What’s an Altcoin?

It’s short for “alternative coin”.

Historically, it meant any crypto asset beside Bitcoin (BTC).

Today, it means any crypto token beside BTC and Ethereum (ETH).

Altcoins come in different shapes and sizes. But relative to BTC and ETH they’re all:
- Higher risk investments.
- Lower market cap.
- Less familiar to crypto outsiders.

How many Altcoins are there?

There are 9,000+ Altcoins.

99% of them are either:
1. Scams/Ponzi schemes.
2. “Zombie” projects with little community interest or development activity.

We’re here to analyze the other 1%.

Amidst this "sea of scams", some Altcoin projects are actually building for a better Web3 future. They're taking the principles introduced by Bitcoin and Ethereum and building on top of them or offering alternatives.

Why focus on Altcoins?

From an investing perspective, it’s no longer “very early” for BTC and ETH.

• A big chunk of the money has already been made (sorry).

• Most Altcoin mkt caps are <1% that of BTC. So, they have more (potential) upside for an individual investor.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are dependable and decentralized. But they can't scale.

• We need alternative chains that push the limits of scalability to bring crypto to the masses.

• These projects are powered by Altcoins.

We also want useable apps built on top of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other blockchains that deliver real benefits to web3 users.

These apps are powered by Altcoins.

How big is the Altcoin market?

Today, the market cap of all ~9,000 altcoins is ~$280B.

That's ~50% smaller than BTC's mkt cap and ~25% bigger than ETH's market cap.

At times (e.g., end of 2021), the market cap of all Altcoins was >$700B.

Yes, they’re incredibly volatile.

No, they’re (collectively) not going anywhere anytime soon.

Most importantly, Altcoins have generated some of the strongest returns seen in crypto over the past ~5 years.

Just take a look below at some of the biggest winners from last “Altseason”.

We see many more altseasons happening over the long haul.

Less than 30% of altcoins have been outperforming BTC on a year-to-date basis.

That creates massive upside opportunity for investors.

We’re doing the homework today to capture that upside next “Altseason”.

And all “Altseasons” after that.