While cryptocurrency investors await further developments on the regulatory front, most major cryptos have enjoyed positive momentum recently.
1. Bitcoin (BTC)
Market cap: $667.5 billion
14 years after its creation, bitcoin is still by far the most popular and valuable cryptocurrency in the world. Bitcoin was created by a mysterious person or group of people using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, and its blockchain-based, decentralized transaction verification and public ledger system revolutionized how people think about digital security.
2. Binance Coin (BNB)
Market cap: $34.6 billion
BNB is the cryptocurrency issued by Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. BNB was originally created as a utility token built on the ethereum network that users could use to access discounted trading fees on the Binance exchange. But the token has since transitioned to Binance’s own blockchain. BNB can now be used for a wide range of transactions, applications and other use cases.
3. Solana (SOL)
Market cap: $13.8 billion
Solana was launched in March 2020. Like ethereum, its network supports dApps, smart contracts and non fungible tokens. But solana’s unique, hybrid proof of stake and proof-of-history verification system makes it faster and cheaper than ethereum. Unfortunately, the solana network has been plagued by outages since its launch, undermining its credibility within the crypto world. The solana network was down for nearly 20 hours in February 2023. Fortunately for investors, solana’s price got a big boost from the XRP court ruling, and its triple-digit gain in 2023 makes it the best-performing crypto on this list.
4. Chainlink (LINK)
Market cap: $6.2 billion
Released in April 2021, LINK is a decentralized system of nodes that connects an on-chain smart contract to data and information from outside a blockchain. For those new to crypto lingo, smart contracts function similarly to paper contracts. That’s except for the fact that these digital contracts set up protocols on a blockchain. And one of the functions that Chainlink boasts is performing custom computations with different data and accessing many APIs.
5. XRP (XRP)
Market cap: $29.6 billion
XRP, created by Ripple, is a global payments network designed to be an alternative to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications. SWIFT is the global system banks and other financial institutions use to transfer money. But Ripple claims its technology is faster, cheaper and more transparent than the SWIFT system. XRP is the native cryptocurrency designed for the Ripple network and XRP Ledger blockchain. XRP got a huge boost in July when a judge in the Southern District of New York ruled that the crypto is “not necessarily a security” in certain circumstances, potentially putting it outside the SEC’s jurisdiction.
