Cryptocurrency continues its incredible surge, with the combined market capitalization of all digital currency reaching $500 bln. According to the Wayback Machine, on December 15, 2016 - almost exactly one year ago - the total market cap stood at around $15 bln. Today’s price movements bring the total return of the entire sector to about 3,333%, year-over-year. Virtually anybody who owned crypto a year ago, and still holds it, is a winner.
How far we’ve come
As of one year ago, the top ten digital currencies and their market caps were:
Bitcoin, $12.5 bln
Ethereum, $713 mln
Ripple, $241 mln
Litecoin, $177 mln
Monero, $114 mln
Ethereum Classic, $86 mln
Dash, $64 mln
Steem, $41 mln
MaidSafeCoin, $37 mln
Augur, $34 mln
Today, the list looks like:
Bitcoin, $292.7 bln
Ethereum, $58.8 bln
Bitcoin Cash, $27.5 bln
Litecoin, $18 bln
Ripple, $14.6 bln
IOTA, $12.8 bln
Dash, $7 bln
NEM, $5 bln
Monero, $4.7 bln
Bitcoin Gold, $4.6 bln
Last year, two of these currencies (Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold) didn’t even exist, and at least one (IOTA) was only traded over-the-counter at incredibly low prices. At that time, only the top five cryptocurrencies had breached the $100 mln market cap level; today the top 23 digital currencies have over $1 bln in market cap. To find a currency with “only” a $100 mln market cap, one must scroll down to number 90 on the list.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-altcoins-combined-reach-market-capitalization-of-half-trillion-dollars
