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Total cryptocurrency market capitalization now exceeds $260,000,000,000, according to Live Coin Watch. Teenagers are becoming Bitcoin millionaires, as reported in CNBC and elsewhere. The excitement is palpable.

Everyone wants to learn how to make money off Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Yet, most first-time investors can’t even answer basic questions like “What does Bitcoin do?” or “What does Ethereum do?” or “What does Ripple do?” This article will answer those questions for you.

The top 3 cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple. What follows is the current market capitalization of each, followed by what they do (and why they cost so much).

Looking to learn more? Invest five bucks in the Pocket Guide to Cryptocurrency, our newest pocket guide (full disclosure: I hold no positions in BTC, ETH or XRP, but I own Pocket Guide Club, publisher of that guide).

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Bitcoin (BTC): $127,377,634,578

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Started in 2009, Bitcoin was the first blockchain to come into existence and remains the largest cryptocurrency based on total market capitalization.

"Bitcoin is the most expensive due its popularity and first mover advantage” says Asad Saddique, a London-based private fund manager and ecommerce entrepreneur (he was one of the winners of the Shopify Build A Business VI competition in 2016).

“Metcalfe's Law can also be applicable."

Ethereum (ETH): $38,250,011,417


“Ethereum is one of the primary platforms for ICO's and Smart Contracts” said Saddique. “In 2017, $5.6b was raised via ICO's that mostly took place on the ETH platform.”

Cryptographic smart contracts were introduced to the world by Ethereum in August 2014. Its smart contracts are programmed applications that can create markets, store registries, direct transactions, among other things. The full potential for its applications is unknown.

“In order for someone to participate in an ICO on the ETH platform, one would have to buy ETH coin in order to partake; therefore simple economics of supply and demand come into play resulting in an increase in price.”

Ripple (XRP): $20,175,667,626

The development of Ripple traces its origins back before cryptocurrencies. In 2013, it began linking to the Bitcoin protocol as Opencoin. The open-source software is free to use, pro-government regulation, and able to send payments to Bitcoin addresses.

“Ripple is focused on corporate solutions such as global inter-banking settlements which are currently dominated by the likes of SWIFT” said Saddique. “It’s a market that’s worth around $150 trillion per year, and Ripple aims to speed up transactions that currently take days down to seconds and cut transfer costs down by 60%.”

Ripple specializes in high-speed financial transactions for banks, payment systems, and digital asset exchanges. Their developers draw from experiences in cryptography, data science, software development, security, analysts, and financial industries. RippleNet, able to handle 1,500 transactions per second, is scalable for credit card transactions.