A Guide to Different Cryptocurrency Categories with Trust Wallet

Since Bitcoin’s inception over a decade ago, there has been a sprout of different categories of cryptocurrencies powered by blockchain technology.

From meme coins and play-to-earn tokens to stablecoins and DeFi tokens, a wide array of crypto assets exist in the market today, which can get confusing as new crypto projects launch almost every other day. Therefore, it’s important to understand the different cryptocurrency categories. This way, you’re able to make smarter trading and investment decisions.

With Trust Wallet, you can store and manage an array of crypto assets, including NFTs, stablecoins, meme coins, and much more.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the various cryptocurrency categories, their relevance, token examples, and their main utility.

What is Trust Wallet?

Trust Wallet is the most trusted and secure crypto wallet in the market. It’s a self-custodial wallet that you can use to buy, swap, and manage your digital assets.

As a multi-chain wallet, you can use Trust Wallet to manage and store over 10M+ crypto assets, including NFTs, across 80 blockchains. Trust Wallet gives you full ownership and control of your crypto assets and private keys, thanks to its self-custody feature.

Moreover, the built-in Trust Wallet Security Scanner feature proactively informs you of risky transactions while allowing you to maintain full control of their digital assets. We’ll discuss more on how this feature works later on in the article. Trust Wallet also features the zkEVM scaling solution in its mobile app and Trust Wallet Browser Extension, allowing developers to easily implement smart contracts using zero-knowledge proofs on the Ethereum blockchain.

With over 60M+ downloads, Trust Wallet aspires to make Web3 accessible to everyone.

Now that you are up to speed on what Trust Wallet is and how you can use it, let’s take a look at the different crypto categories that you can access using Trust Wallet.

Artificial Intelligence in the Crypto World

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a growing field of computer science that allows machines to mimic human intelligence by making decisions hinged on data.

We’ve witnessed the emergence of various AI programs, such as ChatGPT, an application that’s able to ‘write’ based on a brief presented by a person. Moreover, AI-generated artwork has also found a place in the NFT market, helping creators push the boundaries of what’s possible in the digital art realm.

Typically, the outputs generated by AI applications tend to be close to what a human being can create. As a result, AI products are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Therefore, it doesn’t come as a surprise that they’ve found their way into the crypto space resulting in various AI crypto projects and cryptocurrencies.

AI cryptocurrencies are digital assets that power artificial intelligence blockchain platforms. They champion AI-driven projects, from market predictions to decentralized markets to portfolio management.

There are various AI coins and projects that you can research before opting to invest in. Let’s take a look at three of the most prominent ones.

The Graph (GRT)

The Graph is a crypto project that utilizes AI to query and index data from different blockchains in the same manner that Google queries and indexes data from websites. The Graph indexes blockchain data by grouping it into smaller subgraphs. Moreover, The Graph has its own native token known as GRT. GRT has a current market cap of over $970 million.

SingularityNET (AGIX)

SingularityNET is a blockchain-powered platform that enables anyone to design, share, and monetize AI services. The platform features an internal marketplace where people can browse, test, and buy various AI services using SingularityNET’s native token, AGIX. AGIX has a market cap of $260 million.

The platform enables developers to earn an income from AI models and solutions without the need to develop full-fledged apps. In addition, developers can also purchase AI models and solutions for their applications.

Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

Decentralized finance, commonly known as DeFi, eliminates centralized financial institutions and third parties from financial transactions by offering Internet-native financial products and services powered by smart contracts.

The majority of DeFi applications operate on the Ethereum blockchain, which developers can use to build different kinds of decentralized applications (DApps) thanks to the availability of Turning-complete smart contracts, which provide much flexibility.

There are a range of DeFi protocols that provide financial services, such as trading, investing, borrowing, lending, and more. Most of these protocols also have their own DeFi tokens, enabling you to take part in protocol governance, earn rewards for interacting with the platform, and more.

Let’s take a look at three leading DeFi tokens.

Dai (DAI)

Dai is an Ethereum-based stablecoin whose price tracks that of the US dollar. Its development and issuance are managed by the MakerDAO and Maker Protocol. The crypto-collateralized stablecoin is the leading DeFi token with a market capitalization of over $5 billion. It’s primarily used as an asset in the DeFI lending markets.

Uniswap (UNI)

Uniswap is a highly popular decentralized trading protocol that enables you to seamlessly trade Ethereum-based tokens. Anyone that holds ERC-20 tokens can buy and sell them using Uniswap’s automated market maker (AMM) solution. UNI is Uniswap’s native token that’s primarily used for voting on different governance proposals. It has a market capitalization of $3.5 billion.

Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC)

Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) is another popular DeFi token, enabling Bitcoin (BTC) holders to deploy the digital currency on Ethereum in tokenized form. Being an ERC-20-compliant token, WBTC can be fully integrated into Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem. WBTC has a market capitalization of almost $5 billion.

Memecoins and Their Popularity

Meme coins are another popular type of cryptocurrency. Inspired by viral internet memes, meme coins generally don’t have any utility.

Nonetheless, they remain a much-loved part of the crypto culture as they take the seriousness out of crypto investing, helping to attract new demographics to the crypto market.

Since the inception of the first meme coin, Dogecoin, the meme coin market has experienced massive growth over the years to become a billion-dollar market. Still, they remain highly volatile cryptocurrencies, mainly used for speculation.

While there are more than 300 meme coins, there’s only a handful that are actively traded on various crypto exchanges. Let’s take a look at the top three meme coins in the market today.

Dogecoin (DOGE)

Dogecoin is an open-source cryptocurrency that was created using Litecoin’s open-source code. It was created to bring lightheartedness to the crypto market and features a picture of a smiling Shiba Inu dog that’s part of a group of hunting dogs originating from Japan. Today, DOGE has a market cap of over $10 billion.

Shiba Inu (SHIB)

Shiba Inu is the second-largest meme token by market cap and, similar to DOGE, features the Shiba Inu dog. At the time of its launch back in 2020, SHIB was touted as the ‘Dogecoin killer’ by the SHIBArmy, Shiba Inu’s online community of followers. The Shiba Inu ecosystem grew, following the success of the meme coin to include a popular decentralized exchange called ShibaSwap. SHIB’s market capitalization is currently around $6 billion.

Pepe (PEPE)

Pepe is a much newer meme coin, launched in April 2023 as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain. and trades with the ticker symbol PEPE. it draws its inspiration from an internet frog meme that was quite popular in the 2000s. According to Pepe’s team, the PEPE token is the ‘most meme-able memecoin in existence.’ At the time of writing, Pepe has a market cap of over $500 million.

NFTs and Collectibles

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are unique digital assets that are tokenized and stored on a blockchain. While NFTs cut across multiple industries, such as fashion, gaming, and music, among others, their most popular use cases are digital art and virtual collectibles.

Let’s take a look at three of the most popular NFT collections.

CryptoPunks

CryptoPunks is a collection of 10,000 unique characters stored on the Ethereum blockchain. They are among the earliest NFTs minted on Ethereum, enabling punks to become OG favorites in the crypto world. In addition, CryptoPunks also inspired the ERC-721 standard that today powers most crypto collectibles and digital art.

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)

Bored Ape Yacht Club, commonly called BAYC, is also a collection of 10,000 NFTs found on the Ethereum blockchain. They are graphical depictions of cartoon-like apes that rose to notoriety during the 2021 NFT hype when celebrities like Justin Bieber and Snoop Dogg started buying them and showing them off as social media profile pictures.

CryptoKitties

CryptoKitties were among the first NFTs born out of one of the first popular blockchain games on the Ethereum blockchain, also called CryptoKitties. CryptoKitties players can breed and trade their virtual kittens in the CryptoKitties game, with the kittens with the most unique features garnering the most secondary market value. CryptoKitties NFT holders can also sell their cat NFTs on major NFT marketplaces, such as OpenSea.

Metaverse: A New Digital Reality

The metaverse is an amalgamation of both our digital and physical lives. When it materializes, it will become a part of a new internet that will merge virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR), and augmented reality (AR) with our actual physical world.

The introduction of the metaverse will offer humans a fill-in digital realm where people will be able to play, work, and live. In 2022, the metaverse market was worth over $65 billion. Its market size is expected to grow, which means it has the potential to become lucrative for early investors. So let’s take a look at three leading metaverse tokens.

Axie Infinity (AXS)

Axie Infinity is a popular play-to-earn game that leverages early metaverse technology. The game has two Ethereum-based tokens - AXS and Smooth Love Potion (SLP). However, its primary token is AXS which is also a governance token. AXS token holders can cast their votes on various governance proposals that determine the future of the game. AXS has a market cap of over $800 million.

The Sandbox (SAND)

The Sandbox is a virtual world built atop the Ethereum blockchain. People using the platform can build and monetize their own gaming experience. The SAND token, besides being a staking token in The Sandbox, is also used for in-world payments and governance decisions. SAND has a market cap of $800 million.

Decentraland (MANA)

Decentraland is the largest virtual blockchain-powered universe that has its own native token, MANA. The virtual-reality platform allows people to develop, sell, and buy land as they also play games, interact with others, and create content. MANA, besides being the native token in Decentraland, is also used to pay for goods and other services in the metaverse world. It has a market cap of over $700 million.

Play to Earn: A Gaming Revolution

Play-to-Earn (P2E) is a type of online-based gaming where players have a chance to earn in-game assets in the form of cryptocurrency tokens or NFTs. As a result, gamers can also earn an income by participating in the games and then selling their tokenized in-game items for other cryptocurrencies.

The top three P2E games currently include Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, and Decentraland, according to data from CoinMarketCap. As described above, under the metaverse tokens, the three metaverse worlds have their own native tokens that are used to buy in-world accessories and, in the case of Axie Infinity and The Sandbox, also act as governance tokens.

But there are also other P2E games besides Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, and Decentraland. Let’s look at three of them.

Gala (GALA)

Gala Games are blockchain-based P2E games that utilize blockchain technology and Web3 to give players full control of the games while rewarding them with digital assets such as NFTs or cryptocurrencies. Gala’s gaming ecosystem has its own utility token for its games, known as GALA. The GALA token is used as the Gas token to pay for network fees on its blockchain, purchase NFT items, and as a reward to operators for maintaining the Nodes. GALA has a market cap of over $80 million.

Illuvium (ILV)

Illuvium is another popular P2E game. It’s an Ethereum-based open-world fantasy battle game that offers entertainment to both diehard DeFi fans and casual gamers. Illuvium’s native token is called ILV. The ILV token is used for staking, incentivizing players to take part in the Illuvium ecosystem, buying Illuviuls, and for player-to-player transactions. It has a market cap of $180 million.

Yield Guild Games (YGG)

Yield Guild Games, which trades with the ticker symbol YGG, is a decentralized autonomous organization that funds NFTs. When it comes to P2E games, Yield Guild Games has created a community of investors and players who earn money by investing in blockchain-based games and NFTs. Its token, YGG, is not only a governance token, but it can also be used for staking and paying for multiple services on the network. It has a market cap of over $300 million.

Web3: The Future of the Internet

Web3, at its core, uses blockchain, NFTs, and cryptocurrencies to give Internet ownership back to the people. How so? Web1 was read-only, Web2 is read-write, and Web is expected to be read-write-own.

Web3 is described as a spate of open-source, decentralized applications (dApps) that are interconnected and powered by the blockchain. It’s expected to be the next iteration of the internet that will succeed Web2 and Web1 that preceded Web2. Moreover, it’ll be decentralized, permissionless, and trustless, and it’ll also feature Internet-native payments, unlike the current internet.

Although Web3 is still in development, there are already Web3 tokens you could invest in. Let’s look at two of them.

Polkadot (DOT)

Polkadot is a metaprotocol that links and secures a network of specific blockchains, facilitating cross-chain transfers of different kinds of assets and data, thus allowing different blockchains to become interoperable. It was created to give a foundation for Web3, which is a decentralized internet of blockchains. DOT is Polkadot’s native token that serves various purposes but primarily to pay for transaction fees. It has a market cap of over $6.5 billion.

Chainlink (LINK)

Chainlink is a protocol that empowers universally linked smart contracts. It features a decentralized Oracle network that enables blockchains to interact with outside data feeds, payments, and events in a secure manner, thus providing the vital off-chain information required by intricate smart contracts to become the authoritative and reliable form of digital agreement. LINK is Chainlink’s native cryptocurrency, with a market cap of over $4 billion.

Ensuring Safety with Trust Wallet Security Scanner

While you explore all the different cryptocurrency categories, it’s important to do so using a secure crypto wallet like Trust Wallet.

Trust Wallet features an in-built security scanner that proactively lets you know of any risky transaction you intend to make while still giving you full control of your digital assets. It was designed to allow people to easily explore and navigate emerging technologies such as Web3.

The Trust Wallet Security Scanner was created to help people make well-informed decisions by identifying and notifying them of transactions that may lead to loss of funds. With the security scanner, each transaction has a risk level attached to it. Whenever a transaction reaches the risk level, Trust Wallet notifies you through warning messages. This way, you can rest assured that all the transactions you make using Trust Wallet are safe and secure.

Conclusion

The cryptocurrency universe is vast and provides you with a wide range of different digital currencies and tokens with varying use cases and utility.

Some cryptocurrencies may become the future of finance while others simply make Web3 more fun. Either way, you look at it, each cryptocurrency category has something unique to add to the crypto space. Remember, you can use Trust Wallet to securely store and manage digital assets from all the cryptocurrency categories listed in this guide, but be sure to always do your own research (DYOR).

Download Trust Wallet today to navigate the vast world of cryptocurrencies!

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Note: Any cited numbers, figures, or illustrations are reported at the time of writing, and are subject to change.