With Dogecoin in news, here's a look at other emerging cryptos

After announcing $1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has tweeted about another digital currency, resulting in its price shooting by 16% in a single day.

Elon Musk said on February 10 he had bought Dogecoin for his newborn showing his support towards digital currencies.

Though there are thousands of virtual currencies but most of the trading happens in top crypto currencies. Each currency defines its projects, which you can learn about on their websites. Bitcoin is the oldest and largest circulated virtual currency with a market cap of Rs 60.7 trillion ($835 billion).

Currently it is trading at Rs 32.53 lakh ($44,904.90), generating return of around 52% since Jan 2021. Bitcoin is a virtual currency which works on peer-to-peer technology with no central authority managing transactions.

Riding on the popularity of Bitcoins many altcoins- a term used for digital currencies other than Bitcoin-have given good returns over the last one year.

Here are details about a few popular Altcoins:

Dogecoin
Market Cap: Rs 679.36 billion ($9.36 billion)
Price: Rs 5.29 ($0.072)
Return YTD: 1240%

After Elon Musk tweeted about Dogecoin on Wednesday its prices jumped by 16%% in 24 hours. The Tesla owner has earlier mentioned Bitcoin in his twitter bio, which jumped its prices by 20%. Wondering what is Dogecoin? Altcoin Dogecoin is a decentralised peer-to-peer digital currency that enables you to easily send money online. It is “the internet currency.” The Shiba Inu is a Japanese dog and represents Dogecoin.

There are several ways of buying Dogecoin. You can buy them, trade for them, get tipped or mine them. Their website states: “You can get tipped Dogecoin by participating in our community. If that’s not your style, the easiest way to have your first Dogecoin is to get them from a faucet. A Faucet is a website which gives you a small amount of Dogecoin for free to introduce you to the currency! All you need is your Dogecoin address. Mining is intended for advanced users only, as it requires a lot of technical knowledge to do.”

Ethereum
Market Cap: Rs14.4 trillion ($197. 32 billion)
Price: Rs 1,25,229 ($1,723.95)
Return (YTD): 136%

While Bitcoin is only a currency, Ethereum functions as a token and can run any application in a decentralised ledger. The website of Ethereum says “Ethereum is a technology that’s home to digital money, global payments, and applications. The community has built a booming digital economy, bold new ways for creators to earn online, and so much more. It’s open to everyone, wherever you are in the world – all you need is the internet.”

XRP Ripple
Market Cap: Rs 1.7 trillion ($23.23 Billion)
Price: Rs 37.49 ($0.51)
Return (YTD): 117%

XRP is the currency used by the ripple payment network. Ripple is a pre mined currency and doesn’t work on the mining concept like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin. The currency is used for cross border settlements. Many Banks partnered with Ripple to improve their cross-border payment offerings. However, recently, the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against world’s third-largest cryptocurrency platform for illegally selling unregistered securities. In light of the SEC’s action trading in XRP got suspended.