Bitcoin Forum

 All coins and tokens are considered cryptocurrencies, irrespective of their function as currency or medium of exchange. Therefore, you often read of cryptocurrency coins or cryptocurrency tokens. Often, coins are also referred to as altcoins (alternative cryptocurrency coins) to name digital currencies that are an alternative to Bitcoin. So, what's the difference?

Function vs. Structure

The purpose of a coin is to act like money and become a means of payment while storing value over time. Most known and popular coins take the form of Bitcoin-derived blockchain tokens like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Monero. A coin, Bitcoin, aims to be a cash replacement, so the function is solely to denominate value in an exchange of goods or services. Their value in fiat money proves their likelihood to become popular as they can become a liquid form of money eventually.

Tokens’ purpose is far more focused. They are created on existing blockchains (for example Ethereum) to activate features of the application they were designed for. Blockchain tokens have value, yet they are not seen as actual money the same way coins are considered. Tokens can be considered a type of instrument that creates the environment for a better circulation of value between businesses and their customers – you fund a smart contract with the underlying coin and investors receive tokens from the company running the offering. This way, customers are incentivized to interact with a business through a crowdfunding and with no large financial commitments as often acquiring one token only is enough to be included in the project.


While there is a blurry line between what coins and tokens are defined as there are certain aspects on which the crypto community agrees. Coins are considered methods of payment while tokens give access to a product and unfold many other functions of a specific project. Coins are used for purchasing and selling goods or tokens as the first operates independently and the latter has value mostly within a project’s ecosystem. Often tokens are given to crowdfunding supporters to spend on their favorite services and products, and this is a great opportunity for businesses to deliver a significant amount of value for their project’s idea.

In the end, a coin like Bitcoin has been trying to break into the payment sector based on its claims of swift transactions, while tokens have already taken over the market and the tokenization model is delivering great results. Read more : https://pumapay.io/coin-vs-token-whats-the-difference/

I was always confused about token and coins and used to think that both are same. This post just opened my eyes. This was such a clear discussion in both and explained that coin can act as money where tokens cannot.

Actually both are related with each other but coin is a system or medium where we can do payments based on this token is tradable asset which is related with blockchain.

The coin or cryptocurrency is the unit of payment and is used for transactions. Tokens, on the other hand, are built on some blockchain based dapp platform for promoting their project. The tokens help to give access to the product and to accomplish other functions of the project.

Coins are here to be a form or a medium of payment. Bitcoin is the most popular and the best coin in the market. Token is more vast. You can call them as a type of virtual token which is deemed as a special one that resides in their own blockchains.

I can tell it in a few words : Coins are based on their own blockchain , while tokens are built on other existing eco-system . Process of token creation is much easier , because developer can do it by utilizing existing platform with available smart-contracts .

Coins are also a store of value but it is intangible in nature such as Bitcoin. Tokens on the other hand are created on a blockchain technology. They do have value but they are not seemed as actual fiat. Between tokens and coins, coins would be the best one.

Coin and tokens both are part of cryptocurrency but there have some difference between and you able lift up the concept here nicely.In a world Well writing.

I am invested in investing in token instead of coin. Because if you can join a solid project, it can really make you rich when you enter the stock market. But coins already have already made their pricing.

In the battle between coins vs tokens, the majority will go for coins. Coins are a form of digital intangible currency. And tokens are created on the blockchain technology.

Tokens and coins are two different things in crypto world. Here it is explain very briefly. It will be very helpful for those who have some confusion both of it. I hope it will help for the newbie also.

Coins are in fact not coins, they are simply units that form the original chains on which you can build tokens. "Coins" is not a very good word to describe the original chain units, tend to confuse people.

Firstly, I thank you for this informative writing.

I prefer coins generally, instead of tokens. Of course I have some tokens, but the prices of the coins have already low prices, and if you are a holder, I believe that you can have good profit by choosing profitable coins.

Thank you for posting this, I have seen a lot of new members in the forum who have been struggling with the terms and was mistakenly calling coins 'token' or vice versa. The article has some really in depth discussion on the features that makes coins and tokens apart from each other.

Very good read indeed but to be honest, details should not be for the newbies who just want to know the main difference between coin and tokens. For them, a coin operates on its own blockchain whereas tokens are hosted by another platform and collected from the platform's blockchain.

Its simply means a coin operates on its own blockchain whereas tokens are hosted by another platform and collected from the platform's blockchain.

Tokens will be easily destroyed because they are influenced by a small community, they only hold it for a few months and after that throw it away.
coins are more stable and they have a larger community because they have their own blockchain.

There's clearly a difference between coins and tokens. This is even evident in the ease of conversion for fiat. It's easy to convert coins to fiat values, but you have to convert tokens to coins first before trading them for fiat. This brings me to the question: where do you place ETH?

The difference between coin and token is very clear as op described above, somehow it's quite confusing that people called coin as a token or token as a coin, You can find them even in the crypto related site which is bad,coin has their own platform and operates independently while token is not, it requires another platform such as ethereum to exist, people have to know the difference between these two things.

thanks for sharing such an informative post. hopefully this airticle will be helpful for the newcomers who are new in crypto market.

I really don't understand why people always try to start a competition on everything it spoil the situation sometimes ,  coin and token both are part of crypto, it up to the investors choice which one they prefer but both of them are good on their own ways

Yeah, most newbies gets confused about this two but its really important to know the difference so you will be confident where to invest. If the project have their own blockchain technology then I think it has an advantage compare to others.

I do not think it's a good idea to compare tokens and coins. It seems to me that tokens are even more promising and profitable. But coin usually are more stable and reliable.

One of the big difference coins minable tokens not.
Tokens usually need for proofing your investments in ICO

Coins are more reliable than token values in the market. ICO tokens are mostly undesirably scams, and many of the tokens are just in future shitcoins. Coins launched in the market are more likely to endure, some coins become dead though because the lack of public interest and reliability.

I don't think such discussion is really required for people who are just here to invest or to know about useful facts on crypto space. All they need to know is that tokens are distributed through ICO but coins are not rather coin is a unit of value that operates on its own blockchain.

Tokens are very important in the Cryptocurrency world as well. Because of tokens and ICOs crypto-space has evolved this much. If we stay awake in the market with utmost cautiousness, we can be benefitted mostly by tokens tough there are many scams.

Coins are not just a method of payments in the crypto-space. Many coins are here which are mostly used as a resource or asset but the payment. Having them in the blockchain makes many investors HODL them for a really long time, they will be benefited most I assume.

I think much better coins than the tokens because some tokens are no value like coin have a value in trading site and for now if you invest much better coins like ethereum.

Most tokens are coins really though as people are just treating them as an investment, hardly anyone buys them to use as a utility token.

I have been using the two interchangeably. I never thought of any significant difference between coin and token.

I do not think there is much difference between them. Coins have own network, nodes and smart contract. Token use other coins network like Etherum, NEO, Stellar etc...

Newbie are always being confused between coin and tokens and hope this post should them to make difference between them. So this is a most wellcoming post here.

Tokens are used for much specific purposes on a certain platform on which the tokens are made. Suppose in a music platform we may use some tokens for listening to musics or watching music videos.

all types of coins and tokens both are part of cryptocurrency market , and this can be used for investment but yes because of lack of popublicity tokens didn't able to achieve that much familiar and attention as the coins have but hopefully very soon situation will be changed so we better not start any competition between this two

The difference between coins and tokens has long been known, you can read a lot of articles on the Internet. Thank you for old information!

Many people have these confusions. They often mess up between token and coin. I think coins only store value by which people can do certain tasks. Besides tokens can be owned by using coin.

Just like the others, I was also confused between the two and assumed that both of them were the same. Now, I know the difference. This is just a good to know so we don't sound ignorant when we talk about the coins or tokens. Thanks for sharing.

I think one of the major difference between tokens and coins in that tokens works on specific decentralized apps. Token doesn't need a own blockchain where every coins have their own blockchain.

Nice article. It will be very easy to understand between tokens and coins to newbie. Digital coins can use as a money that we use in real life and a particular utility is simply represent by tokens.

Thanks for the article you write. It is very helpful to know the coins and tokens. In simple word coins are the digital money. E.g. Bitcoin & Tokens are the assets that can be used as a method of payment.

Cryptocurrencies are divided into two categories. One is coin and another is token. Most of the people are not understand clearly about it and of course thank you for this post that will help all to understand.

"The crypto business made a genuine promotion and at this point, the market increased a large number of fans from around the globe. The wording ranges from specialized terms to coin, token, crypto coin, altcoins and then some.
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It is impossible to say unambiguously what is better or what is more promising for coins or tokens. because there are tokens of all scam projects, and there are coins scam projects. And also there are prospective tokens and promising coins. you need to consider each case specifically.

Basically, coins speak to cryptographic money that is like the establishment or structure of a building. Interestingly, tokens speak to a digital currency that is added to a current framework. The way toward building an altogether new blockchain and propelling a coin is regularly thought to be more mind-boggling and tedious.

Mention that all coins and tokens are viewed as cryptographic forms of money, independent of their capacity as cash or medium of trade. Regularly, coins are additionally alluded to as altcoins to name advanced monetary forms that are a contrasting option to Bitcoin.

Actually coins and tokens are all same but they seems like different. Like, coins acts as real money and tokens are like gold which have high value.

Coins are to act like money: as an account unit, store value and transfer media, while tokens offer functionality above and above digital money. They can provide value to investors..

Maybe it is because they cannot think of it widely wht is the difference between the two. Yes it is very important to invest but to invest without in mind does not have an assurance to achieve the brighter one in the near future. Newbies are still gathering new informations for the future purposes.

Coins are like real money by which we can buy something. In the other hand,token are like high valued things like gold. That’s the difference between them.

good opinion, but I want to ask you one thing if only a coin will become a medium of exchange in the future, whether the token will remain in the future.
or is there only a coin and no tokens left?
I ask this because there are so many ico every day and now the token may have been more than 10000, only up to 1,000 who entered the CMC others failed, or did not reach the softcap when ico.

right, coin is a medium that we usually use to make payments for things but, there are also many people who still like to be confused about the difference between coins and tokens if the token is normal, we must exchange it before making any payment and can be saved for investment or for sale.
can be saved for investment or for sale. ;)

I have always thought that coins and tokens are a different type but when I ask some people they think that both are the same, and the topic is that I am increasingly convinced that the two are not the same,
thanks.

coin more like real crypto use to trade among other coin. while token serve like sub coin which trade in designated platform and exchange.

coin value is always > token value.

think like you going in to gaming arcade, you use your real money to buy gaming token to play games but only got value inside the gaming arcade. no value on other places. real money can buy anything within the country/ region. but once you out of the region or country, you need to go to money changer to change to other currency.
 real money = coin
 token = gaming token

Mainly there is no such differences between coin and token but it is a matter of choice of view. Token and coin are almost same thing. I think that’s the main thing about them.

with decision on herding of use with the token investors comes with option as the customs on occupation of tasks on service as extending entrance on attaining works on further of stage with challenge as applying personal selection on models with the qualification.

Thanks for this post. I got some really very important information through this article. It has removed some of my confusions regarding coins and tokens. I expect more informative post like this

Thanks. This help me to have a well concept of tokens and coins. And it's make to define the difference between them. But this information need to be reliable.

Coins need more time to establish but tokens are established on an already established blockchain making it easy to establish. People do call ethereum as a scam and praise tokens that are established on ethereum blockchain as being good. When I see this, I begin to wonder how they take it to be.

This is one kind of quality post that will be able to help any new comer to cryptocurrency to learn about what the hasn't know.
More post of this kind will be quite the help for most of the people that wish to know about cryptocurrency.

from the past until now I prefer tokens, if we work in a bounty campaign we will get a reward in the form of tokens and we get tokens without capital, if we already get tokens I will exchange my tokens to coins, I prefer free tokens.

a very important material explanation between coins and tokens, I only see that coins can be used for transactions, while tokens cannot be used. that's what I've read and observed. and maybe so far I think many bitcoin users use bitcoin as a digital asset. still too rarely used for real transactions, and even then only partially.

Depends on how you differentiate the meaning but in this case they are both same. If you wish to buy coins just read an article and white paper to understand the real meaning of the coins you really want to be vested.

Coins have their own blockchain in this regard and they have today opportunities that do not have tokens, I think that in general this is the main difference, because tokens are projects that are based on large platforms such as ETH or NEO

I would like to add that some coins are tokens from the start before they built their own blockchain. All you have to do is swap the token to mainnet coin before the deadline or else you lose your money.

Coins, as far as i know is called to basically any altcoin which has developed its own blockchain and all the transactions of that coin take place upon that separate blockchain. Moreover most of the time yes they are primarily for the purpose of usage as currency while tokens are primarily for gathering funds for some specific venture and then using that token as a share whose market value would fluctuate.

Some people here are still confused about the difference between tokens and coins. Coins are coins that have their own platform since birth. Whereas tokens are coins that do not have a platform. Tokens only stick to other coin platforms. Then it's easier to create tokens than coins.