What Is an Altcoin? A Plain-English Map of the Market
Every crypto that is not Bitcoin is loosely called an altcoin. Here is how to think about the main categories and their trade-offs.
Not financial advice. This article is for informational purposes only. Cryptocurrency is volatile and high-risk — do your own research.
“Altcoin” is shorthand for any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin. It is a broad, informal label that covers everything from established smart-contract platforms to tiny experimental tokens. Understanding the main categories is more useful than treating them all as one group.
The main categories
- Smart-contract platforms — networks like Ethereum, Solana and Cardano that let developers build applications.
- Stablecoins — tokens that aim to hold a steady value, usually pegged to the US dollar.
- DeFi tokens — governance or utility tokens for decentralised exchanges, lending and other financial apps.
- Layer 2s and scaling tokens — networks that sit on top of a base chain to make transactions cheaper and faster.
- Meme coins — tokens driven mostly by community and attention rather than a specific use case.
How to weigh them
Altcoins vary enormously in maturity, security and liquidity. Larger, established projects have long track records and deep markets; newer tokens can move violently and, in some cases, fail entirely. Useful questions include: what problem does it solve, who is building it, how is supply distributed, and is there real usage behind the price?
You can browse live prices and 7-day trends for the coins we track on our altcoins hub and the full coin list. Altcoins are higher-risk than Bitcoin. This is educational content, not financial advice.