Cryptocurrency Directory: Five Major Coins Explained

This directory explains five long-running cryptocurrencies in depth: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, XRP and Dogecoin. Each has its own page covering how the network works, how new coins are issued, what transfers cost and how to buy and store it safely. Below you will find a side-by-side comparison, a checklist for researching any other coin, and an honest account of what happened to the hundreds of tokens that used to be listed on CoinChoose.

We do not publish prices, price charts or forecasts. Market data changes by the second and is better read on the exchange you actually use. Nothing here is investment advice.

The five coins at a glance

These figures come from each project’s own documentation or source code. Block and ledger times are protocol targets, not guarantees; real intervals vary.

Two design families stand out. Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin descend from the same original codebase and still rely on miners. Ethereum and the XRP Ledger reach agreement without mining, which is why their confirmation times are far shorter. Supply rules differ just as much: a fixed cap, a fixed yearly issuance, or a large pre-created supply that is slowly reduced by fees.

What the comparison means in practice

Block intervals matter less than they look, because what you wait for is not one block but the number of confirmations the receiving service demands. Exchanges set their own thresholds per coin, and a deposit counts as final only once that number has been reached. On a 10-minute chain, a handful of confirmations can take close to an hour; on a one-minute chain, the same service may simply ask for more blocks. The XRP Ledger works differently again: a transaction that makes it into a validated ledger is final, with no deeper confirmations to wait for.

Supply rules shape a different question, namely how much new money enters circulation each year. Bitcoin and Litecoin cut their block rewards on a fixed schedule, so issuance shrinks toward zero. Dogecoin adds the same number of coins every year forever, which means its inflation rate falls slowly as a percentage but never ends. Ether issuance depends on how much is staked, while fee burning removes some ETH every block, so its net supply can rise or fall. XRP had its entire supply created at launch; no new XRP can be made, and the tiny fee on each transaction is destroyed.

These properties say nothing about whether buying a coin makes sense for you. They do tell you what you are holding, how quickly a transfer settles and how the network pays for its own security.

What this directory does not cover

Stablecoins such as USDT and USDC are tokens that track a fiat currency and are issued by companies that can freeze addresses under their own terms. They behave more like a digital payment balance than a cryptocurrency with its own monetary policy, so we treat them on the exchange and wallet pages rather than here. Exchange tokens, meme tokens launched in the last few years and wrapped versions of coins on other chains are also outside the scope of this list.

Which page to read first

• New to crypto: start with Bitcoin. The ideas there (keys, addresses, confirmations, fees, halvings) carry over to everything else.
• Interested in apps, tokens or stablecoins: read Ethereum, since most tokens and stablecoins run on it or on networks that copied its design.
• Want cheap, quick transfers: compare Litecoin and XRP, paying attention to destination tags on XRP.
• Curious about the meme coin that lasted: Dogecoin explains why its supply never stops growing.

What happened to the rest of the old coin list

The previous version of this site carried more than 600 automatically generated coin pages built from a price feed. Most of those projects no longer exist in the form they were listed, and many pages showed stale numbers years after trading had stopped. Rather than keep empty price tables online, every old coin URL now points here. The examples below show the most common fates.

If you still hold one of these coins, find the project’s last official announcement or the exchange’s delisting notice before sending anything anywhere. Fake “migration” and “claim your airdrop” sites target exactly these holders.

How to research a coin before you buy

Any coin can be listed on some exchange. Whether it deserves your money is a separate question, and the answer comes from primary sources, not social media. Work through these steps in order.

1. Read the white paper or technical documentation. Ask what problem the coin solves and whether a blockchain is needed for it. Under MiCA, the EU regulation on markets in crypto-assets, anyone offering a new crypto-asset to the public in the EU or asking for it to be admitted to trading must publish a crypto-asset white paper, so EU-listed tokens should have one you can find.
2. Check supply and issuance. Find the maximum supply (if any), how many coins exist today and how many went to founders, investors or a foundation before the public could buy. A large insider allocation with short lock-ups is a warning sign.
3. Look at the chain itself. A public block explorer shows whether blocks are still being produced and whether real transfers happen. A coin with no recent blocks is dead, whatever its website says.
4. Check the code. Most serious projects publish their software in a public repository. Recent releases and several independent contributors suggest active maintenance.
5. See where it trades. A coin that trades only on one obscure venue can be impossible to sell. Our exchange guide explains which platforms hold licences and where.
6. Search regulator and court records. Look up the project and its founders on the websites of the US SEC, CFTC and Department of Justice, your national financial regulator and, in the EU, the ESMA register of crypto-asset service providers.
7. Confirm wallet support. Before buying, make sure a reputable wallet supports the exact network. Our wallet guide covers hardware and software options.

Red flags that should end your research

• Guaranteed daily or monthly returns. BitConnect’s “lending program” promised exactly that.
• Rewards for recruiting new buyers, which is how OneCoin spread; its co-founder Ruja Ignatova has been on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list since June 2022.
• A token you can buy but cannot sell, or a contract that lets the developer freeze or mint tokens without limit.
• Pressure to move fast: countdowns, “presale ends tonight”, or a celebrity endorsement you cannot trace to the celebrity’s own verified account.
• Anonymous teams combined with large undisclosed treasuries.
• Requests for your seed phrase or private key. No legitimate project, exchange or support agent ever needs it.

Buying and storing the major coins

A typical first purchase happens on a centralised exchange, pay with a bank transfer or card, and then decide whether to leave the coins there or withdraw them. Leaving coins on an exchange means trusting the company; withdrawing to your own wallet means taking responsibility for the recovery phrase. Neither choice is free of risk.

Exchanges also fail. Mt. Gox halted withdrawals in 2014, FTX went into bankruptcy in November 2022, and both left customers waiting years for partial repayment. Our reviews of Kraken, Binance and others list the licences each company holds and any regulatory actions against it.

When you withdraw, the single most common costly mistake is choosing the wrong network. USDT, for example, exists on several chains, and coins sent over a network the receiving wallet does not support may be lost. For XRP, a missing destination tag can strand a deposit at an exchange until support recovers it manually. Send a small test amount first whenever you use a new address.

For small amounts, faucets and reward schemes are often promoted as a way to get started. Our free Bitcoin page explains which kinds still exist and why most pay very little.

Taxes and rules in brief

In most countries, selling a coin, swapping it for another coin or spending it is a taxable disposal, and you need records of what you paid. The details differ by country, so check your own tax authority’s guidance. In the EU, MiCA’s stablecoin rules took effect on 30 June 2024 and the rest of the regulation on 30 December 2024, with national transitional periods ending by 1 July 2026. Under the DAC8 directive, crypto platforms must collect customer transaction data from 1 January 2026, and the first reports covering 2026 reach tax offices in 2027.

Frequently asked questions

How many cryptocurrencies are there?

Tens of thousands of tokens have been created, but only a small share have real trading activity and working networks. Data aggregators count listings differently, so treat any single number as approximate. This directory covers five established coins in depth rather than trying to list them all.

Why does this page not show crypto prices?

Prices move constantly and an outdated figure is worse than none. Check the live price on the exchange or wallet you use before any transaction.

What is the difference between a coin and a token?

A coin is native to its own blockchain, such as BTC on Bitcoin or ETH on Ethereum, and is used to pay network fees. A token is issued by a smart contract on someone else’s blockchain, as most stablecoins are on Ethereum and other networks.

Which cryptocurrency is best for beginners?

We do not recommend coins to buy. For learning how crypto works, Bitcoin is the best starting point because its rules are simple and well documented, and the same concepts apply to most other networks.

What should I do with a coin that has been delisted everywhere?

Check the project’s last official announcement and your exchange’s delisting notice. If the network still runs, a compatible wallet may let you hold or move the coins; if it does not, the tokens usually have no market. Ignore unsolicited offers to recover or migrate them.

Are all old altcoins scams?

No. Many were honest experiments that ran out of developers or users. Some were renamed and continue under another ticker, such as Darkcoin, which became Dash. A smaller group, including BitConnect and OneCoin, were the subject of criminal charges.