Crypto for Beginners: Must-Know Brands and Names —Part 2

In our previous article, we talked about some of the most popular crypto brands and services in different categories. They included exchanges, stablecoins, wallets, and foundations. Now, it’s time to learn more categories of crypto names and brands you should know.

As we mentioned before, according to the research firm Golden, there are over 11,000 crypto companies and projects worldwide. They include exchanges, funds, marketplaces, market research, supply chain management, mining, payment ramps, investments, wallets, security, e-sports, gaming, Metaverses, trading, smart contracts, identity, and much more. Let’s discover what else they can offer!\

Development Companies

Not every cryptocurrency project or their development is led by non-profits. Indeed, there are a lot of (for-profit) companies behind popular coins and other crypto products. Let’s see some of them.

Ripple Labs

This American company promotes itself as “the leading provider of crypto solutions for businesses.” It was founded in 2012 by Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb, and it’s better known for the creation of one of the most popular coins to date, XRP (originally Ripple), which specializes in international payments. It’s also widely known for its legal battle against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This entity accused them of selling non-registered securities (XRP) in the country.

Lightning Labs

Lightning Network is a second-layer solution for faster, cheaper transactions via off-chain payment channels —and likely the first-ever layer-2 (secondary chain). It was designed for Bitcoin, but it also works in Litecoin and other altcoins. Lightning Labs, founded in 2016 by Elizabeth Stark and Olaoluwa Osuntokun, is a key American developer of Lightning Network technologies, offering products like LND and Neutrino, and actively promoting Lightning Network adoption.

Blockstream

This is a Canadian blockchain company founded in 2014 by its current leader, Adam Back (a cryptographer cited in the Bitcoin whitepaper). They work mainly on Bitcoin-related services, including the sidechain Liquid and their satellite network to make offline transactions worldwide. Blockstream also supports the development of the first cryptocurrency by funding several Bitcoin Core open-source developers.

More firms

Of course, there are way more crypto developers for-profit. We can mention EMURGO and IOHK (Cardano/ADA), Solana Labs (Solana/SOL), Polygon Technology (Polygon/MATIC), Ava Labs (Avalanche/AVAX), Protocol Labs (Filecoin/FIL), TrustToken (Stablecoin issuer), Anchorage Digital (Crypto Infrastructure for Business), Galaxy Digital Holdings (Crypto Asset Management), Block/Square (Crypto Payment Processing), Chainalysis (Security and Analytics), and Digital Currency Group (venture capital and owner of CoinDesk, Foundry, Genesis Trading, Grayscale Investments, and Luno).

Crypto News Portals

These are websites or platforms dedicated to providing up-to-date information and analysis about different tokens and the crypto industry. They offer news, market data, educational content, and insights. Some of the most renowned are:

CoinDesk

It was founded in 2013 by entrepreneur Shakil Khan, and eventually acquired by the Digital Currency Group. It provides extensive cryptocurrency news, market data, and event coverage. It’s known for its international-attended annual event Consensus, and also for reporting first the infamous balance that led FTX Exchange to bankruptcy.

Bitcoin Magazine

Established in 2012 by Mihai Alisie and Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum founder), Bitcoin Magazine is still an influential crypto publication. It offers articles, insights, and educational content about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It was sold in 2014 to BTC Inc., an American company.

CoinTelegraph

It was established in 2013 by an international team, and it’s now based in the United States. The portal offers a wide range of crypto news, interviews, analysis, and educational resources. Besides, it’s available in eleven languages, including English, Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish.

More portals

Other popular crypto portals include Decrypt, CryptoSlate, NewsBTC, and CryptoPotato. These platforms provide a mix of news, analysis, market data, and educational content, catering to a diverse audience interested in cryptocurrency. You can also find more local crypto portals in every country, covering national news.

Metaverses

A crypto metaverse is a virtual, decentralized, and ledger-based environment where users can interact, create, play, and transact using digital assets within a shared, immersive, online space. You can have your own avatar on them, and this one could be a Non-Fungible Token (NFT).

Decentraland

Founded in 2017, Decentraland is an Ethereum-based metaverse. The creators, Ari Meilich and Esteban Ordano, originate from Argentina. It offers a user-owned virtual world where users can buy, sell, and build on virtual lands (as NFTs). It also has its own native cryptocurrency, MANA.

The Sandbox

This crypto Metaverse was first a mobile game released in 2012 by the brand Pixowl. It was transformed into what it is today in 2021 by Animoca Brands. The Sandbox is now a 3D world based on Polygon where it’s possible to build your own games and NFTs without coding. It also offers customized avatars and has its own native coin, SAND.

Alien Worlds

It was released in 2020 by the firm Dacoco on the WAX blockchain. This Metaverse features six alien worlds where explorers can go into missions, own digital lands, and mine Trilium (TLM). It’s also possible to host events and collect NFTs in the form of avatars, weapons, tools, and other items.

More crypto-verses

Other notable crypto metaverses include CryptoVoxels, Somnium Space, and Upland. CryptoVoxels is an Ethereum-based virtual world for users to build and monetize spaces. Somnium Space is a VR-centric metaverse with a focus on social interactions. Upland merges the real world with digital ownership, allowing users to buy, sell, and trade virtual real estate.

NFT Projects

NFT projects, or Non-Fungible Token projects, create and sell unique digital assets that are indivisible and provably scarce on distributed networks. These tokens represent ownership of digital or physical items. Additionally, every project can offer unique features, experiences, and benefits to its owners.

CryptoPunks

This is likely the first-ever NFT collection, and it was released in 2017 by Larva Labs. It offers 10,000 unique 24x24 pixel art “punk” characters registered on Ethereum. All of them were given away for free initially, but now every piece is valued at over 60 ETH (around $92,880). The rarer units have been sold for millions.

Axie Infinity

Released in 2018 by the Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis, it’s a play-to-earn battle game that features NFT creatures called “axies.” Players can collect, breed, train, and trade axies while earning rewards for doing it. The game has its own chain, Ronin, compatible with Ethereum. Currently, there are over 11.8 million axies, but only 422,830 are available to trade.

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)

This collection was released in 2021 by Yuga Labs. It offers 10,000 “bored apes” images with unique traits, registered as NFTs on Ethereum. They’re meant to represent membership in an exclusive virtual club with social and utility benefits. Yuga Labs is currently developing its own Metaverse about it, called “Otherside.”

A rain of NFTs

There are innumerable NFTs at this point since practically anyone with Internet access can make their own. According to NonFungible, there were at least 3,724 NFT sales in the last week, amounting to over $2.5 million. The most popular projects include CrypToadz, Art Blocks, Pudgy Penguins, Azuki, Meebits, and CloneX. Now, remember that if you want to make your own NFTs, it’s possible to create them and sell them without coding in the Obyte-based NFT marketplace CryptoThings.

Bonus: A Blacklist

Some names are also important to remember but in a bad way. Seasoned crypto enthusiasts and analysts will talk about them a lot, so you also need to know what happened. Here we have several failed and/or infamous crypto projects that caused a lot of harm to the market in the past.

Mt. Gox

Founded in 2010 by Jed McCaleb and Mark Karpelès, Mt. Gox was a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, and the largest of its time worldwide. It failed in 2014 due to serious security breaches, resulting in a massive loss of customer funds and insolvency.

Terra (LUNA)

Terra, created by Daniel Shin and Do Kwon in South Korea, was launched in 2018. Technically, it still exists, but its native stablecoin, Terra USD (UST), failed big in 2022. UST's price plummeted to $0.1 (90% less than its peg) in May, dragging LUNA (the native currency of Terra) down with it. A lot of people worldwide suffered the consequences, as their investments and savings in these coins were suddenly erased. Do Kwon was arrested in 2023.

FTX

Founded by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and Gary Wang in 2017, FTX was the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange globally in 2021. Now, it's nothing but an infamous name. They faced serious liquidity issues to the point of going bankrupt in November 2022. Bankruptcy proceedings revealed massive debts (of around $3 billion), misuse of customer funds, and a lack of financial controls within the company. SBF was arrested in the US.

For more blacklisted crypto names, you can check our list of the biggest crypto crashes. Now, if you want to start in this complex world without complications, remember that you can download the user-friendly Obyte wallet. Payments, smart contracts, chatbots, exchanges, and more are waiting for you without coding!

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