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Best Bitcoin Alternatives For 2023 And Beyond
Crypto Basics For Beginners

Best Bitcoin Alternatives For 2023 And Beyond

By Oreld Hadilberg
Reviewed by Tony Spilotro

Table of Contents

Bitcoin is the mother of all cryptocurrencies. It solved the problem of money transfer by serving as a digital currency. It is also the forerunner of decentralized finance and peer-to-peer relations. However, Bitcoin did not enjoy a monopoly for too long as other altcoins emerged with improvements.

The best bitcoin alternatives include Ethereum, Solana, Binance coin (BNB), Tether, XRP, Cardano, Dogecoin, Polkadot, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin, among others. These alternate projects came to serve specific purposes, such as increasing speed, scalability, and security.

Keep reading to find out more mind-blowing facts about the best bitcoin alternatives.

What Are Altcoins In The Crypto Space?

Altcoins is a general term for other cryptocurrencies excluding Bitcoin. Their name came from combining alternative and coin.

Litecoin was the first altcoin, a fork of the bitcoin blockchain. It emerged in 2011 as a popular bitcoin alternative.

Altcoins serve different purposes and are also important. Some exist as solutions to problems, while others serve a specific community. Some altcoins use a similar mechanism to Bitcoin, while others use entirely different mechanisms or combine both.

Altcoins' price volatility makes them ideal for making a profit on platforms like Margex. Also, investors can engage in staking and yield farming just like in harvest finance.

There are different types of altcoins, and they are classified based on their function.

Types of altcoins

1. Utility tokens

They provide a form of a cryptocurrency offering specific services within a network. Some are used for transactions and earning rewards. Ripple (XRP) is an example of a utility token. XRP enable inter trading between fiat currencies.

Matic on the polygon network optimizes network security using staking. It also makes use of a gas token for transaction fees.

2. Stablecoins

These altcoins have one function, maintain price stability. Stablecoins achieve this by pegging their value to a stable asset, like the US dollar or gold. The developers maintain the peg by a reserved amount of the valuable assets.

Stablecoins resist market volatility, adjust their price to regulate demand and supply, and maintain the peg.

Tether (USDT) is the most popular stablecoin,  topping the list with its largest market cap before USDC.

3. Meme coins

This is a form of cryptocurrency inspired by trending memes on the internet. Users with some coding knowledge can easily create meme coins. These coins usually have an unlimited supply, giving them a modest price per unit.

Dogecoin (DOGE) is a famous example of a meme coin with a dog theme.

4. Play-to-earn tokens

None fungible tokens (NFTs) are a practical example of this. Gamers can use them to make in-game purchases or unlock some unique features. Many altcoin networks are delving into the gaming world, and users are embracing the new trend.

5. Governance tokens

Every cryptocurrency project has a community and a system for decision-making. Governance tokens are used to cast votes and influence decisions in a crypto community.

They exist as part of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and help to keep a network decentralized.

Maker (MKR) is a governance token that allows investors to vote on the MakerDAO platform.

6. Security tokens

These tokens are similar to stocks in the crypto world. Investors gain equity that yields dividends. Blockchain Capital (Bcap) is an example of a security token.

Top 10 Bitcoin (BTC) Alternatives For 2022 And Beyond

This is our list of ten BTC alternatives in no particular order. Each project has interesting features that attract investors and crypto users.

Ethereum

Vitalik Butterin founded the Ethereum project in 2014. The blockchain went public on July 30, 2015. Its purpose is to become a global platform for decentralized applications.

ETH formerly used the Proof of Work mechanism that was less energy efficient. On September 15, 2022, the Ethereum network migrated to a Proof of stake consensus protocol in the famous Merge event. Validators replaced miners on the network and must stake 32 ETH to activate their validation.

Ethereum is a strong bitcoin alternative since it saves energy and preserves the environment. The network is the pioneer of blockchain smart contract technology. Also, it can host numerous tokens that are ERC-20 compatible. The Ethereum Network is also the home to the largest collection of NFTs.

ETH is the native token of Ethereum. It achieved its all-time high of $4,891 on November 16, 2021, and hit an all-time low of $0.4209 on October 21, 2015. ETH is currently trading at $1,563.93 with a market capitalization of $191,831,822,238.64.

Ethereum price will likely see an uptrend going into 2023 and beyond. Experts vary in their opinion on how ETH will perform. The price of ETH might increase to $3029.212 in 2023.

Solana

SOL is a project created in 2017 and launched officially in March 2020. It is also a reliable alternative to bitcoin. Anatoly Yakovenko, with the help of Greg Fitzgerald and his other ex-colleagues, created the Solana labs project.

The Solana network aims to optimize speed, improve scalability, and lower transaction costs on networks like Ethereum. It also supports the creation of decentralized apps (Dapp). Solana is infamously dubbed the "Ethereum killer” due to its fast transactions and lower fees. Its native token is the Sol coin.

SOL combines the proof of history and proof of work mechanisms on its network using the Tower Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) algorithm. The BFT helps in reaching a consensus and validating transactions. The network also uses a 256-bit secure algorithm (SHA-2560 for validating transactions.

Solana reached an all-time high of $260.06 on November 6, 2021, and its all-time low of $0.5052 0n May 11, 2020. The current price is $31.71 and its market capitalization is $11,410,846,237.49

Experts are tipping Solana's price to recover, since the market slump didn't affect it much. Some predictions pegged SOL at $346.21 before 2022. But with cryptocurrencies, predictions are largely speculative.

Binance coin (BNB)

Binance coin is an important cryptocurrencie for the Binance exchange, and its official launch date was July 2017. Changpeng Zhao is the founder of Binance, assisted by He Yi, the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Binance.

Binance's main aim is to promote cryptocurrency exchanges and offer low transaction fees. Its applications have expanded over the years and are now across various payment platforms.

Binance was built using Ethereum’s blockchain using the ERC-20 token standard. But the developers have migrated it to its blockchain using a proof of stake mechanism. Its native token is the Binance coin (BNB).

No one can mine BNB tokens as they are pre-mined. Binance coin is a special system of decentralized blockchain-based networks.

The BNB network burns coins as an anti-inflationary measure. It uses two burning mechanisms: quarterly BNB burning events and burning a section of tokens spent on transaction fees. Over 38 billion BNB tokens have been burnt.

The token recorded an all-time high of $690.93 on May 10, 2021, and an all-time low of $0.09611 on August 1, 2017. BNB is currently trading at $288.10 with a market cap of $46,073,135,513.62.

With bitcoin's current rally, the market has a positive outlook, and experts tip BNB to cross the $500 mark.

Tether (USDT)

Tether is a stablecoin pegged to the value of the US dollar. Every unit of Tether has a dollar kept in reserve for it as insurance. So many investors consider USDT a good investment for crypto users.

Brock Pierce, Reeve Collins, and Craig Sellars launched USDT as RealCoin in July 2014. It was renamed Tether in November 2014 and was traded publicly in 2015.

USDT initially nested on the bitcoin blockchain. However, Tether now works with Bitcoin's Omni and liquid protocols, Ethereum and other network blockchains. It is the largest stablecoin project.

USDT’s standout feature is its guaranteed peg to the U.S. dollar. This makes it a safe investment for investors to keep their holdings in volatile markets. However, USDT has dropped its peg in the past with allegations of lack of transparency.

Although USDT value doesn’t deviate much, it reached an all-time high of $1.22 on February 25, 2015, and an all-time low of 0.5683 on March 2, 2015. Its market capitalization is currently $68,887,292,527.

USDT is tipped by experts to still retain its dollar peg with no major price shifts.

Ripple (XRP)

David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb, and Arthur Britto founded Ripple in 2012. The aim was to bring financial solutions to the crypto community. It is also for moving transactions from central databases of traditional financial institutions to an open system while saving costs. On the Ripple network, it costs $0.0002 for transactions carried out within 3-5 seconds, and it supports around 1500 transactions per second.

XRP is the native cryptocurrency coin developed by Ripple Labs.

XRP is energy efficient since the coins are already pre-mined with 100 billion XRP tokens at launch.

XRP uses the Ripple consensus protocol algorithm. Participants use this mechanism every few seconds to achieve consensus on the network.

The XRP’s ledger supports a wide range of financial transactions, especially decentralized finance. It also has plans to support NFTs.

The token recorded an all-time high price of $3.84 on January 4, 2018, and an all-time low of $0.002802 on July 7, 2014. It is currently trading at $0.4594, with a market cap of $22,996,823,753.10.

Expert opinions vary on the price prediction for XRP. Some forecasts believe that XRP will not break the $5 mark soon. However, XRP should stay above $1 shortly.

6. Cardano (ADA)

This popular cryptocurrency emerged in 2017 after Gerolamo Cardano – a 16th-century Italian genius. Charles Hoskinson, a co-founder of Ethereum, founded the project.

Cardano came to allow changemakers, innovators, and visionaries to effect global-scale change. Its native token, ADA, was also named in memory of Ada Lovelace, a 19th-century mathematician.

This crypto uses a unique two-layer proof of stake mechanism called the Ouroboros Algorithm. This mechanism decides how individual nodes can arrive at a consensus. Cardano also uses RINA (Recursive Internetworked Architecture) to scale its network.

The Shelley upgrade in 2020 aimed at making the blockchain 50 to 100 times more decentralized. Cardano also supports smart contracts and DApps on the blockchain.

Cardano also has a special wallet that holds ADA – the Daedalus wallet. With this wallet, users run a full node on the blockchain, thereby decentralizing it and giving them more control.

ADA's all-time high of $3.10 was on September 2, 2021, and its all-time low of $0.01735 occurred on October 1, 2017. It currently trades at $0.3851 with a market capitalization of $13,203,959,410.94.

The Cardano project is still relatively new in the crypto space. Some experts believe the price will drop further to around $0.31 in 2022. Other predictions are optimistic that it will record a brief rally to $0.4.

7. Dogecoin (DOGE)

This cryptocurrency was created based on a popular internet “doge”. Billy Marcus and Jackson Palmer teamed up to create the open-source digital currency and launched it in December 2013 with a Shiba Inu dog logo.

The developers created Dogecoin as a fun experience for crypto users. It is used mainly as a reward system for social media users creating or sharing great content. Its native token is DOGE.

DOGE run on a proof of work mechanism using Scrypt technology supporting mining. It has a block time of 1 minute and no limit to the number of DOGE.

Its main feature is decentralization facilitating peer-to-peer transactions, with some companies like Tesla accepting DOGE payments.

DOGE achieved its all-time high of $0.7376 on May 8, 2021, and its all-time low of $0.00008547 on May 7, 2015. The coin is currently trading at $0.08095 with a market cap of $10,704,072,483.78.

Experts believe that Dogecoin will do better as a long-term investment. It is predicted to go bullish and reach $1 by the end of 2022 and $13.30 in 2030.

8. Polkadot (DOT)

The Polkadot project is unique. It is an open-source multichain protocol that uses special types of blockchains to carryout out transfers. Dr Gavin Wood, Robert Habermeier, and Peter Czaban founded the crypto on May 26, 2020.

Its standout feature is that it is a shared multichain network. This feature enables the network to process numerous transactions on chains linked in parallel (parachains). This feature increases processing power and improves scalability.

Polkadot uses a Nominated proof of stake mechanism and has advanced on-chain governance techniques. Its native token is DOT.

This network’s standout feature is the sharded multichain that makes transactions scalable and lightning fast. Also, its advanced and customizable governance includes Nominators, validators, and collators.

It achieved its all-time high of $55.00 on November 4, 2021, and hit its all-time low of $2.69 on August 20, 2020. It currently trades at $6.38 and has a market capitalization of $7,222,392,829.52.

Experts predict that the Price of DOT will recover around $8.11 and reach $23.51 by 2030.

9. Bitcoin cash (BCH)

This crypto project is a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Bitcoin cash emerged in 2017 through a hard fork of the bitcoin blockchain. BCH is the native token of the Bitcoin Cash network. The aim is to ensure faster and cheaper payments and requires no third parties.

Bitcoin cash uses a proof of work consensus algorithm (SHA 256) similar to its parent bitcoin project. BCH is unique because it has a larger block size than bitcoin, meaning it can process more transactions faster.

BCH achieved an all-time high of $4.355 on December 20, 2017, and an all-time low of $75.08 on December 15, 2018. BCH is trading at $141.99 and has a market capitalization of $2,150,875,867.00 as of October 28, 2022.

Expert predictions for bitcoin cash indicate a further dip in price to $49.05 in 2022. However, some long-term optimistic price predictions were at $1,653 by 2030.

10. Litecoin (LTC)

The Litecoin project was created on October 7, 2011, and went public five days later. Charlie Lee is the founder of Litecoin. It was the first altcoin that users saw as an alternative to bitcoin.

Litecoin's main aim is to provide a fast and secure payment channel at a low cost. It also has a few similarities to bitcoin. However, it uses a different hashing algorithm and has a faster block creation time of 2.5 minutes. Its native token is LTC.

Litecoin uses the proof of work consensus algorithm to secure its network and create blocks. Its speed and affordability set it apart from other cryptocurrency projects. Also, the MimbleWimble block extension launched on May 19, 2022, has enabled Litecoin to support confidential transactions.

LTC is similar to bitcoin, but the low cost of transactions and speed make it ideal for areas like third-world countries.

The LTC coin recorded an all-time high of $412.96 on May 10, 2021, and an all-time low of $1.11 on January 14, 2015. It is currently trading at $54.12 and has a market cap of $3,869,682,437.95.

FAQ: Common Questions And Answers On Bitcoin Alternatives

Find more answers on popular alternatives to bitcoin below.

What is the top bitcoin alternative coin?

The first Bitcoin alternative digital currency is Ethereum. The network serves as a suitable platform for a crypto user to access financial products globally. Moreover, several developers implement the Ethereum network to create and run different applications.

Which crypto will grow in 2023?

Experts suggest that the digital currency with the highest growth potential in 2023 is Stellar (XLM). Stellar is one of the most commonly used applications for digital transfers. Also, platform users trade it for other cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies.

Who is the current rival of bitcoin?

Crypto market experts, analysts, and watchers are seeing Litecoin as Bitcoin's main rival. Litecoin is very similar to Bitcoin; both have a limited number of minable coins. Moreover, Bitcoin and Litecoin are the oldest digital assets in the cryptocurrency space, with launch dates in 2009 and 2011, respectively.