Altcoins Explained: What They Are and What Became of the 2014 Coins

An altcoin is any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin; the word is short for “alternative coin”. The first one, Namecoin, appeared in April 2011, and since then thousands more have launched. Some built genuinely new technology, many copied Bitcoin’s code with small changes, and a large share have since been abandoned. This page explains the main kinds of altcoin you will meet today and then follows up on the coins this site covered back in 2014.

Coin or token?

The two words are often used loosely, but there is a useful distinction. A coin runs on its own blockchain: Litecoin, Dogecoin and Ether are coins. Tokens, by contrast, are issued on top of someone else’s blockchain by a smart contract or a protocol layer, as most stablecoins are. The difference matters when you send funds, because the same token can exist on several networks, and choosing the wrong one can strand it. More terms like these are in the Blocktionary.

The main types of altcoin in 2026

Ethereum deserves its own mention. Launched in 2015, it introduced general-purpose smart contracts, and much of today’s token activity runs on it. On 15 September 2022 the network switched from proof of work to proof of stake in an upgrade known as the Merge.

Stablecoins now face specific rules in several places. In the European Union, MiCA (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114) sets requirements for issuers of e-money tokens and asset-referenced tokens, and the regulation became fully applicable on 30 December 2024.

How altcoins differ from Bitcoin

Most altcoins change one or more of a few basic choices:

• Consensus: proof of work (mining) or proof of stake (validators lock up coins).
• Supply: a fixed cap like Bitcoin’s 21 million, a much larger cap, or no cap at all.
• Speed and fees: shorter block times or larger blocks.
• Features: smart contracts, naming systems, privacy, built-in exchanges.
• Distribution: fair mining from day one, or a large share kept by founders (a “pre-mine”).

Our What is Bitcoin guide covers the baseline these projects are compared against, and the Litecoin guide looks in depth at one of the longest-lived offshoots.

The 2014 altcoins: where are they now?

In 2014 this site ran short profiles of about twenty altcoins, each with pages on mining, value and wallets. Those pages now point here. Below is what each project was known for and, where we could confirm it from a primary source, what has happened since. “Repository updated” refers to the project’s public code on GitHub as checked on 7 October 2026; activity in a repository shows someone is maintaining code, not that the coin is widely used or traded.

Projects that are still clearly alive

• Litecoin (2011). Charlie Lee’s scrypt-based Bitcoin offshoot is still developed and widely traded. See our dedicated Litecoin page.
• Dogecoin (2013). Created by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer as a joke in December 2013, it became one of the best-known cryptocurrencies. It has been merge-mined with Litecoin since 2014 and its code repository was updated in September 2026.
• Darkcoin, now Dash (2014). Launched by Evan Duffield on 18 January 2014 as XCoin, renamed Darkcoin weeks later, and rebranded Dash (“digital cash”) in March 2015 to move away from the darknet image. It introduced masternodes, servers that hold collateral and provide services such as optional coin mixing and fast transactions. Development continues; the repository was updated in October 2026.
• Ripple, now known by its token XRP (2012). The XRP Ledger went live in 2012, and Ripple Labs is the company most associated with it. The US SEC sued Ripple in December 2020. In July 2023 a judge ruled that sales to institutional investors were unregistered securities sales while sales on public exchanges were not, and in August 2024 imposed a civil penalty of about $125 million. On 7 August 2025 the SEC announced that both sides had dismissed their appeals, leaving that judgment in place and ending the case.
• Namecoin (2011). The first altcoin, built to run a decentralised naming system for .bit domains and the first chain to use merged mining with Bitcoin. Still maintained, with its repository updated in October 2026, though it remains a niche project.
• Peercoin (2012). Created by the pseudonymous Sunny King with Scott Nadal, it was the first coin to combine proof of work with proof of stake. Its repository was updated in October 2026.
• BitShares (2014). A blockchain with a built-in decentralised exchange, designed by Dan Larimer, who went on to work on Steem and EOS. Its core repository was updated in October 2026, though activity is far below its peak.

Renamed, merged or replaced

• Mastercoin, now Omni Layer. Proposed by J. R. Willett, Mastercoin pioneered issuing new tokens on top of Bitcoin and was renamed Omni. Tether launched its USDT stablecoin on Omni in 2014. In August 2023 Tether stopped issuing new USDT on Omni, citing lack of demand, and later announced the end of support there. The Omni Core repository was last updated in June 2024.
• Nxt (2013). One of the first pure proof-of-stake coins, launched by a developer known as BCNext. Its developers at Jelurida built Ardor as a successor platform, launched in 2018, and Nxt is now mainly of historical interest.
• Worldcoin (WDC, 2013). A Litecoin-style payment coin from 2013. It has nothing to do with the Worldcoin project co-founded by Sam Altman, launched in 2023 with the WLD token and renamed World in October 2024. We found no maintained repository for the original WDC.

Small projects with limited or uncertain activity

• Feathercoin (2013). A Litecoin offshoot that later switched to the NeoScrypt algorithm. Repository updated in June 2026.
• Primecoin (2013). Another Sunny King design, whose mining searches for chains of prime numbers, giving the work a scientific by-product. Repository updated in April 2026.
• Novacoin (2013). An early hybrid proof-of-work and proof-of-stake coin. Repository updated in October 2026.
• BlackCoin (2014). Moved to pure proof of stake soon after launch. A community repository (Blackcoin More) was updated in September 2026.
• Reddcoin (2014). Aimed at tipping on social networks, using a variant called proof of stake velocity. Repository updated in October 2026.
• QuarkCoin (2013). Known for chaining several different hash functions in its mining algorithm. Repository last updated in March 2022.
• VeriCoin (2014). A proof-of-stake coin; repository last updated in May 2021.
• Anoncoin (2013). An early privacy coin built to work over the I2P anonymous network. Repository last updated in December 2020. The name is now also used by an unrelated newer project, so check any listing carefully.
• Luckycoin (2013) and Breakout Coin (2014). We could not find a maintained repository or an official project site for either, and we cannot confirm their status.

The pattern is clear. Of roughly twenty coins this site profiled in 2014, a handful became lasting projects, several survive as small hobby communities, and the rest faded. That record is worth remembering whenever a new coin is promoted as the next big thing.

Risks specific to altcoins

• Thin trading. Small coins can move sharply on a few trades, which makes them easy to manipulate.
• Abandonment. When developers leave, bugs go unfixed and exchanges delist the coin, sometimes leaving holders unable to sell.
• Concentrated ownership. Pre-mines and founder allocations can let a few wallets dump on everyone else.
• Fake tokens. Anyone can create a token with a familiar name. Check the contract address against the project’s own website.
• Weaker security. A proof-of-work coin with little hashpower can be attacked by someone renting enough mining power to rewrite recent blocks.
• Regulation. Some tokens have been treated as securities by regulators, as the XRP case shows, and privacy coins have been delisted by exchanges in several countries.

Coins-Info does not recommend or rank coins and gives no price forecasts. If you decide to buy any cryptocurrency, use a registered platform and keep the coins in a wallet you control; our guide on how and where to buy bitcoin covers the steps, which are the same for most altcoins. Be especially sceptical of altcoin “mining contracts”; our cloud mining guide explains why.

How to check an altcoin before you trust it

1. Find the official website and code repository, and check when the code was last changed.
2. Read the white paper or documentation: what problem does the coin solve that an existing one does not?
3. Look at who holds the supply. A block explorer often shows the largest addresses.
4. Check where it trades. Coins found on only one small exchange are easy to manipulate.
5. Search your regulator’s warning list and recent news for the project name.