A coin has a blockchain of its own, a token sits on somebody else’s blockchain. That is the whole difference between coin and token, and it decides which fee you pay when you send, who is allowed to change the rules, and what happens when you pick the wrong network on a withdrawal.

How large that difference is in practice shows in the ranking. Among the 20 largest crypto assets by market capitalisation, October 26, 2026 counts thirteen coins and seven tokens (our own analysis of market data from CoinGecko). The seven tokens together weigh in at around $317 billion, the thirteen coins at a good $2,230 billion. The majority of the big names therefore run a blockchain of their own, while the majority of all listed crypto assets do not. Of…