Bitcoin has long been the king of the cryptocurrency market.
New coins and tokens have shaken up the status quo with unique use cases and innovations.
Bitcoin has responded with its own improvements, leading to a healthier market.
When it comes to cryptocurrency, Bitcoin has long been the king of the hill thanks to its status as the founder of the young industry and its first-mover appeal. A decade later, the original cryptocurrency is still the most valuable one on the market, at one point even reaching as high as $20,000 for a single Bitcoin. Today it is far from alone in the field. As blockchain (the technology that cryptocurrency is based on) evolved, so did the number of coins available, and the things these new coins' blockchains could accomplish.
These new cryptocurrencies dubbed "altcoins" use the same decentralized concept as Bitcoin but take things a step further with unique features. Ethereum, the second most popular cryptocurrency, introduced the idea of "smart contracts", code that can automatically execute agreements between two parties using blockchain technology. This opened the floodgates for the development of new use cases and applications for crypto.
More importantly, Altcoins have improved on overall functionality, processing transactions faster than bitcoin, and generally scaling to meet expanding demand for their services. As the market for Altcoins continues to expand, it's easy to wonder if Bitcoin's lead will end soon, or if it will be able to keep up with the new generation of cryptocurrencies.
