Cryptocurrencies are often perceived as memes, but the industry encompasses much more than meme coins. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are widely panned as unregulated casinos or Ponzi schemes, though they create real value. For example, US Senator Elizabeth Warren called crypto a threat to financial stability, and a UK committee said ownership resembles gambling more than a financial service. While some assets are speculative, many serve specific business or functional purposes; the value can be grouped into four general categories: Bitcoin, stablecoins, meme coins, and utility tokens.
Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency. The protocol has a limited supply, with an eventual maximum of 21 million bitcoins. Unlike most cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin has only one purpose: to be used as money—or, more specifically, as a system of payment. The network is decentralized, which makes it resilient and hard to disrupt, though prices can be volatile.
Stablecoins are tokens whose value is tied to a particular asset, most commonly the US dollar. They are widely used in electronic payments since they provide the benefits of blockchain-based payments without Bitcoin’s price volatility. The two most widely used stablecoins, Tether (USDT) and Circle’s USDC, have market capitalizations of about $148 billion and $62 billion, respectively. Circle is regulated as a money transmitter in the United States, while Tether is pursuing a regulated US subsidiary.
Utility tokens are cryptocurrencies created by blockchains that provide some utility or service. One example is Filecoin (FIL), which offers online storage on a decentralized public blockchain. The Filecoin blockchain provides safe and private file storage on the decentralized Filecoin network, and the FIL token is used to pay for storage and reward providers. A subset known as Decentralized Physical Infrastructure (DePIN) uses blockchains to replace government or corporate-based infrastructure, such as Helium’s network for data transmission.
Meme coins are tokens meant purely for speculation with no intrinsic value beyond the fun of trading. These tokens are based on meme characteristics, like symbols or stories that drive their prices, with examples such as DOGE (over $26 billion market cap) and FARTCOIN. Political meme coins like BODEN and TREMP fluctuated around elections, and even a TRUMP meme coin rose and fell rapidly. Most meme coins trade for the fun of participating in a shared joke or betting that the price will rise.
Crypto’s value comes from use cases like Bitcoin’s role as a payment system and stablecoins’ reliability, alongside the broader potential of DeFi, DePIN, and tokenization, rather than memes alone. Crypto’s value comes from use cases like Bitcoin’s role as a payment system and stablecoins’ reliability, alongside the broader potential of DeFi, DePIN, and tokenization, rather than memes alone.
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