The Ultimate Guide to Understanding the Cryptocurrency Market

This article will provide a swift yet detailed introduction on the cryptocurrency market's composition.

For the first of many publications to be published on Red Pill, a swift yet detailed introduction on the cryptocurrency market’s composition. While a retail beginner looks to participate in the “crypto mania”, isn’t as simple as buying the first cryptocurrency you see in the gainer’s list on an exchange. To understand crypto and how the game is played, you must first understand the technology, societal contributions, and culture of each crypto asset and digital asset baskets.

Bitcoin

The father of digital assets and cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is the progenitor of a multi-trillion-dollar industry that is set to flip gold as the most valuable asset in the world. Launched in 2009 by an anonymous developer with the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto,” its goal is to develop a trustless, permissionless, and decentralized peer-to-peer system that does not need a third-party financial institution for transactions.

History:

Function: Being the first crypto asset, Bitcoin was initially meant to be a currency for peer-to-peer transactions. As its value grew over time, it became a store of value due to its strict supply of 21 million that can’t be minted further. Additionally, since Bitcoin has grown from being a currency for peer-to-peer transactions, Bitcoin Cash ($BCH) became the alternative. However, like any other asset, people may transact using Bitcoin to this day.

Culture: If anything, Bitcoin is the genesis asset of cryptocurrency. While other cryptocurrencies are called “tokens”, Bitcoin is a valuable asset that does not face the same scrutiny, volatility, and criticism compared to other tokens. Despite the FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt), Bitcoin will most likely be the only cryptocurrency that will never go extinct and will always be the top cryptocurrency by market capitalization of all time.

Bitcoin’s influence started to creep from tech evangelist, to retail, small businesses, and eventually reaching larger markets such as billionaires, private financial institutions, and even entire governments. With the recent approval of the Bitcoin ETFs in Jan 2024, Bitcoin has legitimized itself to the world as a robust and progressive asset class.

Before continuing onto the next section, I encourage everyone to take some time to read through Bitcoin’s simplified whitepaper: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Majors

Major cryptocurrencies, also known as blue-chip cryptos, are your alternative tokens that lay the foundation of an ecosystem supported by their technology. These are usually layer-1 tokens that provide a way for builders to develop projects on their network, allowing consumers to interact with the ecosystem with a wide array of products. Prime examples of these majors are:

Here are a few contenders for this spot, but not officially recognized by the entire crypto ecosystem:

Participants of these ecosystems have majors as their “capital-preservation” token, usually compromising the largest slice in their portfolios. Once the values of these major tokens increase, a flow of liquidity occurs into smaller market cap tokens in their respective ecosystems as the majority of traders both speculate and increase their aversion to risk in order to chase higher gains.

The longevity of these major tokens stand the test of time and will usually remain relevant in the next bull markets until proven otherwise. This is because of their nature to have a particularly high market capitalization, as most of these major blue-chip tokens are in the top 10 cryptocurrencies.

Altcoins

Altcoins, or alternative coins, are simply crypto tokens that are NOT Bitcoin nor stablecoins. Yes, even blue-chip tokens such as Ethereum and Solana are considered altcoins. Altcoins are seen as a way to stack more Bitcoin by potentially expanding your portfolio at a pace that is greater than Bitcoin. Altcoins are segmented into different narratives and brackets.

Narratives such as: Layer-1; Layer-2; Decentralized Finance (DeFi); Artificial Intelligence (AI); Decentralized Physical Infrastructure (DePIN); Decentralized Science (DeSci); Real-World Assets (RWA); Centralized Exchange Tokens; GameFi; Memecoins; and many more.

These narratives have a basket of altcoins ranging from its own sub-major and microcap gems. Despite being in the same narratives, one must be weary in what bracket they belong to based on their market capitalization. In my opinion, these brackets are:

Large caps: These are your altcoins that are in the top 10 or 20 in terms of market capitalization. Most of these tokens have a thriving ecosystem of their own. Stable, but does not have the same potential to increase your wealth tenfold compared to other tokens.

Mid caps: To me, altcoins that are between $2 billion and $500 million are mid-cap tokens. These are tokens that are still relevant and have some potential to compound your wealth. These also contain your sub-majors such as how $ONDO is to the RWA sector and $FET is to the AI sector.

Small caps: Small caps are