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The Top 10 cryptocurrencies, now and then

The names of the projects that make it onto the list of top 10 cryptocurrencies are always subject to change. So who is in and out so far in 2020’s bull run - and what happened to the star performers of yesteryear?

While shuffling for leadership is to be expected in any early-stage technology field, a comparison of today’s top crypto assets versus those from 2018 and 2013 also serves as a reminder to altcoin investors of how volatile their holdings actually are, and how important an engaged community and real-world use cases are to long term survival in the top ranks

Top 10 cryptocurrencies – 2013

Looking back at 2013 it will come as no surprise that Bitcoin (BTC) was number one in the list of top 10 cryptocurrencies measured by market capitalization (and about every other metric). It is a position that BTC has maintained, from the time the first competing altcoin – Namecoin – was launched in 2011 until today.

The list of other top 10 crypto coins from seven years ago includes some familiar names — but also several coins that many that have only entered the cryptocurrency space in recent years will have likely never heard of. The top 10 coins on September 1, 2013, were Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, Namecoin, Peercoin, Feathercoin, Novacoin, Primecoin, Terracoin, and Infinitecoin.

Historical-Snapshot-01-September-2013

In addition to Bitcoin, Litecoin (LTC) and Ripple (XRP) have also remained part of the leading crypto assets throughout their existence. The fourth-largest cryptocurrency in 2013 was Namecoin, the first ever altcoin, which was launched in 2011. Namecoin was launched to enable the storage of data on the blockchain and to develop secure decentralized DNS. At the time, Namecoin (NMC) had a market capitalization of around three million dollars and was trading at $0.57.

Namecoin has survived the past five years but it has fallen off the radar for cryptocurrency investors and enthusiasts — currently ranking in the 650 range on Brave New Coin’s market cap table with a capitalization of around $6 million and a price of $0.43. Number five on the list of top coins in 2013 was Peercoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency to adopt a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism in combination with Proof-of-Work (PoW). Peercoin was launched in mid-2012 as a more scalable and energy-efficient alternative to existing digital currencies. However, it did not manage to attract an active community to push the project forward.

At the time, Peercoin (PPC) was worth $0.17 and had a market capitalization of $3.6 million. In 2018, Peercoin was ranked number 125 with a market capitalization of $37 million and a price of $1.33. Today it ranks around 570 with a market cap of $7.5m and is priced at $0.28. Similarly to Namecoin, Peercoin has survived but has failed to attract investor attention.

Further down the 2013 Top 10 crypto list was Feathercoin (FTC), which was launched in April 2013 as a fork of Litecoin. Its main selling point was that it was “10 times faster than bitcoin” due to its 60 second block times. and NeoScrypt hashing algorithm. At the time FTC had a market capitalization of $2.2 million and was trading at $0.15. Today, although its market cap is almost the same ($2.1 million) its position is somewhere south of 800 and its price has fallen to $0.0095. Also virtually disappeared are Novacoin, Primecoin, Terracoin, and Infinitecoin. While these “fallen angels” do not see much investor interest, a few of them are still being actively mined, which is why they still see some – albeit small – daily trading volumes, even if their developer teams are no longer actively working to improve their coins.

Top 10 cryptocurrencies – 2018

Snapshot-04-September-2018

2018’s top 10 crypto list was composed of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, Tether, Cardano, and Monero – all of which are still around today, although not all in the top 10. It is clear from this list that the cryptographic asset space had matured greatly in the five years between 2013 and 2018. Whereas in 2013 the altcoins were largely clones of bitcoin with little more to offer than slightly faster transaction speeds and lower fees, in 2018 they had much more to offer, ranging from smart contract functionality to acting as a transactional layer for the Internet of Things (IoT), to enabling anonymous payments.

Top 10 cryptocurrencies – 2020

Top 10 Cryptocurrencies 2020

Today’s crypto top 10 is much closer to the 2018 version than 2018 was to 2013. One interesting change is that both forks of Bitcoin Cash survived their acrimonious 2018 split and are in the top 10 – but they did not come out unscathed In September 2018 the Bitcoin Cash market cap was $10.9 billion. Today, the combined market cap of Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV is around $8.7 billion – a decline of around 20%. Compare this to Bitcoin and Ethereum’s market caps over the same period, which are up 70% and 62% respectively. Monero (XMR) is out of the top 10 altogether, as although being a fan favorite for the privacy-focused community, it will likely never be embraced by the corporate or institutional investors which are becoming increasingly important as the crypto sector matures. The Monero market cap is currently $1.6 billion – which is down 24% from September 2018. Also out of the crypto top 10 is Stellar (XLM) – now at No. 14. A payment protocol, Stellar continues to be out-hyped by Ripple and has seen its market cap fall by 52% since 2018, down to just over 2 billion.

Aside from two variants of Bitcoin Cash, the only completely ‘new’ addition to the top 10 in 2020 is Chainlink (LINK). A decentralized oracle network built on Ethereum, Chainlink’s compelling use case, active developer community and stream of impressive partner announcements in 2020 have seen the LINK price soar over 800% from $1.77 to $16.62 since January 1st.

While the changes to the top 10 list of cryptocurrencies from 2018 to 2020 have not been as marked as they were from 2013 to 2018, a couple of things are clear. The first is that as Chainlink has shown, a compelling technology with enthusiastic real-world users can essentially ‘come out of nowhere’ and secure a top 10 position. The second is that those assets that have stood the test of time probably have the potential to continue to do so and thus offer a more defensive addition to crypto portfolios. Bitcoin and Ethereum fit into this category, with the market cap of both up significantly in the last two years.


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