When Bitcoin launched in 2009, few believed it would ignite a financial revolution. Fast forward well over a decade, and it is clear that the introduction of crypto to the world has changed the way that many people deal with money.
Created using a decentralized blockchain, Bitcoin not only created a new type of currency but also showed a new way for transactions to be validated and performed. Despite this, it was two years before another crypto, Namecoin, which was developed using a fork in the Bitcoin blockchain, made its way to market.
Things accelerated after the release of Namecoin on April 17, 2011, with Litecoin launching the same year on October 7. Since then, new cryptocurrencies have been launched on the market with shocking frequency.
Many of these don’t attract much attention and fail to gain any notable crypto market share. As a result, they ultimately fail and disappear without a trace. Others, such as Ethereum (launched in 2015), have grown to be almost as large as Bitcoin and have become commonplace worldwide.
Keep reading to discover just how many cryptocurrencies exist, which ones reign supreme, and which have come and gone without anyone noticing.
How Many Cryptocurrencies Are There in 2024?
Because new cryptocurrencies are launched or discontinued frequently, it is difficult to determine the current number. As of March 2024, it is estimated that there are around 13,000, with some estimates going as high as 23,000.
Many have been discontinued or have ‘died.’ Taking this into account, many people believe that there are approximately 8,985 active currencies in the crypto market. However, the real number could be significantly more depending on whether coins are traded on the open market, with some being private and having limited data available on them.
The Most Popular and Most Valuable Cryptocurrencies
Globally, cryptocurrencies hold a market cap of $2.41 trillion. Much of this is held by a handful of giant coins that millions of people use internationally. The largest are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, BNB, and Solana.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin was the world’s first cryptocurrency, created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. Appearing in a white paper in 2008, the open-source code for the currency was released in January 2009. Ten days later, the first Bitcoin transaction was recorded when Nakamoto sent Hal Finney ten coins.
It wasn’t until a year later that Bitcoin was first used for a commercial transaction—two pizzas for ₿10,000 (valued at a whopping $659,180,000 today). With little interest in the coin from the formal sector, the black market quickly adopted the currency because of its ability to transact anonymously.
By 2013, the coin had grown so large that governments began considering how to regulate its use. The US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network was the first to act and create regulatory frameworks for crypto.
Starting at an estimated value of $0.0009 in 2009, Bitcoin has grown to be the largest crypto worldwide. As of 2024, an estimated 19.76 million coins (of the maximum 21 million) are used in circulation. These contribute to a market cap of $1.23 trillion, making Bitcoin the largest cryptocurrency by almost $800 billion.
Ethereum
Vitalik Buterin conceptualized Ethereum in 2013 and launched it in 2015. Like Bitcoin, Ethereum operates as a decentralized blockchain that hosts the ether coin. Buterin believed that a blockchain could also be used to operate decentralized applications and host smart contracts.
Ethereum was valued at $2.83 on launch—significantly more than Bitcoin. However, the coin quickly crashed and was worth less than $1 until early 2016. Today, the coin trades above the $1,000 mark, which it crossed in early 2021, and holds a market cap of $400.6 billion.
Tether
Tether made international news in 2014 when it launched as the first crypto backed by fiat currency. Labeled a stablecoin, Tether began being issued on the Bitcoin blockchain in October under the name Realcoin, which was later renamed Tether.
Despite being unable to fulfill all withdrawal requests in 2017, the coin experienced incredible growth and overtook Bitcoin in daily trades in 2019. After assurances that all Tether is fiat-backed by actual reserves, the coin has continued to grow and boasts a market cap of $112.58 billion.
The Least Known and Least Valuable Cryptocurrencies
Like the total number in existence, identifying the smallest cryptocurrency is nearly impossible. This is primarily due to how quickly the crypto market changes and how quickly a coin can gain traction and attract vast movement in the market.
According to Forbes, coins with a $0 market cap and having no movement in the last 24 hours at the time of writing include SNX yVault, Community of Meme, Aave v3 BAL, Venus XVS, and Magnesium.
These coins are worth very little, selling at $2.14 (SNX yVault), $2.66 (Aave v3 BAL), and $0.13 (Venus XVS). Coins like Magnesium and Community of Meme have zero value.
Notable Cryptocurrency Deaths
The cryptocurrency market has become increasingly more difficult for new coins to enter. The main reason is that crypto has become more commonly accepted by retailers and websites internationally. From crypto casinos tempting players away from finding that casinos.com has the biggest free SC coins promotion to brands like Microsoft and Twitch accepting Bitcoin payments, more crypto is being traded and used than ever before.
These tough market conditions, along with some underhanded dealings, have helped some coins soar and others to crash hard.
OneCoin
In 2014, OneCoinlaunched under the moniker of being the Bitcoin Killer. The coin was not publicly traded and could only be traded on the internal OneCoin exchange. By 2017, the company behind the coin, registered in Bulgaria, had accumulated an estimated $4 billion through the sale of crypto education materials and trading of OneCoin.
After questions about the coin’s authenticity began surfacing in 2016, the coin was officially unveiled as a pyramid scheme in 2017. After the founder, Ruja Ignatova, was extradited to the US and sentenced to prison in 2024, the value of the remaining coins plummeted to a dismal value of $0.0006.
BitConnect
One of the most widely publicized coin failures was BitConnect. Launched in 2016, the coin quickly became popular and reached a market cap of $2.5 billion—with each coin valued at almost $525. After the UK and US governments issued sanctions against it between late 2017 and early 2018, the coin suddenly stopped trading, losing 92% of its value in the process. Today, the coin is worth nothing.
