Bitcoin itself is a technology, a protocol, the BTC token essentially is a stake (share) in that protocol. Just like owning shares in Apple allows you to bank on the success of apple, owning a BTC 'share' of bitcoin allows you to bank on the success of Bitcoin.
You have 21 million BTC that will ever be distributed via the minting/mining process, so owning 1 BTC gives you a 1/21,000000 stake. Your stake will be inflated gradually until sometime roughly near 2140 when emission ends.
CounterParty is also a protocol - XCP is the underlying token that gives you a share in the protocol. there are a fixed number of roughly 2.6 million XCP (2,649,791 to be exact) that had already been 'minted' via the Initial proof-of-burn, therefore your stake will never be inflated. (In fact- the opposite is true as XCP will be destroyed during things like asset issuance)
You can find more info on derivatives
hereThanks. I actually meant Counterparty derivatives rather than derivatives in general - or do you use the term to refer to any 'token' on counterparty? I wouldn't think of the IPOs and other assets and stuff I see on Counterparty as derivatives because normally something like a stock, for example, is not a derivative (I don't think) - it is only if you create options or shorts or something based on that stock that it becomes a derivative.