder of Ethereum, Cardano also uses smart contracts, enabling identity management.
9. Avalanche (AVAX)
Price: $44.57Market cap: $16 billion
Avalanche is a blockchain that was launched in 2020 and competes with Ethereum as one of the most popular blockchains for smart contracts. AVAX is the native currency of the Avalanche blockchain.
10. Dogecoin (DOGE)
Price: $0.09158Market cap: $13 billion
Originally created as a joke after the run-up in Bitcoin, Dogecoin takes its name from an internet meme featuring a Shiba Inu dog. Unlike many digital currencies limiting the number of coins in existence, Dogecoin has unlimited issuance. It can be used for payments or sending money
11. Polkadot (DOT)
Price: $7.66Market cap: $10 billion
Launched in May 2020, Polkadot is a digital currency that connects the technology of blockchain from many different cryptocurrencies. A co-founder of Ethereum is one of Polkadot’s inventors, and some industry watchers believe Polkadot is looking to dethrone Ethereum.
12. Tron (TRX)
Price: $0.104Market cap: $9 billion
Launched in September 2017 by Justin Sun, Tron is a blockchain ecosystem focused on decentralizing the internet through blockchain technology and decentralized apps. Tron hosts the largest circulating supply of stablecoins in the world, according to CoinMarketCap.com.
Bottom line
The cryptocurrency market is a Wild West (although the U.S. government is taking a more active role in overseeing the crypto space), so those speculating in these digital assets should not put in more money than they can afford to lose. Crypto assets faced downward pressure for much of 2022 and trading remained volatile in 2023. It’s also important to note that individual investors often trade against highly sophisticated players, making it a fraught experience for novices.

#ecosystems #MarketSentiments #IndustryEvents
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Blockchain technology has reached a milestone where every industry is looking to benefit from its decentralized and transparent nature. With blockchain being implemented across almost every sector, demand for blockchain protocols is at its peak.
Understanding the rapid growth of blockchain platforms, many blockchain development companies have started R & D on emerging blockchain protocols to build a better blockchain ecosystem. We have also researched thoroughly and come up with a list of top blockchain protocols based on their ecosystem, technology stack and solutions they offer.
We have been working with various blockchain protocols and helping them build a better ecosystem. With expertise in working with different blockchain platforms, we have curated a list of the following top 20 blockchain ecosystem protocols:
1. Stellar
Stellar is an open blockchain network for storing and transferring money. The platform makes it possible to create, transfer and trade digital representations of all types of money – dollars, bitcoins, or anything of value.
Stellar blockchain has no owner; the public owns anything that is on the Stellar blockchain. The platform runs across an open, decentralized network and handles millions of transactions every day.
Similar to Bitcoin and Ethereum, Stellar depends on blockchain to keep the network in sync. The Stellar network has a native digital currency, the lumen required in small amounts for making transactions and initializing accounts.
Stellar is a collection of Stellar Core Nodes, which are computers that maintain a common ledger of balances and accounts and listen for incoming transactions. Using the Stellar Consensus Protocol, the network agrees to implement a valid set of transactions to update the ledger.
Each transaction implemented to the Stellar ledger incurs a small fee which is essential to prevent bad actors from spamming the network and the ledger gets updated every 3-5 seconds.
Following are some of the key features of using the Stellar blockchain platform:
Scalability and high performance
Stellar network executes transactions with the help of consensus achieved through nodes. The consensus is achieved only within a few seconds, making transactions possible in 3-5 seconds. It does not allow mining, therefore, making the speed faster as compared to other cryptocurrency networks. Thousands of transactions executing at once make the stellar network a highly scalable blockchain protocol.Open source and decentralized database
Anyone can participate in Stellar network functioning without the need for a central authority. Diverse stellar nodes come together and verify online transactions in the ledger.Multi-currency transactions
It is one of the significant advantages of Stellar blockchain as one can execute transactions in any currency they want and the system performs the forex process automatically. It performs so by finding someone who wants to exchange in the same currency.If there is no direct exchange available, it executes various actions to map the transferred currency. Its cryptocurrency, Lumen allows stellar blockchain to execute transactions in multi-currency efficiently.
2. Polkadot
Polkadot is a blockchain protocol that allows various blockchains to run independently within one network, secured by a shared security ecosystem.
Polkadot is a multichain application environment where cross-chain registries and computation are possible. It can transfer the data across open, public, permissionless and private blockchains, making it possible to develop apps that get permissioned data from a private blockchain and use that on a public blockchain.
Polkadot combines a network of heterogenous blockchains called parathreads and parachains. Polkadot Relay Chain secures these chains that are connected with external networks via bridges.Polkadot’s Relay Chain is developed with Substrate, a blockchain-building framework that distills Parity Technologies’ learnings developing Ethereum, Bitcoin and other enterprise blockchains.
Poilkadot’s state machine is compiled to WebAssembly (Wasm), a high performant virtual environment. Its networking uses libp2p, a cross-platform network framework for p2p apps. The platform’s runtime environment is programmed in Rust, Golang and C++, making it accessible to a wide range of developers.
Following are some of the key benefits of the Polkadot platform
Unique security model
Polkadot implements a unique security approach by allowing blockchains to pool their security which implies that the blockchains’ security is applied to all. Blockchain developers can think about securing their blockchain from day one by connecting to Polkadot.Transparent on-chain governance
Updates to the Polkadot protocol take place in a fork-free way using transparent on-chain voting. Therefore, Polkadot protocol development never halts due to the lack of a clear process.A relay chain uses a sophisticated governance mechanism to establish a transparent, binding and accountable process for upgrading the network and resolving disputes.DOT tokens help in participating in governance decisions, including voting, bonding and drafting proposals.Trustworthy consensus algorithm
Polkadot uses its original GRANDPA (GHOST-based Recursive Ancestor Deriving Prefix Agreement) for a secure and resilient network.Under fair network conditions, GRANDPA finalizes blocks quickly. However, under bad network conditions, GRANDPA finalizes large-sized blocks at a time when the partitions resolve.3. Ethereum
Ethereum is an open-source blockchain platform used to build and deploy decentralized applications. The platform allows users to create agreements or execute transactions without the involvement of third parties.

Ethereum blockchain protocol is known for sending and receiving values across the globe. Apart from payments, Ethereum is a marketplace for financial services, games and apps that cannot steal your data. Ethereum has its own cryptocurrency known as Ether (ETH) which is used to pay transaction fees and computational service fees. Miners can mine ETH after the transaction is validated on the Ethereum platform.
Mainly, three types of applications are built on top of the Ethereum protocol. The first kind of application is financial apps, providing users with more ways of managing and entering into contracts using their money. It includes financial derivatives, saving wallets, wills and sub-currencies.
The second type is semi-financial apps where money is involved, but it also has a non-monetary side. An example of this category is self-enforcing bounties for solutions to computational issues.
The third kind of application is an app such as decentralized governance and online voting, which are non-financial.
Here are some of the key benefits of the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem:
Immutability
Any third party cannot alter or manipulate the data once recorded on the Ethereum blockchain.Security
Having no single point of failure and secured with cryptography, applications built on the Ethereum platform are protected against fraudulent activities and hacking.No downtime
Ethereum-based dApps never face downtime and can never be switched off.Tamper-proof
Ethereum-based dApps are based on a network built around the principle of consensus, making censorship impossible.4. Hedera HashgraphHedera is the widely used enterprise-grade public network that uses Hashgraph consensus, a faster and secure alternative to blockchain consensus mechanisms.Hashgraph achieves high throughput with more than 10,000 transactions per second and low-latency finality using gossip about gossip protocol and virtual voting. Once the consensus is achieved in the network, the transaction becomes immutable and is available on the public ledger for everyone to access it transparently.Hedera network services are APIs that allow developers to mint tokens, create accounts and add data to the ledger. Every API has a transaction fee based on the required storage and processing. SDKs of Hedera make it easier for developers to access the API in their favorite programming language.Here are some of the reasons why should you use the Hedera Hashgraph platformFair
Hedera Hashgraph is fair, ensuring the order of transactions representing the transaction order received by the community. The platform ensures no single user is allowed to block the transactions flow into the community.SecureSince Hedera Hashgraph is an asynchronous Byzantine fault-tolerant, Hedera Hashgraph possesses the highest level of security. Achieving a high level of security at scale is a fundamental advancement in the field of distributed systems.Fast
Hedera Hashgraph is fast, just the speed of your internet. With the capability to handle hundreds of thousands of transactions per second and validate more than one million signatures per second, time to finality for the Hedera platform is evaluated in seconds, not minutes, hours, or days.
As blockchain technology is growing rapidly, new ecosystem protocols are coming to the market with additional features. Working with leading blockchain platforms has made us the experts in building a blockchain ecosystem from scratch. 
We, at LeewayHertz, do not only help our clients build blockchain applications, but we can also upgrade the entire blockchain platform with our team of experienced and certified blockchain developers. 
Our Blockchain R & D team can help you launch a scalable and secure blockchain platform and drive millions of investors and developers to your blockchain platform. 
#ecosystems #BinanceWish $BTC $ETH

CRYPTO ASSETS ECOSYSTEMSThe top 10 cryptocurrency ecosystems are characterized by their robust networks, development frameworks, and support for decentralized applications. As of my last update, the following were among the top ecosystems:1. Ethereum: Known for smart contracts and a vast array of decentralized applications.2. Binance Smart Chain (BSC): Offers smart contract functionality and low transaction fees, backed by the Binance exchange.3. Solana: Noted for its high throughput, scalability, and support for decentralized applications.4. Cardano: Emphasizes scalability, sustainability, and security for DApps and smart contracts.5. Polkadot: Aims to enable interoperability between multiple blockchains and networks.6. Avalanche: Provides a platform for creating custom decentralized applications and networks.7. Tezos: Focuses on on-chain governance and upgradability, allowing for formal verification of smart contracts.8. Algorand: Known for its focus on scalability, security, and decentralization.9. NEAR Protocol: Designed for high throughput and low latency, enabling developers to create scalable DApps.10. EOS: Offers high scalability and supports the development and hosting of commercial-scale decentralized applications.These ecosystems vary in their features, governance models, and target applications, providing a diverse landscape for developers and users in the cryptocurrency space.#ecosystems #Launchpool $ETH $BNB $SOL

Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, has published its annual report detailing its growth in 2023 and its resolution with the U.S. government resulting in CEO Changpeng Zhao stepping down.

Binance claims to be fully compliance-driven in its upbeat year-end report.
📈 Binance, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, has wrapped up the year with notable achievements and improvements. The exchange witnessed a staggering 30% increase in its user base, surpassing an impressive milestone of over 170 million users in 2023. In addition, Binance facilitated 18% more trades, connecting 39% more users compared to the previous year 🚀. These statistics were revealed in Binance’s year-end report.
Binance Pay and Earn Program Flourish
🔥 It is clear that Binance made significant strides in various areas. For instance, Binance Pay enlisted 3,500 new merchants and partners, effectively expanding its services to a broader audience. Moreover, the number of users in Binance’s Earn program soared by an impressive 35%. These developments highlight Binance’s commitment to revolutionizing digital payments and providing rewarding opportunities to crypto enthusiasts 🌟.
Enhanced Compliance Measures
💼 Addressing concerns about compliance, Binance announced that it has substantially strengthened its compliance program. To further emphasize this, Binance increased its investment in compliance from $158 million to $213 million, a significant 35% boost 💪. This investment showcases Binance’s dedication to adhering to regulatory standards and best practices in the industry, ensuring a secure and transparent trading environment for its users.
Web3 Wallet Launch
🌐 In a move that further enhances its ecosystem, Binance successfully launched its Web3 Wallet. This new wallet enables users to seamlessly interact with decentralized applications (dApps) and explore the rapidly expanding world of Web3. With this wallet, Binance aims to empower users to fully embrace the benefits of blockchain technology and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, providing access to a wide array of innovative projects and services 🎉.
Settlement and Binance’s Path Forward
⚖️ Binance made an impactful announcement by acknowledging its past conduct and reaching settlements with U.S. regulators. Although the settlement resulted in substantial financial repercussions, costing billions of dollars, it served as a pivotal moment for Binance to learn and grow from these experiences. Importantly, no allegations of misappropriation of user funds or market manipulation were made against Binance.
Binance’s Worldwide Expansion
🌍 Binance has experienced unprecedented growth in terms of global reach. Currently, Binance holds licenses, registrations, or authorizations in a total of 18 jurisdictions worldwide, marking an all-time high for the exchange. This expansion reinforces Binance’s commitment to operating in a compliant manner and effectively serving customers across various regions ✅.
CZ’s Success Amidst Challenges
💼 Despite facing challenges, Binance’s former CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), had a remarkable year personally. CZ’s net worth soared by an incredible $24.6 billion, reaching a monumental $37.2 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This surge in wealth positioned CZ as the 35th richest individual globally, proving his resilience and determination in the face of adversity 💰.

#binance2023 #ecosystems
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