# Token vs Coin A distinction crypto insiders treat as basic and outsiders routinely blur. A **coin** is the native asset of its own blockchain — [[Bitcoin]] on the Bitcoin network, Ether on Ethereum, SOL on Solana. A **token** is an asset created *on top of* an existing blockchain using a [[Smart Contract]], without launching a new network — the overwhelming majority of crypto assets, including most [[Stablecoin]]s, NFTs, and [[Memecoin]]s. The shorthand: coins have their own chain; tokens are guests on someone else's. "Altcoin" is a looser catch-all for any coin other than Bitcoin. ## Why the term matters The token-versus-coin distinction explains the single most consequential fact about the crypto economy: **issuing a token is nearly free and nearly instant.** Creating a new coin means building and securing a whole blockchain; creating a token means deploying a short smart contract, which anyone can do in minutes for a few dollars in [[Gas Fees]]. That asymmetry is why the world has tens of thousands of tokens and only a handful of consequential coins — and why the [[Memecoin]] phenomenon exists at all. The barrier to minting a financial asset has effectively dropped to zero. For this vault, that is the heart of the matter. The $TRUMP and $MELANIA assets in the [[$TRUMP Memecoin Universe]] were tokens, not coins — smart contracts deployed on Solana, with supply schedules the creators controlled. The token's frictionless issuance is what made it possible for a sitting president's family to launch a tradable financial instrument over a weekend, and it is the same property that makes the [[Rug Pull]] endemic: when minting costs nothing and listing is permissionless, the supply of extractive tokens is bounded only by the supply of buyers. Understanding that a "token" is just code someone deployed — backed by nothing unless its issuer chooses to back it — is the core literacy for reading every crypto-corruption story in this vault. ## See Also - [[Smart Contract]] — what a token actually is - [[Memecoin]] — the frictionless-issuance endpoint - [[Stablecoin]] — a token type pegged to the dollar - [[Rug Pull]] — the extraction the token model enables