What is the most popular cryptocurrency?
One Bitcoin is worth nearly $10,000 as of Feb. 8
Bitcoin is largely believed the be the most popular cryptocurrency.
The crypto coin made national news in 2017 when its value unexpectedly skyrocketed to $19,873 per share, highlighting the general idea of cryptocurrency and blockchain on a global scale before it was largely being considered as an alternative currency option.
6 REASONS BITCOIN HAS NEARLY TRIPLED IN 6 MONTHS
"The most popular crypto is Bitcoin ... because it was the first one to be widely used and is generally considered the safest to own," Alex Mashinsky, CEO at Celsius Network, a crypto lending and depository company, told FOX Business. "Bitcoin is up 9 million [percent] in the last decade, outpacing Wall Street top performer Netflix, which returned 4,000 [percent] during the same time."
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NYXBT | NO DATA AVAILABLE | - | - | - |
One Bitcoin is worth nearly $10,000 as of Feb. 8, according to Google Disclaimer.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF CRYPTOCURRENCY?
Mashinsky noted that cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular because they "bypass all the fees and tolls banks [that] credit cards and financial platforms charge us today. These new rails enable new services and products to be created that act in the best interests of the user and the community and not the banks and Wall Street."
HACKERS STOLE $41B OF BITCOIN ON ONE OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST CRYPTO EXCHANGES
"The young crypto community is trying to create these new services and convince hundreds of millions of users to move their assets to the new rails," he added.
A collection of Bitcoin tokens (REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Illustration)
Richard Dennis, founder and CEO of a cryptocurrency called TemTum, noted that while the "speed of settlement, which takes several days on the traditional banking system," it takes only about an hour with cryptocurrency, and banking hours are not an issue.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP
“The popularity of cryptocurrencies is clear to see," he said, adding that benefits include "greater security, faster payments and audible qualities" that have "made the industry take notice of cryptocurrencies so much so that national states and central banks and frantically working on trying to catch up and deploy this technology for their people."
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS
Other popular cryptocurrencies include Ethereum, XRP, Tether, Litecoin, Monero and EOS. Even Facebook announced plans to start a cryptocurrency called Libra --- an idea that came under strong government scrutiny and quickly lost support.