One of several surveys conducted of cryptocurrency blockchains market size has revealed that the blockchain market held a value of 3 billion US Dollars in 2025 and this is expected to grow to more than 39.7 billion in 2025, showing a compound annual growth rate of 67.3% over five years.
Choose your quick section of our top Cryprocurrency blockchains below.
Our 10 Best Handpicked Cryptocurrency Blockchains of 2025:
Bitcoin was launched in 2009 and along with it, blockchain technology emerged and took the digital world by storm, resulting in it having become a mainstream technology. Different blockchains cater for different use applications and they are spread across multiple industries and sections including healthcare, logistics, supply chain, legal, and several others.
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Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the first digital currency that was launched and its blockchain is therefore the first developed. Blockchain is often referred to as the internet of information and the reason for this is that information, which is published on the blockchain, can be viewed by anyone as there is complete transparency, which is one of the most inherent features of the Bitcoin blockchain.
This blockchain ensures that there is trust as well as identity as the blocks in the chain cannot be edited without the necessary and correct keys being in order. This ensures that blocks cannot be manipulated or corrupted in any way.
Blockchain is specifically used as a store of value in transactions involving Bitcoin and it establishes identity and subsequently contracts. Blockchain uses a Proof of Work (PoW) consensus method or algorithm.
This involves miners who are responsible for the validation of transactions. They work to find the unique hash of a new block so that it can be added to the blockchain. The miner who solves the hash first, is rewarded with transaction fees and the block reward.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Large storage capability | Consistent threat of attack due to popularity and high value |
| No third parties involved | Modification is prohibited |
| Technical failures are not possible | PoW makes it complex and ineffective |
| Transactions cannot be reversed | Public keys are required in addition to private keys |
Ethereum
Founded in 2013, Ethereum is an open source blockchain that is based on a computing platform proposed by Vitalk Buterin and it is widely known for its ability to run smart contract.
A run-time environment for smart contracts is provided by the Ethereum Virtual Machine and each node in the Ethereum network runs on EVM implementation.
There is widespread adoption of Ethereum in recent years, however, it is crucial to note that the blockchain is permissionless and designed for restricted access as opposed to mass consumption, as is the case with other blockchains.
Ethereum is currently still a platform that uses PoW, which slows it down significantly. However, there are currently plans in motion towards a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| ERC 20 has become the standard for fundraising in the world of ICO | Disadvantages of first movers |
| Ethereum consists of a dedicated team and community | Market hoaxes are an issue |
| Ethereum’s blockchain leverages that of blockchain | Pending PoS update |
| Geographical diversification | Slower transaction speeds |
| Prominent levels of traffic ensure that it has high liquidity | |
| Proven security and consensus | |
| Regulation is not an issue | |
| Reliability has been proven | |
| Truly decentralised |
Cardano
Cardano is used for the sending and receiving of digital funds, with Ada as its native token. Like Ethereum, Cardano is a smart contract platform but it offers scalability that Ethereum does not possess in addition to security through a complex and layered architecture.
Cardano has a unique approach which is built on scientific philosophy and peer-reviewed academic research. Cardano is the creation of Charles Hoskinson who is also one of the co-founders of Ethereum.
Cardano is typically seen as the third generation of blockchain where Bitcoin and Money transfers are the first, and Ethereum and its smart contracts are the second of the generation. Cardano takes the positive elements of both previous generations with a few added advantageous elements of its own.
Cardano has unique engineering that aims to become a “High Assurance Code” which can be achieved by ensuring that there is higher belief in the quality of the code being utilised.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Secure and reliable | Well designed to decentralise well but with some flaws |
| Strong development team and rapid development |
Polkadot
Polkadot is the brainchild of Robert Habermeier, Peter Czaban, and Dr. Gavin Wood under the Swiss Foundation, Web3, which is dedicated to facilitating a functional and user-friendly decentralised web.
Polkadot connects several individual blockchains to one centralised network. It also aims to do to blockchains what the internet has done to millions of solitary computers around the globe.
Proposed in November 2016, Polkadot works towards solving a significant pressing issue associated with other blockchains. It is unique in the way it processes multiple transactions on more than one blockchain in parallel by using its “Parachain” feature.
Polkadot has been dubbed a sharded multichain network and it can aid other blockchains, such as Ethereum, with its scalability, or the lack thereof. In addition, Polkadot also allows users to add custom blockchains to its network with extraordinarily little to no friction at all.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Parachain feature | Extended waiting time |
| Powerful advisors | Prominent level of competition |
| Significant technical prowess | Large network of teams |
| Transparent and flexible | No winning strategies as result of factors regarding unknown parameters |
| The team is not open to dialog on the community |
Tezos
The build on Tezos started in 2014 and it is the creation of Kathleen Breitman and Arthur Breitman. An ICO for Tezos was held in July 2017, raising a whopping 3.3 billion ZAR in a mere two weeks.
Tezos is a decentralised and self-governing blockchain platform which establishes a true digital commonwealth, linked to the native token TEZ (fondly referred to as “Tezzie”). However, even though it has a native token, the Tezos platform is not based on the mining of TEZ.
Holders of TEZ are rewarded for their participation in the PoS consensus method. Like Ethereum, Neo, Waves, QTUM, and Ethereum, Tezos is a smart contract and DApp-based platform although its cryptographic mechanism sets it apart from other platforms.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Community-based governance | Internal conflict between the foundation and Breitman company |
| Formal verification process | Issuance delays |
| Successful and robust ICO | Lawsuits and an investigation by Reuters |
Solana
Solana was founded by Solana Labs, based in Switzerland, in 2017 to tackle a massive challenge that blockchain technology faces with scalability that stands between it and global adoption.
Solana is not ICO-funded but is supported by funds of more than 361 million ZAR provided by investors such as NGC Capital, Multicoin Capital, and several others.
Solana is open-source, and it uses a high-performance and permissionless blockchain. This unique blockchain is considered a fourth generation blockchain that offers an open infrastructure for more widespread adoption of the technology.
Solana incorporates and introduces several different technologies which works together to allow the blockchain to facilitate increased transaction speeds while maintaining security. These technologies are as follows:
- Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) which is swifter than PoS consensus methods.
- Tower Byzantine Fault Tolerance System (Tower BFT) which is an upgraded version of the Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) system that improves network responsiveness. It also allows for validators to vote on the state of the ledger.
- Proof of History (POH) which applies timestamps to every approved transaction. This allows for network nodes to find the correct event sequence which plays a significant role in the blockchain’s cryptographic clock.
- Gulf Stream Mechanism which adds additional speed by ridding the blockchain of the mempool which, on a regular blockchain, is the place where transactions queue before being selected by a node for validation before being added onto a new block in the chain. Through this, new transactions are sent to validators before transactions are approved.
- Sea-level system which develops smart contracts that run parallel using the same protocols as normal, allowing thousands of smart contracts to run simultaneously without slowing the blockchain down.
- Pipelining minimises the validation times on the blocks.
- Turbine, which is a broadcasting protocol, breaks data into smaller pieces which are sent to the nodes and uses less bandwidth.
- Archivers, which are storing mechanisms that provide validators with instant access to the transaction histories on the network.
- Cloudbreak, which is an account database that allows the system to read and record information simultaneously.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Increased speeds through multiple technologies | Centralisation is still a problem with less than 200 validators |
| Integration of several technologies to offer a fast, flawless process | Unattractive distribution |
| Significant potential for further development | Unattractive emissions schedule |
Casper
Casper was developed by CasperLabs and it is a PoS blockchain platform that caters for the needs of a variety of professional enterprises. Casper is open-source, and it aims to help businesses develop an ideal network for their unique needs.
Casper is suitable for developer adoption and offers a variety of tools and features to help developers create and distribute their DApps.
It has unique characteristics that make it a suitable and attractive solution without any compromises. Unlike other blockchain platforms, Casper is a sustainable solution that works according to the needs of users whether they are large, medium, or small enterprises, developers, or everyday consumers.
Casper did not originate as result of a fork in an existing blockchain. It is based on an original Casper CBC specification and the structure is developer-friendly, allowing them to start building instantly once they are on the platform.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Developer and user-friendly | Cannot finalise blocks if the validating system of Ethereum becomes corrupted |
| Lower risks of double-spending attacks | Unproven efficiency and security |
| PoS does not require as much computational power as other blockchains |
Stellar
Stellar is a distributed ledger based on blockchain technology that is typically used in the facilitation of cross-asset transfers of value. Like Ripple, Stellar also deals with exchanges that occur between digital assets and fiat currencies.
One of the unique characteristics that Stellar’s blockchain offers developers, is the ability to build banking tools, smart devices, and even mobile wallets. Stellar is based on the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) which involves consensus being achieved without having to depend on closed systems to record financial transactions.
SCP optimises safety over licenses by stopping progress in the network until a consensus is achieved if there are either nodes or partitions that misbehave. When SCP is weighed against PoW and even PoS methods, it has modest financial and computing requirements, ensuring a reduction in the entry barrier and easy access to the financial system for participants.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Fast transaction speeds | Prominent levels of competition in the field |
| High operational efficacy | |
| Multi-currency transactions are easily processed | |
| Potential for incorporating tech elements | |
| Reduced transaction times |
Chainlink
SmartContract.com was established in 2014, giving birth to Chainlink in the transfer of external data onto the blockchain without breaking the decentralisation rule. Chainlink gave smart contracts a way to connect to data feeds from any given source or API which is a gamechanger for the industry, having ensured further development potential across several technologies.
The oracle solution’s first iteration relied on centralised oracles, posing a challenge in the development in decentralised financial spaces. However, this was addressed during 2017 when the Chainlink network introduced decentralised oracles.
In 2019, the Chainlink Mainnet went live and raised 462 million ZAR. The project has developed into a pillar for the oracle space, and it has become a must-have for credible, legitimate Decentralised Finance, more commonly referred to as DeFi, projects.
Chainlink Smart Contracts are smart contract-enabled blockchains that request data by using the Requesting Contract registered by the network. This creates a Chainlink Service Level Agreement (SLA) which allows for users to gain access to off-chain data and information.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Oracles help to ensure reliability and safety of operations | Narrow segment of modern problems is solved, slowing development of the project |
| Reliable and authentic | |
| Smart contract-enabled without becoming centralised | |
| Valuable technology that helped transform the blockchain industry |
EOS
Launched in 2018, EOS is open-source software which is a blockchain platform established by Block.one, aiming to help the development of DApps. When it was launched, Block.one distributed one billion ERC-20 tokens which secured widespread distribution of the cryptocurrency and which allowed for everyone to be able to use the blockchain.
The goal that EOS has is to offer decentralised applications in addition to decentralised storage of enterprise solutions, hosting, and the capabilities associated with smart contracts, solving the issue surrounding scalability that Ethereum and Bitcoin are known for, while eliminating fees for all its users.
EOS achieves consensus by using multi-threating and DPoS consensus methods. EOS also has its own forum on which developers as well as investors can interact and engage in discussions surrounding the platform.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Developer and user-friendly | Centralisation concerns |
| Fully featured and authentication platform | Competitive field with many key players and emerging technologies |
| Governance system that can be used to vote in on the transaction validations | |
| Platform has incredible speed as result of parallel processing technology | |
| Self-sufficient reward model | |
| The EOS platform is free to use | |
| Tokenises governance access |
IOTA
IOTA is the world’s first distributed ledger that was specifically designed and developed to accommodate the Internet of Everything (IoE), a network for exchanging value and data between humans and machines.
IOTA is based on a unique Direct Acyclic Graph (DAG) architecture which means that instead of consisting of a chain of sequential blocks that only have one edge allowing connection, multiple free nodes are available at any given movement.
Each node, two, or more than two nodes can be linked, allowing for a unique, diverse, and an interesting advantage that sets it apart from other blockchains.
On conventional blockchains, when there is an increase in the number of users, functions become increasingly complex in addition to the chain becoming slower.
Where IOTA is concerned, however, due to the unique ability of nodes to connect with at least two other nodes, when there is an increase in users, the number of available nodes that can connect will increase, allowing for increased system speeds and scalability.
Through its unique solutions and design, IOTA overcomes a typical problem that more traditional blockchains face with regards to miners and rewards. Traditionally, blockchain miners are given a mining fee for their services rendered in verifying transactions, resulting in a blockchain that becomes more expensive on a large scale.
With IOTA, however, every user must solve a PoW problem, which allows for the blockchain to become self-sustainable. As people are involved in transactions on the blockchains, the PoW is consistently solved and subsequently, it means that there is more space for new transactions without compromising the speed.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Micro-payments are allowed | Smart Contracts have not been introduced onto the platform yet |
| Quantum-secure | |
| Self-sustainable and increased transaction speed plus scalability | |
| The platform is lightweight | |
| There are no transaction fees | |
| There is a data marketplace | |
| Zero transaction fees |
Kusama
Kusama is referred to as Polkadot’s cousin as it is the pre-production and launch environment for Polkadot. Kusama allows for users and developers to experiment and test new blockchain technology and/or DApps before they are launched on the Polkadot network.
Kusama is considered a sandbox for developers where they can test early versions of their projects in a mirrored live environment but with real cryptocurrency which is being traded on an open market.
Official updates for Polkadot are also tested on the Kusama platform before they are officially released. Due to its primary function in facilitating testing, Kusama aims to offer developers with mass flexibility while they have the freedom to design their projects and test them.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Both Polkadot and Kusama have strong momentum and development potential | Adoption is not widespread |
| Dedicated development team | Interoperability is not possible yet |
| Kusama, as Polkadot’s cousin, shows immense potential |
Terra
Terra is a blockchain which is smart contract-enabled, and which was launched in 2019. Terra harnesses utility of the cosmos project technology associated with Cosmwasm. The blockchain is considered the foundation of many applications that have been developed and built by Terraform labs.
Terra has many partnerships with industry leaders who are spread across a variety of sectors in the world. The blockchain platform is also known for offering innovative solutions in creating multi-collateralised stablecoins, but in a decentralised way.
Terra was developed through the Cosmos software development kit (SDK) which uses a Tendermint PoS consensus algorithm, designed to allow developers to build and launch interoperable blockchain applications instantaneously.
There are a maximum 100 validators across the Terra network which means that it is more centralised than other PoS-based blockchains that are decentralised, such as those on this list. Transactions which take place on the Terra blockchain take only a few seconds to be executed.
Another advantage that Terra has is reduced transaction costs, which are, on average, lower than the gas fees charged on Ethereum. This makes Terra especially attractive to developers who want smart contract-enabled blockchains but who are not willing to face extreme costs.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Low fees and fast execution of transactions | Centralised |
| Multi-collateralised Stablecoins | Less than 100 validators |
| Partnership with industry leaders | |
| Terra offers various applications |
Lisk
Founded in 2016 by Olivier Beddows and Max Kordek, Lisk is the result of a fork that occurred on Crypti, a similar project which was initiated by Beddows and Kordek in 2014.
The ICO for the cryptocurrency LSK was held in February 2016, raising 14,000 BTC (81 million ZAR) was raised, with 85% LSK’s token supply being auctioned off, with the remaining 15% being distributed between various stakeholders and developers.
Lisk aims to serve the purpose of a platform for the development of DApps, special programs which run across a network of computers run on shared software. The goal behind Lisk is to let developers transfer skills in the building of DApps more rapidly, allowing them to write programs by using JavaScript and Typescript.
In addition, Lisk also allows developers to create their own custom DApps as well as cryptocurrency by using “Sidechains”. These are unique blockchains that operate on the Lisk network and relate to Lisk’s blockchain, customisable to suite the various needs that different Lisk DApps may have.
Developers of these blockchains and DApps, as result of the compatibility that they have with Lisk, have exclusive access to resources such as SDK, coding libraries, and the native token, LSK.
DPoS is used to secure the Lisk Blockchain, and it also ensures that there is synchronisation across the entire network of computers. It also uses a real-time voting system to determine the computers that may add the next block to the Lisk blockchain, allowing any holder of LSK to operate within the network.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| DPoS is a more democratic consensus method than other systems | Extended block time |
| Orientated towards App Developers | Uncertainty with regards to SDK |
| User-friendly interface and system |
Conclusion
There are more businesses around the world that are getting involved in what blockchain technology has to offer by getting involved in application development and due to this, the demand for blockchain keeps increasing, resulting in consistent record highs.
FAQ
What is a blockchain platform?
Blockchain platforms allow for the design and development of blockchain-based applications that are either permissioned or permissionless.
What is the most popular blockchain in the world?
Bitcoin is the most popular blockchain in the world with a global volume of 11 million and a traffic rank of 14,497, at the time of writing.
What are smart contracts?
Smart contracts are contracts that are self-executing with terms of the agreement between buyer and seller being written into the lines of code.
What is a consensus method?
Consensus methods are fault-tolerant mechanisms used in blockchain systems to accomplish the required agreement on single data values, or a single state of the network, among an assortment of distributed processes or multi-agent systems.
What is DeFi?
DeFi is short for “Decentralised Finance” which is a holistic term that is used for a range of financial applications in blockchain and crypto.
DeFi comprises of a system of open, permissionless, interlocking financial products and it is also an intersecting network of DApps and smart contracts built on the Ethereum blockchain, concentrating on financial applications including borrowing, derivatives, trading, and others.
What are Stablecoins?
They are cryptocurrencies that try to peg their market value to some peripheral reference or currencies, such as the US Dollar.
Why is it important for platforms to be decentralised?
It permits for users to partake in a system that is not built on trust. It also lessens the risk of systematic collapse significantly and censorship resistance is known to foster an open culture.
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