What is Altcoin? Altcoins are broadly defined as any cryptocurrencies that are not Bitcoin (BTC). However, some people consider altcoins to be all cryptocurrencies aside from Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH), as many digital currencies are forked from one of these two. Altcoins often use alternative consensus mechanisms to validate transactions, create new blocks, or offer distinctive capabilities that differentiate them from Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Many altcoins are developed and released by teams with unique visions or specific use cases for their tokens.