What are Altcoins?
All cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin
업데이트: 2026.01.19
Basic Concept of Altcoins
Altcoin is short for "Alternative Coin" and refers to all cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin. Currently, there are tens of thousands of altcoins worldwide, each with unique purposes and characteristics.
🌟 Representative Altcoins: Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Polygon (MATIC), Cardano (ADA), Avalanche (AVAX) are among the top by market capitalization.
Purpose of Altcoins
Each altcoin was created to complement Bitcoin's limitations or solve specific problems.
Main Goals
- Smart Contracts: Like Ethereum, providing automatic contract execution to build decentralized applications (dApps).
- Speed Improvement: Like Solana, processing tens of thousands of transactions per second, much faster than Bitcoin.
- Fee Reduction: Like Polygon, trading with low gas fees to reduce user burden.
- Scalability: Solving blockchain scalability issues through Layer 2 solutions.
💡 Technological Innovation: Altcoins continuously pursue technological innovation, developing new consensus algorithms (PoS, DPoS, etc.) and scaling solutions.
Characteristics of Altcoins
Rapid Technological Development
Altcoins have very fast technological development and many experimental projects. New ideas and technologies are quickly introduced and go through market validation.
High Profit Potential and Risk
Successful altcoins can show much higher returns than Bitcoin. However, the failure rate is also very high, and many altcoins eventually disappear or lose value.
⚠️ Statistics: It is known that more than 90% of all altcoins eventually fail or disappear from the market. Thorough analysis before investment is essential.
Importance of Ecosystem Expansion
Developer activity and ecosystem expansion are the most important factors determining an altcoin's success. Active development, diverse dApp construction, and community growth create long-term value.
Precautions
🚨 Coins with only whitepapers: Coins with only whitepapers and no actual use cases are very risky. Projects without technical implementation or unclear teams should be avoided.
Beginners should approach with a focus on a small number of verified projects. Altcoins in the top market capitalization are relatively stable and have sufficient liquidity and proven technology.
✅ Pre-investment Checklist: Comprehensively evaluate team background, technical implementation status, actual use cases, community activity, exchange listings, market capitalization and trading volume.
Technology-focused
Rapid technological development and many experimental projects. Ecosystem analysis is needed.
Selection Required
Coins with only whitepapers and no actual use are risky, approach with verified projects
High Profit Potential
Can expect high returns if successful, but failure probability is also very high