When did altcoins got so popular?

[arbitrage]

We can love them, we can hate them..But one is clear they are here to stay and it is almost impossible to destroy one coin. Till there is one open wallet and one miner everything is ok. Every coin have its buyers and its sellers. It is only question how much attraction will one get, and how popular will become. So never call one coin She... coin!
Now they are becoming really popular, few years before was only experimenting. And popularity will only rise over time!

[kryptqnick]

Altcoins become popular mainly in the last 2 years.
Take a look at the graph here:
https://goo.gl/images/x4Xbrc

Most of the announcements and discussions are actually here on bitcointalk. In addition, most companies have their own channels like Slack or Telegram.

Hope I answered your question

Altcoins kind of existed 2 years ago and those who were creating them popularized them as well. Nevertheless, I believe they weren't really popular at that time. People were mostly getting to know bitcoin then. Altcoins became extremely popular this year during spring. They started to grow in price rapidly and new coins started appearing very often. On this forum altcoin signature campaigns paying in btc appeared which is also a sign of their popularity. They gained popularity because of investment opportunities IMO.

[alyssa85]

It's because alt trading is more volatile and offers potentially greater rewards than bitcoin trading. And also noobs look at the price of bitcoin, decide it is too high, and try to spot the "next big thing" in the alt market instead.

[chip1994]

We can love them, we can hate them..But one is clear they are here to stay and it is almost impossible to destroy one coin. Till there is one open wallet and one miner everything is ok. Every coin have its buyers and its sellers. It is only question how much attraction will one get, and how popular will become. So never call one coin She... coin!
Now they are becoming really popular, few years before was only experimenting. And popularity will only rise over time!

Well in present what we need is the time, maybe one year, or two years, even after 10 years the potential of Altcoin recognized from most country on the world's and popular with anyone. So, we just need waiting this future become true

[VanDeinsberg12]

Altcoins have always been around, I think they have become that much more popular recently because bitcoin is starting to get quite expensive and people are looking for the next bitcoin, especially now with ETH coming along people will be looking for the next big coin.

I think that was not a main reason, But those know the altcoin can be a good place to make a lot of money through trade the altcoin itself. So, those invested on such project wants to get the decent amount from their investment. Remember the business thing that you must get return from what are you pay.

[elaking]

And the number one reason for altcoins getting so popular, is people realizing that there is tons of money to be made with alt trading. People buy low, fud and pump and sell high... $$$$ profit.

Bitcoin also a crypto as a example ETH also a crypto .

i missed the BTC in 2010.but i invest alt coins lot (ETH.SIA).

someday it will become like Bitcoin .i think be patient

 who told in 2010 bitcoin will be a legend in 2017?

[Adbitco]

I think litecoin and doge were already there and somewhat popular before 2016 but yes the year 2016 has seen a flood of altcoins being launched almost every day there's has been a new altcoin launched and introduced but maybe I'm wrong because I haven't been much into them and only now have started to take an interest in them but this year and the years to come are surely going to be an era of cryptocurrencies and therefore we will see more and more altcoins coming into existence in the future.

[Taki]

It you type in Google trends word "bitcoin" you will see how it's popularity was growing. But the serious attention was caught only some months ago in the end of 2016. The interest to bitcoin provoked the price's growth and exactly in this moment popularity of altcoins started to grow. Because Bitcoin became too expansive to buy it so easy, but altcoins are not and all of them are promising the similar results as Bitcoin reached.

[abdulmad]

Altcoins was always lurking, the price increase in BTC made altcoins more attractive as a substitute for BTC investments. Also the popularity of Ethereum gained considerable momentum and also gained allot of traction in the media. Not to discount really good projects like Byteball, Dash, Waves, Stratis these are of my favorite projects that currently exists in the altcoins sphere as they have a good working platform and allot of community support.

[btcjocan]

Altcoins was always lurking the price increase in BTC made altcoins more attractive as a substitute for BTC investments. Also the popularity of Ethereum gained considerable momentum and also gained allot of traction in the media. Not to discount really good projects like Byteball, Dash, Waves, Stratis these are on of my favorite projects that currently exits in the altcoins sphere as they have a good working platform and alot of community support.

So that's why many of us depend on altcoins. Therefore if altcoin is lurking the price from btc,they are proportion in that case. Isn't it? On the other hand , btc is more popular than altcoins. Whichever the case I will support both of them because they are one of my sources of funds or extra income. It is popular for its value and trading factor so I keep going.

[Muhammad Muneeb]

WAVES , ETH , NEM will grow more in coming years wait for it

[Jdope]

If i had to guess, they became 'popular' early this year, then EXTREMELY popular around 4-5 months ago. If you look at the charts of almost every coin 4-5 months ago it almost looks like an exponential function

[sasaku bitbit]

the value of bitcoin increasing so it makes a lot of investors to invest in altcoin, because altcoin one way other than bitcoin so you can get a profit although it is extremely difficult to obtain because the price of the bitcoin high

[iram3130]

When the Bitcoin price hit $2000, lots of altcoins started and tried to takes advantage of the price. Many ICO's are started to scam people with their different ideas and techniques. Just 1% of the altcoins get a good value and get listed on good exchanges now.

[wildflower18]

the value of bitcoin increasing so it makes a lot of investors to invest in altcoin, because altcoin one way other than bitcoin so you can get a profit although it is extremely difficult to obtain because the price of the bitcoin high

Altcoins become popular becuase of the votality of the price. Yes you were right altcoin has a lot of earnings to offer thats why more investors invested in. That anyone could buy some cheaper price and ready to sell if earning already, so this means there is a money involved that altcoins got popular.

[Nathland]

I think altcoins became so popular when we saw a sudden rise in market capital of some better altcoins like ETHEREUM, MONERO and LITECOIN. I think altcoins gain so much popularity when people saw an opportunity of a faster growth in altcoins. I think altcoins have gained so much popularity in last 2 -3 years,

[cuo]

I think one year ago altcoins was very popular, because a lot of new projects are emerging that use altcoins, trading is one of the main triggers of the popular altcoin.

[kelnel]

For me it's Bitstamp that made altcoins exist in my eyes. When they added XRP, I had BTC laying around there so I randomly bought some XRP. Rest is history. ty bitstamp.

[waynechong1995]

they ride along with BTC while remaining extremely volatile price that could grow very fast and ecosystem seems profitable for both short and long-term growth. Basically playground for traders and funding hub for developers.

[craZyLovE0916]

I can't believe no one else mentioned this, so I will. Altcoins became famous because of Ethereum platform!!!

With Ethereum, anyone can make a token which is similar to an altcoin and provide a service with it and sell it.

The reason there are so many ICOs now because many companies are creating tokens to sell to the public as shares in their company.