#AltcoinTrade "Altcoin" is a combination of the two words "alternative" and "coin." The term generally includes all cryptocurrencies and tokens that are not Bitcoin. Altcoins belong to the blockchains for which they were explicitly designed. Many are forks—creating a blockchain from another chain—from Bitcoin$BTC and Ethereum.$ETH These forks generally have more than one reason for occurring. Most of the time, a group of developers disagree with others and leave to make their own coin. Many altcoins are used within their respective blockchains to accomplish something, such as ether, which is used in Ethereum to pay transaction fees. Some developers have created forks of Bitcoin and re-emerged as an attempt to compete with it as a payment method, like the fork that created Bitcoin Cash.

Others fork or are developed from scratch, attempting to create a blockchain and token that appeals to a specific industry or group, such as Ripple's attempt to use the XRP Ledger and XRP to attract the banking industry with a faster payment system.