Although Bitcoin (BTC) consistently captures a high percentage of the news headlines about the crypto industry, we can’t afford to forget about the forks and copies of this coin that have been used to create other tokens from the basis set up by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008.
“Close-up of a physical coins of Bitcoin,” (CC BY 2.0) by Ivan Radic
Litecoin Remains a Big Player
Created in 2011, Litecoin (LTC) was among the very first altcoins to challenge BTC’s supremacy. It’s based on the same codebase as the original crypto but has been tweaked to make it faster and cheaper. Some analysts have suggested that LTC could provide a flexible form of future currency for digital transactions, with BTC primarily used as a store of value by forward-thinking countries such as Bhutan rather than being used as a currency for spending.
The token is a long way from its all-time high, which came when it passed the $386 mark in 2021. At the time of writing, each token is worth a little over $100, and it’s sitting at number 19 in the market in terms of market cap. Despite this loss of value over the last few years, Litecoin has been identified as one of the best-performing digital currencies in the first couple of months of 2025 by The Motley Fool, amid rumors of an ETF.
Dogecoin Takes the Humorous Approach
Since it was launched in 2013, Dogecoin (DOGE) has been one of the most talked-about, controversial cryptos and was originally mainly used for online tipping. Yet, not everyone is aware that the original memecoin is basically a copy of Bitcoin with the twist of having a potentially unlimited number of coins rather than BTC’s 21 million maximum. That makes it inflationary rather than deflationary, so it’s extremely difficult for its value to rise in the same way as BTC.
Dogecoin’s humorous approach has made it a popular token among many users, with Elon Musk as its most famous fan. In terms of value, it’s currently sitting at around $0.20, having fallen considerably since the turn of the year. New York Stock Exchange subsidiary Arca filed a request for a Dogecoin ETF to the US Securities and Exchange Commission recently, which could fuel a further period of growth.
Source: Pexels
Bitcoin SV Sticks to the Original Vision
Of all the hard forks that have split the original Bitcoin into different projects, Bitcoin SV (BSV) stands out as the one that’s designed to most closely match the description in the original 2008 white paper by making transfers faster and easier. This has led to it being adopted by users looking for a slick crypto experience. It’s number 87 on the list of cryptos, with the price around $35 at the time of writing.
This currency provides the technology to give players a smooth experience where fairness and transparency are among the key factors. Among its uses, we can find decentralized finance sites like
Uniswap and SushiSwap as well as the BullishArt NFT site. It’s also accepted in the PeerGame online casino, where both Bitcoin and Bitcoin SV are accepted, as well as Litecoin. However, it’s BSV that’s been used to power the site’s Original Games like Blackjack, Dice, and Wheel. This means that it’s possible to add or withdraw funds without revealing any personal data or linking a bank account.
It’s interesting to see how each of these tokens has taken a different direction despite having a similar starting point. They all offer a high degree of volatility as an investment and have found different uses for transactions.
