# List of cryptocurrencies

Since the creation of bitcoin in 2009, the number of new cryptocurrencies has expanded rapidly.
The UK's Financial Conduct Authority estimated there were over 20,000 different cryptocurrencies by the start of 2023, although many of these were no longer traded and would never grow to a significant size.
Active and inactive currencies are listed in this article.

## Active currencies by date of introduction

| Year of introduction | Currency | Symbol | Founder(s) | Hash algorithm | Programming language of implementation | Consensus mechanism | Notes |
| 2009 | Bitcoin | BTC, XBT, ₿ | Satoshi Nakamoto | SHA-256d | C++ | PoW | The first and most widely used decentralized ledger currency, with the highest market capitalization as of 2018. |
| 2011 | Litecoin | LTC, Ł | Charlie Lee | Scrypt | C++ | PoW | One of the first cryptocurrencies to use scrypt as a hashing algorithm. |
| 2011 | Namecoin | NMC | Vincent Durham | SHA-256d | C++ | PoW | Also acts as an alternative, decentralized DNS. |
| 2012 | Peercoin | PPC | Sunny King (pseudonym) | SHA-256d | C++ | PoW & PoS | The first cryptocurrency to use both PoW and PoS functions. |
| 2013 | Dogecoin | DOGE, XDG, Ð | Jackson Palmer & Billy Markus | Scrypt | C++ | PoW | Based on the Doge internet meme. |
| 2013 | Gridcoin | GRC | Rob Hälford | Scrypt | C++ | Decentralized PoS | Linked to citizen science through the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing |
| 2013 | Primecoin | XPM | Sunny King (pseudonym) | 1CC/2CC/TWN | TypeScript, C++ | PoW | Uses the finding of prime chains composed of Cunningham chains and bi-twin chains for proof-of-work. |
| 2013 | Ripple | XRP | Chris Larsen & Jed McCaleb | ECDSA | C++ | "Consensus" | Designed for peer-to-peer debt transfer. Not based on bitcoin. |
| 2013 | Nxt | NXT | BCNext (pseudonym) | SHA-256d | Java | PoS | Specifically designed as a flexible platform to build applications and financial services around its protocol. |
| 2014 | Auroracoin | AUR | Baldur Odinsson (pseudonym) | Scrypt | C++ | PoW | Created as an alternative currency for Iceland, intended to replace the Icelandic króna. |
| 2014 | Dash | DASH | Evan Duffield | X11 | C++ | PoW & Proof of Service | A bitcoin-based currency featuring instant transactions, decentralized governance and budgeting, and private transactions. |
| 2014 | NEO | NEO | Da Hongfei & Erik Zhang | SHA-256 & RIPEMD160 | C# | dBFT | China based cryptocurrency, formerly ANT Shares and ANT Coins. The names were changed in 2017 to NEO and GAS. |
| 2014 | MazaCoin | MZC | BTC Oyate Initiative | SHA-256d | C++ | PoW | The underlying software is derived from that of another cryptocurrency, ZetaCoin. |
| 2014 | Monero | XMR | Monero Core Team | RandomX | C++ | PoW | Privacy-centric coin based on the CryptoNote protocol with improvements for scalability and decentralization. |
| 2014 | Titcoin | TIT | Edward Mansfield & Richard Allen | SHA-256d | TypeScript, C++ | PoW | The first cryptocurrency to be nominated for a major adult industry award. |
| 2014 | Verge | XVG | Sunerok | Scrypt, x17, groestl, blake2s, and lyra2rev2 | C, C++ | PoW | Features anonymous transactions using Tor. |
| 2014 | Stellar | XLM | Jed McCaleb | Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) | C, C++ | Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) | Open-source, decentralized global financial network. |
| 2014 | Vertcoin | VTC | David Muller | Verthash | C++ | PoW | Aims to be ASIC resistant. |
| 2015 | Ethereum | ETH, Ξ | Vitalik Buterin | Ethash | C++, Go | PoW, PoS | Supports Turing-complete smart contracts. |
| 2015 | Ethereum Classic | ETC | | EtcHash/Thanos | | PoW | An alternative version of Ethereum whose blockchain does not include the DAO hard fork. Supports Turing-complete smart contracts. |
| 2015 | Nano | XNO, Ӿ | Colin LeMahieu | Blake2 | C++ | Open Representative Voting | Decentralized, feeless, open-source, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. First to use a Block Lattice structure. |
| 2015 | Tether | USDT | Jan Ludovicus van der Velde | Omnicore | | PoW | Tether claims to be backed by USD at a 1 to 1 ratio. The company has been unable to produce promised audits. |
| 2016 | Firo | FIRO | Poramin Insom | Merkle tree Proof | C++ | PoW | The first financial system employing Zero-knowledge proof to protect users' privacy. It conducted the world's first large-scale blockchain election for Thailand Democrat Party in 2018. |
| 2016 | Zcash | ZEC | Zooko Wilcox | Equihash | C++ | PoW | The first open, permissionless financial system employing zero-knowledge security. |
| 2017 | Bitcoin Cash | BCH | | SHA-256d | | PoW | Hard fork from bitcoin, increased maximum block size from 1MB to 8MB (as of 2018, 32MB) |
| 2017 | EOS.IO | EOS | Dan Larimer | | WebAssembly, Rust, C, C++ | delegated PoS | Feeless Smart contract platform for decentralized applications and decentralized autonomous corporations with a block time of 500 ms. |
| 2017 | Cardano | ADA, ₳ | Charles Hoskinson | Ouroboros, PoS Algorithm | Haskell | PoS | Proof-of-stake blockchain platform: developed via evidence-based methods and peer-reviewed research. |
| 2017 | Tron | TRX | Justin Sun | | Java, Solidity | | |
| 2018 | AmbaCoin | | | | | | official cryptocurrency of the Cameroonian separatist entity of Ambazonia |
| 2018 | Nervos Network | CKB | Kevin Wang, Daniel Lv, Terry Tai | Eaglesong | Rust, JavaScript, C | PoW | Multi-layered blockchain smart contract platform |
| 2019 | Algorand | ALGO | Silvio Micali | | Go | PoS | Uses a verifiable random function to randomly select groups of users to certify blocks. |
| 2020 | Avalanche | AVAX | Emin Gün Sirer, Kevin Sekniqi, Maofan "Ted" Yin | | | PoS | |
| 2020 | Shiba Inu | SHIB | Ryoshi | | | PoS | |
| 2020 | Polkadot | DOT | Gavin Wood | | Rust | PoS | |
| 2020 | Solana | SOL | Anatoly Yakovenko | | Rust | PoS | |
| 2021 | DeSo | DESO | Nader al-Naji (aka diamondhands) | | Go | PoW | Also a social media platform, resembling Twitter. Known as BitClout until September 2021. |
| 2021 | SafeMoon | SAFEMOON | SafeMoon LLC | | Solidity | PoW | |
| 2023 | Arkham Intel Exchange | ARKM | Miguel Morel | | Solidity | PoS | |

## Inactive currencies

| Release | Currency | Symbol | Founder(s) | Hash algorithm | Programming language of implementation | Cryptocurrency blockchain (PoS, PoW, or other) | Notes |
| 2014 | Coinye | KOI, COYE | | Scrypt | | PoW | Used American hip hop artist Kanye West as its mascot, abandoned after he filed a trademark lawsuit. |
| 2014 | OneCoin | | Ruja Ignatova and Stephen Greenwood | | | | A Ponzi scheme promoted as a cryptocurrency. |
| 2017 | BitConnect | BCC | | | | | BitConnect was described as an open source, all-in-one bitcoin and crypto community platform but was later discovered to be a Ponzi scheme. |
| 2018 | KodakCoin | | Kodak and WENN Digital | Ethash | | | KodakCoin is a "photographer-centric" blockchain cryptocurrency used for payments for licensing photographs. |
| 2018 | Petro | | Venezuelan Government | onixCoin | C++ | | Stated by Nicolás Maduro to be backed by Venezuela's reserves of oil. As of August 2018 it does not appear to function as a currency. |
| 2018 | PlusToken | | | | | | A ponzi scheme which mainly had investors in China and South Korea. |