A pure proof-of-stake chain known for instant finality and institutional tokenization experiments.

Any crypto asset that is not Bitcoin. The term is broad and says nothing about quality.

A Move-language Layer 1 launched by former Diem engineers, aimed at high throughput and safety.

A permanent storage network that charges an upfront endowment instead of ongoing rent.

A proof-of-stake platform with multiple subnets and an EVM-compatible C-Chain.

The first and largest cryptocurrency. A proof-of-work UTXO chain with a 21 million supply cap, used as digital collateral and a settlement asset.

A proof-of-work cryptocurrency and payment network that split from Bitcoin in August 2017, emphasizing greater transaction capacity on the base chain.

A network that prices and routes machine-learning work across subnets, with TAO as the incentive token.

The native asset of BNB Chain, used for fees and for utilities across the Binance ecosystem.

An experimental fungible-token scheme inscribed on Bitcoin via Ordinals, not a Bitcoin consensus rule.

A research-driven proof-of-stake chain using Ouroboros, with a UTXO-style extended accounting model.

Coinbase's wrapped staked ETH receipt, used in DeFi as a liquid-staking asset.

An ecosystem of sovereign chains that speak IBC, built with the Cosmos SDK and usually Tendermint-style consensus.

Curve's overcollateralized dollar, minted from LLAMMA-style soft-liquidation vaults.

A crypto-collateralized dollar stablecoin originally minted by Maker vaults, now part of the Sky/Maker family.

The original memecoin, a Litecoin/Bitcoin-family proof-of-work coin that became a cultural and payments token.

A synthetic dollar that targets $1 using staked ETH and perpetual hedges rather than a full cash reserve.

Ethereum's native asset, used to pay gas and to stake. Markets usually say ETH even when they mean ether.

The leading smart-contract platform. A proof-of-stake chain that hosts DeFi, NFTs, and most L2 settlement.

An agent-economy project later merged into the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance with Ocean and SingularityNET.

A decentralized storage market where miners earn FIL for providing space and retrieval.

Frax's ETH liquid-staking asset, paired with sfrxETH as the yield-bearing share.

Aave's native overcollateralized dollar stablecoin.

A decentralized wireless network that rewards hotspots for covering IoT and later mobile radios.

Dfinity's chain that aims to host full web services on-chain rather than just settlement.

An early Bitcoin fork that uses Scrypt proof of work and is often treated as a payments side-bet to Bitcoin.

Terra's former governance and absorption token, now a cautionary ticker.

A token whose value is driven primarily by community attention rather than utility.

A privacy coin that hides amounts and addresses with ring signatures and stealth addresses.

A sharded proof-of-stake Layer 1 with a usability focus and an EVM-compatible Aurora sidecar.

A non-fungible token. A unique on-chain id used for art, identity, tickets, or game items.

A scheme that numbers satoshis and inscribes data on Bitcoin, used for Bitcoin-native NFTs and BRC-20s.

A token issued by Paxos representing an interest in allocated physical gold, with each token described by the issuer as backed by one fine troy ounce.

A dollar stablecoin issued with Paxos and distributed through PayPal and Venmo.

A Layer-0 relay chain that shares security with parachains and uses XCM for messaging.

An Ethereum scaling stack best known for the Polygon PoS sidechain and later zk proof systems.

Assets like Monero that hide amounts and counterparties by default, attracting both users and regulators.

A decentralized GPU rendering network whose token pays for compute.

Rocket Pool's liquid-staking token, backed by a decentralized node-operator set.

Ripple's dollar stablecoin, issued for payments and XRPL/Ethereum use.

A Bitcoin protocol for fungible tokens that uses UTXOs more cleanly than BRC-20 inscriptions.

A high-throughput proof-of-stake chain that uses Proof of History for ordering and hosts a large DeFi and memecoin culture.

A crypto asset designed to track a reference value, such as a currency; its market price can still move away from that target.

A Bitcoin-settled chain for smart contracts that periodically checkpoints to Bitcoin.

A payments-focused ledger and cousin of the XRP design, used for remittances and tokenized fiat.

Lido's liquid-staking token, a rebasing receipt for ETH staked through Lido.

A Move-language Layer 1 from Mysten Labs, designed for parallel execution of independent objects.

The 2022 algorithmic-stablecoin collapse. UST and LUNA imploded and became the case study for reflexive depegs.

The largest dollar stablecoin by volume, issued by Tether and used as the quote asset on most offshore books.

A gold-linked token whose issuer terms describe each unit as an ownership interest in one fine troy ounce of gold on a specified bullion bar.

A self-amending proof-of-stake chain that votes protocol upgrades on-chain.

The Open Network, a chain originally designed for Telegram and now used for consumer payments and mini-apps.

A high-throughput chain widely used for USDT transfers, especially in emerging-market payments.

A dollar stablecoin issued by Circle, widely used in DeFi and by U.S.-facing platforms.

The Sky-rebranded successor path to Dai in the Maker family, a crypto-collateralized dollar.

A project that issues WLD and a World ID after iris-scanning, aiming at proof of personhood.

An ERC-20 token backed 1:1 by Bitcoin held by a custodian, so BTC can be used in Ethereum DeFi.

The native asset of the XRP Ledger, used for bridging liquidity in cross-border payments and as the chain's fee token.

A fast, federated-consensus ledger launched in 2012, known for payments, issued currencies, and a native DEX.

A Bitcoin-family coin with optional shielded transactions using zk-SNARKs.