Altcoins and Stablecoins. What is the Difference?

Bitcoin is not the only one in the crypto industry. You may often hear news about altcoins and stablecoins, but what are they?

Altcoins are cryptocurrencies created after bitcoin. This term comes from the abbreviation of the words "alternative" and "bitcoin." The purpose of their development is to create a more flexible and affordable analog of bitcoin. The first altcoin appeared in 2011 under the title Namecoin. Currently, the number of altcoins exceeds 5000 (Ethereum, Litecoin, Cardano, etc.).

Stablecoin is a cryptocurrency that mimics the value of fiat currencies, in particular the dollar. This connection with the material values ​​of the real world has several advantages:

• low volatility;

• fast conversion of fiat money into cryptocurrency and vice versa;

• storage of funds in stablecoins in countries with an unstable national currency exchange rate.

There are now over 60 varieties of stablecoins (Tether, USD Coin, Binance USD, etc.).