17 Cryptocurrencies You’ve Never Heard Of

Cryptocurrency is becoming increasingly popular, and many people are considering investing. While every investment decision should be carefully weighed, it’s important to recognize that an investor has multiple options aside from the traditional Bitcoin or Ethereum currencies. In this list, we’ll cover 17 cryptocurrencies you may have never heard of – and whey you should consider them!

#1: Litecoin (LTC)

Similar to bitcoin, litecoin is a digital currency that has roots in cryptography. Litecoin is essentially a simpler, “lighter” version of bitcoin – it doesn’t require the heavy-duty computer power that bitcoin does, making it more accessible for mining. It’s also capable of allowing higher transaction volume than bitcoin is. Litecoin’s current market cap is $18,740,498,402.

#2: Monero (XMR)

Monero is another open-source cryptocurrency that focuses on privacy. They pride themselves in being totally untraceable. It’s based on CryptoNote protocol and opens the capability for anonymous transactions. Monero has a respectable circulating supply of 15,501,542 XMR and a market cap of $6,954,689,400 USD.

#3: Neo (NEO)

Neo has a circulating supply of 65,000,000 NEO and a market cap of $4,700,169,500 USD. They are a departure from Ethereum’s blockchain model and are working to improve this framework. They are a non-profit, community-based project.

#4: Golem (GNT)

Golem, like OmiseGO, is built on Ethereum blockchain – but it’s used to award PC owners who contribute their processing power toward the Golem network. Rather than operating as a standalone cryptocurrency, they advertise themselves as a worldwide supercomputer – used for everything from business to cryptography. The current total supply is 1,000,000,000 GNT. GNT has a market cap of $476,113,608 USD.

#5: OmiseGO (OMG)

OmiseGO is Ethereum-based, but it’s designed to open access to everyone (with or without a bank), scale with low cost, and have the same security that other decentralized currencies possess. It is built on the Ethereum blockchain, and it operates through smart contracts. The circulating supply of OMG is 102,042,552 and their current market cap is $1,928,063,403 USD.

#6: Ark (ARK)

Ark is a decentralized blockchain cryptocurrency that has set a goal to be the Google of blockchain technology. Ark operates by connecting existing blockchains and facilitating value transfers across many different platforms. Their current circulating supply is 97,981,284 ARK. Ark has a market cap of $757,217,979 USD.

#7: Lisk (LSK)

Similar to Ark, Lisk is working to build a modular blockchan application platform that uses JavaScript to build networks. Lisk has an impressive market cap of $2,233,105,685 USD – and they have a current circulating supply of 116,130,368 LSK. Lisk seeks to build a decentralized future that opens up blockchain technology to everyone.

#8: Nem (XEM)

Nem is built for performance, and they use a smart asset system. It is rumored to be one of the new “favorite” cryptocurrencies on the market. They have a current market cap of $9,094,859,999 USD and a circulating supply of 8,999,999,999 XEM.

#9: Decred (DCR)

Decred is a more-popular altcoin, and has a total supply of 6,813,832 DCR and a market cap of $612,872,427 USD. They’re popular as a result of their fully autonomous model.

#10: Namecoin (NMC)

Namecoin is an opensource cryptocurrency that acts as its own DNS. All currency values or domain names are stored using blockchain, limiting number of namecoins to 21m. Namecoin has a circulating supply of 14,736,400 NMC and a market cap of $62,326,130 USD.

#11: Peercoin (PPC)

Peercoin has a goal of being the most secure and lowest-cost cryptocoin on the market. They’re a peer-to-peer currency that safeguards against abuse by group mining. Of all alternative cryptocoins, peercoin has a market cap of $148,684,096 USD.

#12: Feathercoin (FTC)

Feathercoin came onto the cryptocurrency market in April of 2013. They update regularly to further improve their software. They intend to continue expanding and experimenting with blockchain technology. Their current max supply is 336,000,000 FTC, and they have a market cap of  $81,621,858 USD.

#20: Decent (DCT)

Decent is a blockchain content distribution cryptocurrency. They pride themselves in being free of any third-party influence, and in having strong data encryption. They also have an individual price-setting system. There is currently a total supply of 73,197,775 DCT and a market cap of $56,622,939 USD.

#13: Primecoin (XPM)

Primecoin sets itself apart from other alternative cryptocurrencies by using a different mathematical framework for mining. They find long Cunningham chains – a sequence of prime numbers – that build the currency’s value. Their current circulating supply is 21,523,150 XPM and their market cap is $8,742,787 USD.

#14: Novacoin (NVC)

Novacoin is completely open-source and they have over 178,013 unique addresses and over 1,621,563 NVC. Their current circulating supply is 1,91,681 NVC and they have a market cap of $15,805,783 USD. Novacoin integrates protection schemes within the currency’s core – which helps to deter abuse.

#15: Quark (QRK)

Launched in 2013, Quark differentiates itself by increasing security measures. They also work to make themselves more available than competitors like bitcoin by enabling anyone with a CPU to mine for Quark Coins. Quark currently has a circulating supply of 252,728,554 QRK and a market cap of $4,175,957 USD.

#16: Megacoin (MEC)

Megacoin is a cryptocurrency that boasts few rules and methods for preventing inflation. They offer a limited supply of Megacoins – only 42 million. Their current market cap is $3,607,369 USD and circulating supply is 36,338,912 MEC.

#17: Terracoin (TRC)

After launching in 2012, Terracoin began modelling their P2P platform after Bitcoin’s protocol. Terracoin boasts that they aren’t just a cryptocurrency – they’re a community that’s invested in improving the world. Terracoin is working toward decentralized governance, masternodes, and donations to help people on a global scale. Terracoin currently has a coin supply of 42 Million coins. They have reward halves every 1050000 blocks. They also have a market cap of $4,966,564 USD.

Cryptocurrencies are currently a hot-investment concept for many currency traders. It’s important to know that there are multiple currency options out there for you to purchase and trade. As always, it’s critical to weigh your investment choices wisely. Knowing the market cap of each cryptocurrency and what each platform stands for can help to influence your decisions!