Since the creation of bitcoin in 2009, the number of new cryptocurrencies has expanded rapidly.[ 1]
The UK's Financial Conduct Authority estimated there were over 20,000 different cryptocurrencies by the start of 2023, although many of these were no longer traded and would never grow to a significant size.[ 2]
Active and inactive currencies are listed in this article.
Active currencies by date of introduction
Year of introduction
Currency
Symbol
Founder(s)
Hash algorithm
Programming language of implementation
Consensus mechanism
Notes
2009
Bitcoin
BTC,[ 3] XBT, ₿
Satoshi Nakamoto
SHA-256d [ 4] [ 5]
C++ [ 6]
PoW [ 5] [ 7]
The first and most widely used decentralized ledger currency,[ 8] with the highest market capitalization as of 2018[update] .[ 9]
2011
Litecoin
LTC, Ł
Charlie Lee
Scrypt
C++ [ 10]
PoW
One of the first cryptocurrencies to use scrypt as a hashing algorithm.
2011
Namecoin
NMC
Vincent Durham[ 11] [ 12]
SHA-256d
C++ [ 13]
PoW
Also acts as an alternative, decentralized DNS .
2012
Peercoin
PPC
Sunny King (pseudonym)[citation needed ]
SHA-256d [citation needed ]
C++ [ 14]
PoW & PoS
The first cryptocurrency to use both PoW and PoS functions.
2013
Dogecoin
DOGE, XDG, Ð
Jackson Palmer & Billy Markus[ 15]
Scrypt [ 16]
C++ [ 14]
PoW
Based on the Doge internet meme.
2013[ 17] [ 18]
Gridcoin
GRC
Rob Hälford[ 19]
Scrypt
C++ [ 20]
Decentralized PoS
Linked to citizen science through the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing [ 21]
2013
Primecoin
XPM
Sunny King (pseudonym)[ 22] [ 23]
1CC /2CC /TWN [ 24]
TypeScript , C++ [ 25]
PoW [ 24]
Uses the finding of prime chains composed of Cunningham chains and bi-twin chains for proof-of-work.
2013
Ripple [ 26] [ 27]
XRP
Chris Larsen & Jed McCaleb[ 28]
ECDSA [ 29]
C++ [ 30]
"Consensus"
Designed for peer-to-peer debt transfer. Not based on bitcoin.
2013
Nxt
NXT
BCNext (pseudonym)
SHA-256d [ 31]
Java [ 32]
PoS
Specifically designed as a flexible platform to build applications and financial services around its protocol.
2014
Auroracoin
AUR
Baldur Odinsson (pseudonym)[ 33]
Scrypt
C++ [ 34]
PoW
Created as an alternative currency for Iceland, intended to replace the Icelandic króna .
2014
Dash
DASH
Evan Duffield[ 35] [ 36]
X11
C++ [ 37]
PoW & Proof of Service[ nt 1]
A bitcoin -based currency featuring instant transactions, decentralized governance and budgeting, and private transactions.
2014
NEO
NEO
Da Hongfei & Erik Zhang
SHA-256 & RIPEMD160
C# [ 38]
dBFT
China based cryptocurrency, formerly ANT Shares and ANT Coins. The names were changed in 2017 to NEO and GAS.
2014
MazaCoin
MZC
BTC Oyate Initiative
SHA-256d
C++ [ 39]
PoW
The underlying software is derived from that of another cryptocurrency, ZetaCoin.
2014
Monero
XMR
Monero Core Team
RandomX
C++ [ 40]
PoW
Privacy-centric coin based on the CryptoNote protocol with improvements for scalability and decentralization.
2014
Titcoin
TIT
Edward Mansfield & Richard Allen[ 41]
SHA-256d
TypeScript , C++ [ 42]
PoW
The first cryptocurrency to be nominated for a major adult industry award.[ 43]
2014
Verge
XVG
Sunerok
Scrypt, x17, groestl, blake2s, and lyra2rev2
C , C++ [ 44]
PoW
Features anonymous transactions using Tor .
2014
Stellar
XLM
Jed McCaleb
Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) [ 45]
C , C++ [ 46]
Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) [ 45]
Open-source, decentralized global financial network.
2014
Vertcoin
VTC
David Muller[ 47]
Verthash [ 48]
C++ [ 49]
PoW
Aims to be ASIC resistant.
2015
Ethereum
ETH, Ξ
Vitalik Buterin [ 50]
Ethash [ 51]
C++ , Go [ 52]
PoW , PoS
Supports Turing-complete smart contracts.
2015
Ethereum Classic
ETC
EtcHash/Thanos [ 53]
PoW
An alternative version of Ethereum[ 54] whose blockchain does not include the DAO hard fork.[ 55] Supports Turing-complete smart contracts.
2015
Nano
XNO, Ӿ
Colin LeMahieu
Blake2
C++ [citation needed ]
Open Representative Voting [ 56]
Decentralized, feeless, open-source, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. First to use a Block Lattice structure.
2015
Tether
USDT
Jan Ludovicus van der Velde[ 57]
Omnicore [ 58]
PoW
Tether claims to be backed by USD at a 1 to 1 ratio. The company has been unable to produce promised audits.[ 59]
2016
Firo
FIRO
Poramin Insom[ 60]
Merkle tree Proof[ 61]
C++ [ 62]
PoW
The first financial system employing Zero-knowledge proof to protect users' privacy.[ 60] It conducted the world's first large-scale blockchain election for Thailand Democrat Party in 2018.[ 63]
2016
Zcash
ZEC
Zooko Wilcox
Equihash
C++ [ 64]
PoW
The first open, permissionless financial system employing zero-knowledge security.
2017
Bitcoin Cash
BCH[ 65]
SHA-256d
PoW
Hard fork from bitcoin, increased maximum block size from 1MB to 8MB (as of 2018[update] , 32MB)
2017
EOS.IO
EOS
Dan Larimer
WebAssembly , Rust , C , C++ [ 66]
delegated PoS
Feeless Smart contract platform for decentralized applications and decentralized autonomous corporations with a block time of 500 ms.[ 66]
2017
Cardano
ADA, ₳
Charles Hoskinson
Ouroboros , PoS Algorithm[ 67]
Haskell [ 68]
PoS
Proof-of-stake blockchain platform: developed via evidence-based methods and peer-reviewed research.[ 69] [ 70] [ 71]
2017
Tron
TRX
Justin Sun
Java , Solidity [ 72]
2018
AmbaCoin
official cryptocurrency of the Cameroonian separatist entity of Ambazonia
2018
Nervos Network
CKB
Kevin Wang, Daniel Lv, Terry Tai
Eaglesong
Rust , JavaScript , C
PoW
Multi-layered blockchain smart contract platform[ 73]
2019
Algorand
ALGO
Silvio Micali
Go [ 74]
PoS
Uses a verifiable random function to randomly select groups of users to certify blocks.[ 75]
2020
Avalanche
AVAX
Emin Gün Sirer , Kevin Sekniqi , Maofan "Ted" Yin
PoS
2020
Shiba Inu
SHIB
Ryoshi
PoS
2020
Polkadot
DOT
Gavin Wood
Rust
PoS
2020
Solana
SOL
Anatoly Yakovenko
Rust
PoS
2021
DeSo
DESO
Nader al-Naji (aka diamondhands)[ 76]
Go [ 77]
PoW[ 78]
Also a social media platform , resembling Twitter .[ 79] [ 80] Known as BitClout until September 2021.[ 76]
2021
SafeMoon
SAFEMOON
SafeMoon LLC
Solidity [ 81]
PoW
2023
Arkham Intel Exchange
ARKM[ 82] [ 83]
Miguel Morel
Solidity
PoS
Inactive currencies
See also
Notes
^ Via Masternodes containing 1000 DASH held as collateral for "Proof of Service". Through an automated voting mechanism, one Masternode is selected per block and receives 45% of mining rewards.
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