Cryptocurrency market capitalization has changed dramatically over the past five years. Market capitalization has fluctuated by several billion dollars between 2017 and today, according to sites such as CoinMarketCap.
The top 10 largest crypto assets have also changed over time, since they have not always maintained the same ranking.
What is market cap?
An asset or company’s market capitalization can be defined as their total value. By multiplying the number of coins in circulation by the price of one of each coin, we calculate the value of all cryptocurrencies in circulation.
How the market cap has changed over the past 5 years
Today, the market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is $1.08 trillion, as of the date this article was written. There was an even higher figure a year ago. Cryptocurrencies were at all-time highs in price and market cap in 2021 because most reached their all-time highs in terms of price. In August 2021, the amount reached $1.85 trillion.
The market cap grew steadily between 2017 and 2020: in 2018, the market cap increased from $125 billion to $225 billion, in 2019 it reached $305 billion, and in 2020 it reached $356 billion. The growth that took place between 2017 and 2018 is very interesting, since adoption grew dramatically and the market cap doubled after ICOs.
A particularly important period is the period between 2020 and 2021, when cryptocurrencies are actually valued at 1.85 trillion, up more than triple from 356 billion. It is the year 2021, in fact, that many cryptocurrencies mark their all-time highs, as well as the year when NFTs shine, helping to bring the industry closer to the public.
This ranking is summarized in the following tweet:
Total #Cryptocurrency Market Cap:
Today: $1.08 trillion
1 year ago: $1.85 trillion
2 years ago: $356 billion
3 years ago: $305 billion
4 years ago: $225 billion
5 years ago: $125 billion— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) August 10, 2022
The top 10 crypto from 2022 to 2017
Bitcoin has always led the league in terms of market capitalization, in addition to the total cryptocurrency market cap. As an example, while Bitcoin Cash ranked third in 2017, today we have Tether (USDT) where Ripple (XRP) used to rank fourth instead of Binance Coin (BNB), which is currently ranked fourth.
According to the February 2022 data, IOTA, NEM, Monero, and Dash have also dropped out of the top 10, giving way to USD Coin (USDC), Solana, Terra, and Dogecoin, respectively. In August 2022, when we take the top 10 from the present day, the list changes again and we find a stablecoin from Binance, BUSD, instead of Terra and Dogecoin (now 11th).
The top 10 crypto before 2017
Cryptocurrencies market capitalizations varied considerably even before 2017, and the top ten cryptocurrencies also shifted continuously, partly due to new projects emerging.
Following the launch of Monero (XMR), the cryptocurrency entered the top ranks over Bitcoin (BTC), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC) and Dogecoin (DOGE). Additionally, the now-unknown StrongHands (SHND) project peaked into the top 10 in 2015, ranking 2365.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) also entered the rankings in August 2018, and Verge (XVG) in March 2017.
XMR, Litecoin (LTC), Dogecoin (DOGE) and Bitcoin (BTC) dominated the market in 2014. Following the launch of Monero (XMR), the latter
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