Stablecoins are altcoins whose value is pegged to assets like fiat currencies and commodities. Another example is governance tokens, which let you vote for the Web3 project’s future. Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are also not tied to any country’s currency and are readily accessible to individual investors through the blockchain — a digital ledger where transactions are recorded.
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This encouraged institutional and corporate investors to enter the crypto market, particularly bitcoin, by investing in exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, related to crypto, Koparan said. This can lead to frequent speculation — either buying bitcoin or a cryptocurrency and hoping to sell it for a quick profit or shorting it — or using bitcoin as leverage to buy more of a financial product. In an era of growing political dysfunction, it is understandable that policymakers might want to believe that technology can fix things without their involvement.
It’s only when you pair current prices with historical data, statistics, news, and more that you get a full picture of a coin’s performance. What’s neat is you can compare a coin’s performance against Bitcoin and/or Ethereum on a single graph, and can view all key metrics on one chart – price, market cap & trading volume. As crypto traders and investors ourselves, we understand the hassle of browsing multiple websites and exchanges to find reliable information and market data for a coin. That’s why we built CoinGecko – to democratize access to cryptocurrency data and empower users with actionable insights, so you can access all information in one place and make informed decisions in your investment & trading journey.
Crypto basics
- These categories are often used in investment strategies, and a “good market cap” depends on your risk appetite.
- A crypto-based financial system would perpetuate, and even magnify, many of the problems of traditional finance.
- It’s used to determine the valuation of a cryptocurrency based on the total money invested, not just the price.
- As a first priority, banks should be prohibited from issuing or trading any crypto asset, including stablecoins (which are rarely used for real-world payments; they mostly facilitate crypto investments).
- However, these are by and large political rather than technological problems—and if the underlying political issues aren’t resolved, the new crypto intermediaries that emerge will simply perpetuate existing problems.
Bitcoin and companies tied to cryptocurrencies extended a nearly two-month swoon Monday, tracking with a broader market sell-off in technology companies that many see as overvalued. Bitcoin hit an all-time high of around $126,000 on Oct. 6, after rising 33% in 2025. But the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value has since tanked — down roughly 14% by the end of October, down 17% in November, and down another 7% on Dec. 1, although it erased that most recent loss the next day. Northeastern University cryptocurrency experts Ravi Sarathy and Alper Koparan said many macroeconomic factors — as well as the inherent volatility of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies — are contributing to the recent wide swings in valuation.
Latest Crypto News
If you can’t find a coin on CoinGecko, try searching on our DEX tracker GeckoTerminal. Crypto’s complexity arises from attempts at decentralization—by https://trustmediafeed.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/technarix/technarix-review.html distributing power and governance in the system, there is theoretically no need for trusted intermediaries like financial institutions. That was the premise of the initial Bitcoin white paper, which offered a cryptographic solution intended to allow payments to be sent without involving any financial institution or other trusted intermediary. However, Bitcoin became centralized very quickly and now depends on a small group of software developers and mining pools to function. The list of cryptocurrencies featured above are ranked by market cap, an accurate and real-time representation of the market valuation of a coin as defined by its latest price multiplied by its circulating supply. The top cryptocurrencies today includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, and over ten thousand altcoins.
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Coinbase Global fell 4.8% and online trading platform Robinhood Markets lost 4.1%. This is prompting concerns of a reversal in the flow of “carry trades” that have fueled growth in the United States and other popular markets, Koparan said. Things haven’t been going well since, with the cryptocurrency down 17% in November alone, and December starting out with a 7% drop, and then a 7% gain. The Crypto interface represents basic cryptography features available in the current context.It allows access to a cryptographically strong random number generator and to cryptographic primitives. Fidelity pros and industry leaders answer questions on crypto, FinTech, and more.
Look for reviews of the company, and ask if you can contact one or two customers who have worked with the company. Check the company’s name against government agency websites, like the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation’s Crypto Scam Tracker. If you have reported your crypto assets stolen with local law enforcement, such as your local police department or sheriff’s office (which we recommend!), ask the law enforcement agent about the company. Crypto prices alone don’t mean much, so we’ve included data like market cap and fully diluted value.