What does altcoin mean?

"Altcoin" is a combination of the two words "aalternative" and "coin." It is generally used to include all cryptocurrencies and tokens that are not Bitcoin. Altcoins belong to the blockchains they were explicitly designed for. Many are forks—a splitting of a blockchain that is not compatible with the original chain—from Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Are altcoins a good investment?

Altcoins with more utility have a better chance of surviving because they have uses, such as Ethereum’s ether. Investors can choose from a wide variety of altcoins that perform different functions in the crypto economy. Altcoins have a smaller investment market compared to Bitcoin.

Are altcoins based on Bitcoin?

To make things a little more confusing, some altcoins are even based on Bitcoin—kind of. For example, Bitcoin Cash was created by taking the existing Bitcoin code and modifying it, and going in a different direction. This is known as a “fork”, and it also resulted in a fork in the blockchain.

What are altcoins & payment tokens?

It is possible for an altcoin to fall into more than one category, such as TerraUSD, which is a stablecoin and utility token. As the name implies, payment tokens are designed to be used as currency—to exchange value between parties. Bitcoin is the prime example of a payment token.