What are altcoins and how do they work?

The strictest definition of an altcoin, short for “alternative coin,” is any cryptocurrency other than market leader Bitcoin. Altcoins, generally speaking, are every cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin. Any crypto coin or token that is not Bitcoin—like Cardano, Solana, Polkadot, and Uniswap—can be considered as an altcoin.

What is Coinbase convert?

Coinbase has launched Coinbase Convert, a new feature that allows retail users to make direct crypto-to-crypto conversions on the exchange. Want to convert your altcoins to bitcoins this Christmas? Coinbase has launched Coinbase Convert, a new feature that allows retail users to make direct crypto-to-crypto conversions on the exchange.

Are altcoins based on Bitcoin?

To make things a little more confusing, some altcoins are even based on Bitcoin—kind of. For example, Bitcoin Cash was created by taking the existing Bitcoin code and modifying it, and going in a different direction. This is known as a “fork”, and it also resulted in a fork in the blockchain.

What is Coinbase's goal?

Coinbase’s goal is to offer support for all assets that meet our technical standards and which comply with applicable laws. Over time we expect our customers around the world will have access through Coinbase to at least 90% of the aggregate market cap of all digital assets in circulation.