Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has rebounded from modest earlier losses to be up 1% over the past 24 hours.
One Bitcoin is currently worth US$34,611 (AU$45,540). That gives the world's biggest crypto a market cap $649 billion.
That's nothing to sneeze at. But it wasn't too long ago – mid-April, in fact – when Bitcoin claimed a market cap north of US$1.1 trillion. At the time, it was still trading near its all time highs of US$64,829.
Year-to-date, Bitcoin remains up 18%. Again, nothing to sneeze at, if you can stomach the volatility.
But with some 4,000 cryptocurrencies in virtual circulation, we thought we'd turn the spotlight on today's best performing crypto.
This little known token has gained 40 times more than Bitcoin today
While Bitcoin has gained 1% over the past 24 hours (which may well have changed by the time you read this!), KuCoin Token (CRYPTO: KCS) is up 41% over that same time.
One KuCoin is currently worth US$10.64. That gives it a market cap of US$852 million, ranking it as the 82nd biggest crypto, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
KuCoin is a relative veteran, by crypto standards. It's been around since October 2017 and quickly rode the crypto bubble of the time to record highs above US$20 by January 2018.
And then… Well, you probably recall what happened when the bubble burst.
KuCoin's price collapsed within months and spent the next 3 years trading around the US$1 range.
Until 2021 rolled around.
On 12 April this year, KuCoin hit a multi-year peak of US$19.29.
While it's down considerably from there, KuCoin still handily beats Bitcoin's year-to-date returns, with KuCoin gaining 1,420% so far in 2021.
What the heck does KuCoin do?
If you're unfamiliar with KuCoin, don't worry. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), even many crypto enthusiasts can't name many of the smaller tokens.
So what the heck is the point of KuCoin's existence?
For that, we turn to CoinMarketCap, which tells us the token was launched:
[A]s a profit-sharing token that allows traders to draw value from the exchange. It was issued as an ERC-20 token running on the Ethereum network and was supported by most Ethereum wallets. The total supply of KCS was set at 200 million, and there is a planned buyback and burn until just 100 million KCS remain.
As with every cryptocurrency, KuCoin is highly volatile.
While it's up over 40% today, there are no guarantees as to its performance tomorrow.
