What is crypto?

The short answer

A cryptocurrency is a digital token whose ownership is recorded on a public ledger that thousands of computers keep in sync. No bank or company keeps the official record. Instead, the network's rules decide which transactions are valid, and cryptography proves who is allowed to move each coin.

Bitcoin, launched in 2009, was the first. Thousands of others followed, including Ethereum, which added programmable smart contracts, and coins like Dogecoin that began as jokes.

Why people care

Crypto lets two people send value directly to each other across the world, at any hour, without asking permission. Supporters like that no single party can freeze or inflate the supply. Critics point to wild price swings, scams, energy use and the fact that mistakes are usually permanent.

Both sides have a point. The timelines on this site show how often prices have crashed by 50 to 90 percent and then recovered, or not.

Coins, tokens and stablecoins

A coin is the native asset of its own blockchain, like BTC on Bitcoin or ETH on Ethereum. A token is built on top of another chain, for example the thousands of ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum. Stablecoins are tokens designed to track a currency such as the US dollar, usually backed by reserves held by a company.

What gives it value?

Mostly what people are willing to pay. Some coins are needed to pay network fees (ETH, SOL), some are designed to be scarce (BTC has a 21 million cap), and some run on community and attention (DOGE). None has a guaranteed value, which is why prices can fall a lot.