Cryptocurrency Types

"Cryptocurrency" covers assets with very little in common beyond running on a blockchain. A payment coin, a governance token, a stablecoin backed by bank deposits and a meme token have different risk profiles, different legal treatment and different reasons to exist — and confusing them is one of the most expensive beginner mistakes.

The first distinction to get right is coin versus token: a coin has its own blockchain and secures itself, while a token is issued on someone else's chain and inherits that chain's security and fee market. From there the categories branch into utility tokens, security tokens, stablecoins, privacy coins, governance tokens and wrapped assets, each with a different answer to the question of what actually gives it value.

This section maps those categories out so you can classify any asset you encounter and know which questions to ask about it before looking at the price chart.