Altcoin
An altcoin is any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin. The landscape ranges from Ethereum — with a market cap in the hundreds of billions — to obscure tokens that may be worthless within months of launch.
2 min read · Updated June 2026
Some altcoins like Ethereum (ETH) have robust ecosystems and genuine utility as the backbone of decentralised applications. Others like Solana (SOL) and Chainlink (LINK) have established communities. Many more have little utility and exist primarily as speculative vehicles.
Different projects aim to solve different problems — faster transactions, lower fees, privacy, smart contracts, or specific industry applications. Bitcoin is primarily a store of value; altcoins expand in various directions.
The risk profile is significantly higher than Bitcoin. Many altcoins lose 80-95% of value in bear markets and never recover. The smaller the market cap, the more susceptible to manipulation.
For most retail investors, altcoins should represent only a small, speculative portion of a crypto allocation — which itself should be a modest slice of a diversified portfolio.
Research the project, team, use case, and tokenomics before investing. If you can't explain why the token needs to exist, it probably doesn't need your money.
Richify's AI agents help you navigate the altcoin landscape — separating established projects from speculative noise, in plain, actionable language.
