How altcoins such as ether have increasingly captured the crypto market

Altcoins have become an increasingly important part of the crypto market since the start of 2021.

“Crypto and blockchain are all about transferring money and property rights over the internet,” said Matt Hougan, chief investment strategist at Bitwise. “It is one of the largest addressable markets the internet has ever attacked.”

In early 2021, bitcoin made up over 70% of the crypto market, according to TradingViews. By the end of July 2021, bitcoin’s market share had fallen to 48% of the global $ 1.6 trillion cryptocurrency market, with altcoins such as Ether and USDC gnawing at its dominance. In fact, the crypto market now contains over 11,000 different types of altcoins, according to Coinmarketcap.com.

“Everyone is trying to do something that has never been done before,” Mati Greenspan, founder and CEO of Quantum Economics, told CNBC.

Altcoins fall into several different categories. There are technological platforms such as ethereum, the blockchain on which the ether is built and which provides the foundation for the growing “decentralized finance” movement. There are stablecoins or digital currencies linked to real world currencies or other assets. And then there are the very currencies, like dogecoin.

Watch the video below to learn more about the world of altcoins, the different types of altcoins, and steps regulators could take to get them under control.