Альткоин

The word comes from the English 'alternative coin'. The industry uses it for all cryptocurrencies that appeared after bitcoin or operate independently of it. Formally, this group includes both large projects with their own infrastructure and small tokens created within a few hours on a ready-made platform.

## How it works

Most altcoins run on their own blockchain network or on someone else's infrastructure as a token. They are issued by project teams, often with a predetermined distribution: part of the tokens goes to founders and investors, part stays in the treasury, and part is allocated to the community. These parameters are described in tokenomics and strongly affect sell pressure and liquidity.

## Where they are used

Altcoins trade on centralized and decentralized exchanges and are used in DeFi, games, payment scenarios and as a staking tool. In high-risk verticals, they most often appear in crypto casinos, exchangers, crypto processing and offers where a player or buyer pays with a non-standard token.

## What it affects

High volatility of altcoins directly affects the economics: the amount of a deposit or payout in fiat may differ noticeably from the calculated figure at the moment of crediting. Low liquidity makes it harder to withdraw large sums without significant slippage. For affiliates, this means a risk of refunds and disputes if a user expected one amount and received another.

## Common mistakes

The most common mistake is assuming that an altcoin is automatically 'cheaper' or 'more promising' than bitcoin. The second is confusing a token name with its ticker: the same symbols are used by different projects, so the contract address must be verified separately. The third is ignoring the transfer network: the same token may exist on several blockchains with incompatible addresses.