So it would be interesting to answer the question: are there also altcoins that are unlikely to be classified as securities?
Criteria for decentralized, non-security altcoins
The SEC criteria are quite intransparent as of now, but the European criteria (which are at least as important, as EU almost doubles the US's population) are quite clear: To escape from MiCa, a coin needs to have "no identifiable issuer.":
Quote from: MiCa
This Regulation covers the rights and obligations applicable to issuers, offerors and persons seeking admission to trading of crypto-assets and to crypto-asset service providers.Where crypto-assets have no identifiable issuer, they do not fall within Title II, III or IV of this Regulation.
Source, recital 12a (p. 12).This means that the coins need to have to be distributed in a completely decentralized manner for mining and validation tasks. I guess PoS would also be permitted. But if there is any kind of premine, we can already talk about an "issuer", as the developers have then issued some coins for themselves or to sell them in an ICO.
In the case of the US with its Howey test, things are a bit more complicated, as PoS for example has been described as a "common enterprise". But there is not much clarity. So I will concentrate here on the European definition: coins which are distributed in a purely decentralized manner and have no premine.
List of decentralized cryptocurrencies
Already some months ago I researched the top 200-300 coins on coin ranking sites like Coingecko/Coinmarketcap and the result is quite sad: there are only a few coins ranked high without premine. Here's the list of some well-known cryptocurrencies without premine:
Code:
Ticker Name MarketCap (USD) Price (USD) ATH Notes
Market cap over 1 billion:
BTC Bitcoin 486.3 bn. 25000 69000 (11/21)
DOGE Dogecoin 8.3 bn. 0.059 0.75 (5/21) meme coin
LTC Litecoin 5.3 bn. 72 412.70 (5/21)
XMR Monero 2.4 bn. 132 519.76 (5/21) privacy coin
10 million to 1 billion:
DASH Dash 324 M. 28 1642.22 (12/17) privacy coin*
RVN Ravencoin 211 M. 0.017 0.28 (2/21)
ARRR Pirate Chain 41 M. 0.21 16.87 (4/21) privacy coin
MONA MonaCoin 30 M. 0.35 11.13 (1/18) meme coin
GRS Groestlcoin 25 M. 0.30 3.08 (4/21)
NMC Namecoin 21 M. 1.47 9.22 (1/18) first known altcoin
1 million to 10 million:
PPC Peercoin 9.5 M. 0.34 9.92 (1/18) first known PoS coin
VTC Vertcoin 5.8 M. 0.09 7.81 (1/18)
GRC Gridcoin 4.9 M. 0.011 0.55 (1/21) BOINC participation reward
GRIN Grin 4.8 M. 0.03 19.21 (1/19) privacy coin
PND Pandacoin 4.4 M. 0.0001 0.47 (5/21)
NAV NavCoin 3.6 M. 0.048 5.53 (1/18)
SIGNA Signum 2.7 M. 0.0013 0.23 (12/20) known initially as 'Burst', first Proof-of-capacity coin
EMC EmerCoin 2.4 M. 0.05 10.53 (1/18) DNS on blockchain
GAME GameCredits 1.8 M. 0.01 6.90 (1/18)
TIPS Fedoracoin 1.7 M. 0.000003 0.00025 (1/18) Has a premined secondary coin, Fedora Gold
BTCZ BitcoinZ 1.6 M. 0.0001 0.03 (1/18) privacy coin
EMC2 Einsteinium 1.4 M. 0.006 1.30 (1/18)
200,000 - 1 million:
FTC Feathercoin 814 K 0.003 0.72 (1/18)
BLK BlackCoin 810 K 0.013 1.31 (1/18)
XPM Primecoin 766 K 0.03 4.11 (5/18) prime number algorithm
DEM Deutsche eMark 766 K 0.005 4.89 (6/21)
AEON Aeon 635 K 0.04 9.45 (1/18)
CLOAK Cloakcoin 585 K 0.09 34.44 (1/18) privacy coin
PIRATE PirateCash 478 K 0.009 3017 (10/22) privacy coin
KRB Karbo 428 K 0.044 1.23 (7/22) privacy coin
ZCL Zclassic 399 K 0.043 248.73 (1/18) privacy coin
MOON Mooncoin 373 K 0.000002 0.005 (7/19)
QRK Quark 288 K 0.001 0.079 (1/18)
RIC Riecoin 359 K 0.005 1.14 (3/14) prime number algorithm
PASC Pascal 283 K 0.07 5.70 (1/18) Pascal-based ref. implementation
Lower than 200,000:
TRC Terracoin 152 K 0.015 0.64 (11/20)
GAP Gapcoin 101 K 0.057 1305 (4/22)
YAC YaCoin 55 K 0.004 0.006 (2/21)
BIS Bismuth 47 K 0.015 227.84 (7/22) Python-based ref. implementation
SLM Slimcoin 36 K 0.001 0.05 (2/19) first Proof of burn coin
Low volume (take market cap with grain of salt):
I0C I0Coin 371 K 0.017 5.58 (4/19)
CHAT ChatCoin 102 K 0.00015 0.54 (1/18)
VRC VeriCoin 27 K 0.0007 4.63 (1/18)
DTC Datacoin 10 K 0.0002 0.028 (3/18) blockchain cloud storage
Unknown market cap:
HBN Hobonickels ? 0.0003 0.069 (1/18)
* Dash has been described as a "security" by SEC due to its governance mechanism.
The list may be incomplete, if you know a coin which could qualify (no premine and an independent, no-fork blockchain!) be invited to post it in this thread so I can review and add it!.
Edge cases: Dash etc.
Some of the coins on this list - particularly Dash - have been accused of being instamined. Dash has also another problem: the governance structure with a "trust". This governance structure has led the SEC to describe it as a security, even if Dash had no explicit premine nor explicit centralized structures. I consider Dash an edge case: it's likely in Europe Dash would not be classified as falling under MiCa.
Other languages
Similar threads have been opened in other languages:
Spanish - German
There is also a thread with a similar topic, but even more strict criteria by another user.
Self-moderation notes: All opinions are welcome, but outright spam and promotion of centralized coins will be deleted.