Glossary · Crypto
Altcoin
An altcoin is any cryptocurrency other than bitcoin, from ether and Solana to stablecoins and joke coins like Dogecoin.
Also called: alternative coin, alts, token
Everything but bitcoin: $787B of $2.27T, November 11, 2026.
Of the 14 altcoins with price histories here, 11 are more than 50% below their records.
In plain words
Bitcoin came first, in 2009. Every coin that came after it is an altcoin, short for “alternative coin”. The first ones copied bitcoin’s code and changed a setting or two: Litecoin (2011) made blocks four times faster, and Dogecoin (2013) began as a joke about a dog meme.
Later altcoins tried bigger ideas. Ethereum (2015) added programs, Solana and others aim for speed, and stablecoins hold a steady $1. Some are coins with their own blockchain; others are tokens that live on someone else’s, usually Ethereum.
Thousands exist, but a few hold most of the value. On November 11, 2026, all the coins on this site except bitcoin made up 35% of their combined value.
Example
How far altcoins have fallen from their records
- Take the 14 altcoins with price histories on this site, stablecoins left out.
- For each one, compare the latest close with its highest close ever.
- The median coin is 82% below its record, and 11 of the 14 are more than half below.
- The deepest: Polkadot, 98% below its 2021 record. The closest: Monero, 19% below.
- For comparison, bitcoin is 41% below its record close.
And these are the survivors: large coins that still trade. Thousands of altcoins from past booms have vanished, which no list of today’s coins can show (survivorship bias).
One level deeper
Why so many? Creating a token takes minutes and costs little, so every boom brings a wave of new ones: the 2017 ICO craze, when projects raised money by selling tokens before they had a product, then DeFi tokens in 2020, NFTs and meme coins in 2021, and more meme coins since.
Altcoins tend to move with bitcoin, only further: when bitcoin falls, most fall harder. Many have founders or early investors holding a large slice of the supply, which can be sold into the market over time.
Bitcoin’s share of the total, often called bitcoin dominance, rises when money retreats to the biggest coin and falls in altcoin booms. Among the coins on this site it is 65% now.
Bitcoin, ether, stablecoins and the rest since 2019
Each line is a share of the combined estimated market value of the 17 coins on this site. Stablecoins grew from a sliver to 11% now; the other altcoins’ share swelled in the 2021 boom and shrank afterwards.
The numbers behind the chart
| Date | Bitcoin | Ether | Stablecoins (USDT, USDC) | Other coins on this site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 2019 | 73% | 10% | 2% | 15% |
| Dec 2019 | 76% | 9% | 3% | 13% |
| Dec 2020 | 72% | 12% | 4% | 11% |
| Dec 2021 | 49% | 25% | 6% | 19% |
| Dec 2022 | 46% | 21% | 16% | 17% |
| Dec 2023 | 59% | 19% | 8% | 14% |
| Dec 2024 | 63% | 14% | 6% | 17% |
| Dec 2025 | 63% | 13% | 9% | 15% |
| Nov 2026 | 65% | 11% | 11% | 13% |
Why it matters
Most of crypto’s experiments happen in altcoins: programmable money, stablecoins, faster networks.
Most of its losses too: altcoins have tended to fall further than bitcoin in downturns, and many disappear.
The word is everywhere in crypto news, where “alt season” means altcoins outrunning bitcoin.
A common mistake
Myth: A coin that costs a few cents is cheap and has more room to grow than bitcoin.
In fact: The price of one coin means little without the number of coins. A coin can cost cents simply because billions of them exist (Dogecoin has well over 100 billion). What compares coins is the market value of all of them, as with shares.
Questions people ask
What was the first altcoin?
Namecoin, launched in April 2011 to run a decentralized naming system. Litecoin followed in October 2011. Both began as copies of bitcoin’s code.
Is ether an altcoin?
Strictly, yes: anything that is not bitcoin is an altcoin. Because of its size, many people treat ether as a class of its own and use “altcoins” for everything smaller.
What is bitcoin dominance?
Bitcoin’s share of the total market value of crypto. Among the 17 coins tracked here it is 65% (November 11, 2026); measured across every coin it is a little lower.
Read more on BigCapital
About the numbers
- The numbers on this page are recalculated from the data every night; the sources are listed at the end of the page.
- Cardano market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Cardano price: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric PriceUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Avalanche market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Avalanche price: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric PriceUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Bitcoin Cash market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Bitcoin Cash price: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric PriceUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- BNB market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- BNB price: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric PriceUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Bitcoin market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Bitcoin price: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric PriceUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Dogecoin market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Dogecoin price: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric PriceUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Polkadot market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Polkadot price: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric PriceUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Ethereum market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Ethereum price: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric PriceUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Chainlink market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Chainlink price: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric PriceUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Litecoin market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Litecoin price: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric PriceUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Solana market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Solana price: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric PriceUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- TRON market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- TRON price: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric PriceUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- USD Coin (USDC) market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Tether (USDT) market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Stellar market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Stellar price: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric PriceUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Monero market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Monero price: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric PriceUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- XRP market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- XRP price: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric PriceUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Crypto data: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, used under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.
- This page explains a term. It is not investment advice.