Compared to their counterparts in the United States and the rest of Europe, only a handful of British cryptocurrencies are on the list of top cryptocurrencies by market cap.
The disparity is primarily a result of a lack of regulatory clarity, with most British crypto projects deciding against issuing tokens for their platforms. For instance, successful companies like Blockchain.com, Elliptic, Bitstamp, and Luno all have British roots but no native token powering their platforms.
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On the bright side, though, this article lists some well-performing British cryptocurrencies and their use cases. While they're not some of the best performing, they are worth keeping an eye on, especially if you're a Brit!
What are British Cryptocurrencies?
The term refers to cryptocurrency projects with their companies or primary developer teams either registered or based in Great Britain. It does not include blockchain or cryptocurrency-related companies with no native coin or token for their platform.
TOP British Cryptocurrencies
Radix DLT
Launched: 2020
Location: London
Radix DLT is a British cryptocurrency project on this list that operates within the decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystem. The protocol started as a blockchain research project in 2013 before transcending to become an established company some years later. Shortly after its debut, Radix raised $12.7M (nearly £9.37M) in a token sale and attained a valuation of £320.83 million as of March 2023.
Radix has built a layer-1 protocol and a suite of tools, such as Cerberus, that let DeFi users, developers, and market makers cheaply access liquidity. Radix's blockchain network utilizes a novel programming language called Scrypto. According to its developers, the Radix mainnet went live in July 2021 and handles around 50 transactions per second.
The platform's native token, XRD, is listed on Bitfinex, KuCoin, Gate.io, MEXC Global, LBank, and Uniswap. Users can also stake XRD tokens on the native Radix Wallet to help support the network and earn rewards.
Radix (XRD) market cap: £113.8 million.
Sweatcoin
Launched: 2022
Location: United Kingdom
Sweatcoin is a popular fitness and health application launched in 2016. The platform rewards users with Sweatcoins, which are digital currencies that they can exchange in the app for cashback and discounts on exclusive deals from partners. However, in 2022, the UK-based company raised $13 million to venture into the Web3 space, introducing a new cryptocurrency to reward its users.
Tapping the Near blockchain, the platform pays out rewards in Sweat Economy (SWEAT) tokens, which users can trade on cryptocurrency exchanges to earn real value for daily physical activity. Sweatcoin boasts over 187 million users and has become even more prominent since adding the crypto feature to its application.
Sweat Economy (SWEAT) market cap: £44.2 million.
Railgun
Launched: 2021
Location: London
Railgun protocol is a cryptocurrency project powered by zero-knowledge (zk) technology. It enables on-chain privacy, shielding users' wallet balances, addresses, transaction details, and histories. The project supports decentralised applications (dApps) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) across the Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Polygon networks. Additionally, developers can tap Railgun to incorporate pseudonymity into their projects.
Realizing that bad actors could use Railgun's technology to transport illicit funds, its contributors and researchers introduced privacy pooling. This feature ensures that Railgun’s smart contracts do not receive tokens from unwanted addresses. In July 2024, this feature enabled the protocol to block a hacker from sending stolen 174 ETH.
Railgun’s native token, RAIL, is useable for governance purposes within its decentralised autonomous organization (DAO). Participants must stake their RAIL holdings to partake in governance. The multi-chain token is tradeable on various platforms like Uniswap, SushiSwap
Railgun (RAIL) market cap: £35.8 million.
Sovryn
Launched: 2020
Location: London
Sovryn is a decentralised protocol that brings margin trading, lending, and borrowing to the Bitcoin ecosystem. The non-custodial, permissionless DeFi project lives on RSK (Rootstock), a Bitcoin sidechain supporting smart contracts. The project aims to incorporate the DeFi concept into the Bitcoin network, a blockchain that inherently facilitates only peer-to-peer transactions.
In November 2024, Sovryn unveiled the presale for BOS, the flagship cryptocurrency for BitcoinOS. This product promises to enable “unlimited computing” on the Bitcoin blockchain. Notwithstanding, Sovryn offers a native token and a stablecoin dubbed SOV and DLLR, respectively.
Sovryn’s native cryptocurrency is tradable on platforms like CoinEx, MEXC,Gate.io, Uniswap, and LAToken.
Sovryn Token (SOV) market cap: £10.3 million.
Blockasset
Launched: 2021
Location: England
Blockasset is an athlete-themed blockchain project that harnesses NFT and cryptocurrencies to unite users and their athletes across various sports. Blockasset crafts athlete content, enables fan experience, and organises sport-themed products. The platform allows fans to connect with their favorite sportsperson through exclusive content, digital collectibles, and other rewards.
Several features that users have harmonised within Blockasset’s ecosystem include BlockBet, community governance, and staking. Another product users engage with is Blockpicks, a channel through which users earn cryptocurrency rewards for correct predictions on multiple sports leagues.
Blockasset’s operations are helmed by BLOCK, its native cryptocurrency built on the layer-1 Solana network. The token is readily available on crypto platforms like MEXC, Gate.io, Raydium, and Orca.
Blockasset (BLOCK) market cap: £7.9 million.
The State of Britain's Cryptocurrency Market
The British cryptocurrencies in this article account for a combined £212 million market cap. This is meagre compared to the over £2.66 trillion market cap for all cryptocurrencies.
However, it does not accurately reflect the current state of Britain's cryptocurrency market. Many startups and companies have raised funding within the past few years and are keeping up with their offshore counterparts.
Blockchain.com (£5.56 billion) and Bitstamp (£15.88 million) are some of the most notable. Over the past few years, Bitcourier has covered multi-million fundraisers by UK-based cryptocurrency startups, Ziglu and Mode.
Conclusion
British cryptocurrencies refer to crypto projects with companies based in Great Britain. This article listed some of the largest ones by market cap, including Radix (XRD), Sweatcoin (SWEAT), Sovryn (SOV), and Blockasset (BLOCK).
Like most cryptocurrencies, holding these coins does not represent equity ownership but a bet that the projects would go on to attract more users and possibly reach mainstream adoption.
The lack of many British cryptocurrencies in the list of coins by market cap does not accurately reflect the state of the region's crypto and blockchain ecosystem. Startups and established companies continue to attract funding and are well on par with foreign competitors.
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