Which cryptocurrencies are there? The list of the main coins by purpose

The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry a high degree of risk. Always conduct your own research.Around 22,500 cryptocurrencies are counted, and only a few dozen carry meaningful capital. This overview sorts the most important of them by their job, from means of payment through stablecoins to tokenised securities, each with an order of magnitude as of October 25, 2026.A complete list of every cryptocurrency is worth little to an investor. As of October 25, 2026, CoinGecko tracks around 22,500 active cryptocurrencies, and the whole market weighs in at roughly $2.71 trillion. Bitcoin alone accounts for 59.5 percent of that, Ethereum for another 10.5 percent. The rest is spread across everything else, and there the amounts fall quickly to levels where a single sale moves the price. A list only becomes useful once it is sorted by purpose. A means of payment, a platform for programs, a token pegged to the dollar and a tokenised security solve entirely different jobs, carry different risks and are treated differently in Germany. The overview below goes through those groups, names...