It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bitcoin alone’. Okay, there were other words, but this timeless wisdom can be transferred to the digital world as well. There are so many incredible crypto coins that it would be unforgivable to be satisfied with just one progenitor of all cryptocurrencies, no matter how significant it may be. Besides, smart investing involves diversifying an investment portfolio with different assets in a certain ratio. Therefore, in this article we will consider the 3 largest cryptocurrencies, which are second only to Bitcoin and Ethereum in their market cap.
Tether USDT (USDT)
One of the leaders in the digital asset market is Tether (USDT). According to CoinMarketCap, it confidently ranks third in the ranking of cryptocurrencies with a capitalization of almost $83 billion.
As a stablecoin, USDT is pegged to the US dollar and remains stable even during the crypto winter. At the time of writing, the value of the coin was $0.9999, and it is likely that if you check it while you are reading it, it will be more or less the same. Stablecoins are different from regular cryptos. You can clearly see this by comparing, for example, USDT vs TRX.
USDT tokens do not have their own single blockchain, but are created on existing cryptocurrency platforms. USDT was first launched in 2014 on the Omni Layer platform. Today, different USDT standards have been developed on other blockchains: Ethereum, Avalanche, Algorand, Binance Smart Chain, Solana, Tron, EOS, etc. This allows the stablecoin to be used in their ecosystems, which are presented in the form of modern decentralized applications developed on the basis of smart contracts.
XRP (XRP)
Ripple is the American technology company behind the RippleNet payment system and the XRP cryptocurrency. The company was founded in 2012 by Chris Larsen, Arthur Britto, and Jed McCaleb with the goal of creating a better alternative or complement to SWIFT based on distributed ledger technology (DLT).
On July 13, Ripple won a partial victory in Ripple’s lawsuit against the SEC, which has been ongoing since 2020. This event inspired crypto investors and had a positive impact on the price of the XRP token: right after the news, its value rose from $0.4735 to $0.8207. Now its value has dropped slightly to $0.7093, but XRP is still considered very promising in terms of investment. According to CoinMarketCap, XRP is ranked fourth in the ranking of cryptocurrencies with a capitalization of over $37 billion. XRP use cases can be boiled down to providing liquidity, transactions, and paying fees.
The 3 main areas of activity of the Ripple crypto project are:
- Solutions for international payments
- Liquidity hub for the crypto market
- Infrastructure for CBDC
As a settlement infrastructure provider, Ripple has partnered with hundreds of banks and companies in dozens of different jurisdictions, with countries such as Montenegro and Bhutan using Ripple’s CBDC solutions.
BNB (BNB)
BNB (Binance Coin) is a cryptocurrency developed and issued by the popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance. In recent years, BNB has become one of the most recognizable and widely used cryptocurrencies in the world. According to CoinMarketCap, BNB is ranked fifth in the ranking of cryptocurrencies with a market cap slightly lower than that of XRP. The BNB token price at the time of writing is $241.42, making it the most valuable coin in our review.
BNB is a stable and reliable cryptocurrency that has shown steady growth over the past years. Its popularity and use on the Binance platform make it an attractive asset for investors and traders. In addition, Binance is constantly introducing new features and innovations, which can lead to further growth in the value of BNB.
Since BNB is in high demand, it trades with many cryptocurrencies, so you can easily swap your SHIB to BNB, for example. By becoming part of the BNB community, investors will be able to participate in the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem, enjoy discounted platform products, or simply use BNB as a universal means of payment.
