An altcoin that comes very close to Bitcoin in terms of marketcap?

[internetional]

Any token of a real-world asset can overpass bitcoin:
- tokenized gold,
- tokenized oil,
- tokenized copper,
- tokenized NVDA,
- tokenized USD,
- ...

Among the ones that you listed, I guess the highest among them in marketcap is XAUT which is the 34th and having $3 billion marketcap. If you compare it with bitcoin, can you see how many times bitcoin is creater than it?

No, USDT has the highest market cap. And the growth potential for this market cap is truly limitless. After all, how many dollars can there possibly be in the world? An infinite amount. If the holders of a significant portion of those dollars spend them to buy USDT, its market cap will reach levels that nothing can compare to. USDT has a very strong network effect. The more it is used, the more new capital will flow into it.

[Charles-Tim]

No, USDT has the highest market cap.

I did not know you mentioned tokenized USD, but it would have been better if you are specific on the token you are referring to. I think you are referring to USDT. I prefer to clarify them as fiat collateralized, while I consider stocks and commodities, real appreciative assets as RWA tokens. But it is true that fiat collateralized stable coins should be among.

And the growth potential for this market cap is truly limitless. After all, how many dollars can there possibly be in the world? An infinite amount. If the holders of a significant portion of those dollars spend them to buy USDT, its market cap will reach levels that nothing can compare to. USDT has a very strong network effect. The more it is used, the more new capital will flow into it.

But will people sell their dollars and use it to buy fiat collateralized stable coins? I do not think that will be possible. Another thing is that we do not know what will happen in the future as the stable coins may significantly compete.

Another thing is that bitcoin may grow more than some people are expecting.

[Localhostspeed]

The market cap of all nine alts under Bitcoin combined still didn't hit bitcoin's market cap. It'll be a difficult thing for any alt to have a close contact with bitcoin's market cap because most government treasuries and ETFs are stored in Bitcoin, countries like Elsavado buy and adopts Bitcoin. With Bitcoin being the center of attraction for investors who have an eye in crypto, the market cap is expected to give such a gap to all other alts.

The numbers says it all. If I have a coin that has given me consistent for years, I don't have a reason to ever change my loyalty. No coin on the market has that has outstand Bitcoin in term of performance, they are not close, they are not trusted and they are not as decentralized like Bitcoin. Some of the altcoins that has tried to be decentralized as Bitcoin has refused to gain traction, maybe the trust of Satoshi is what is making them, none can never not even Ethereum.

I noticed this trend of altcoins accumulation by institution. Once an altcoins is bought by institutional investors, retail investors rush there to buy and before you know, the coin gain massive billions but after a while, the growth stop and gradually people start to sell. Ethereum has done it, Solana did the same, some new coins I experienced recently but Bitcoin, never did any of this. I'm not sure if Micheal Saylor will sell their reserve, they stay true for long commitment.

[DanWalker]

Last time altcoin almost creeping up to bitcoin's market cap, it was ethereum in 2021, the market cap was almost half of bitcoin but it's still nowhere closing the gap against bitcoin, after that there's none and I don't think there will be any within decades into the future. That's how domineering bitcoin is.

Nah, as someone pointed out, that was in 2017, not 2021. During the 2017 bull run, thanks to the ICO boom, ETH's marketcap got to around 80% of BTC's. Back then, crypto was full of talk about the "flippening", ETH overtaking BTC.

Per CMC, BTC's market cap was $42B while ETH's was $34B, putting ETH at around 82% of Bitcoin's market cap at the time.

That was the only time, and imo it'll be the last time ETH or any other alt gets anywhere close to BTC.

https://coinmarketcap.com/historical/20170618/

[wapwapwendy]

Bitcoin has long been the only cryptocurrency to remain firmly at the top among other cryptocurrencies. And so far no altcoin has ever surpassed Bitcoin’s market capitalization. Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and appears to be firmly entrenched in its second-place position. As too date no altcoin has shown any signs of approaching Bitcoin’s market cap. And the gap is very wide compared to some of the altcoins in the top ten. New competitors like Solana or Hype still have a very hard time catching up to Ethereum So I personally think it’s very difficult for other altcoins to come close to Bitcoin. And it seems that a major overhaul would be needed for an altcoin that wants to rival Bitcoin like  having a strong vision like Bitcoin’s regarding its scarcity or even its ever-growing popularity, where it consistently attracts people to use it for their various needs.

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2026/10/11/Ux25Ng.png

(Source)

I’d like to know, is there a scenario in which an altcoin could surpass Bitcoin?

I think it's possible, but it would be very difficult. Bitcoin already has a huge lead in adoption and trust, so an altcoin would need more than just better technology to catch up. Even Ethereum is still far behind in market cap. For now, I think Bitcoin will remain at the top for a long time.

[Mrbluntzy]

If Ethereum was not able to reach same marketcap of Bitcoin all this while, how much more will other projects be able to reach it? Bitcoin is the cause through which all of these altcoins came to existence, Bitcoin was the original idea of crypto and so it will always remain at the top and have no altcoin competing with the marketcap. I read somewhere that in previous years, there were some coins listed among the top 10 coins then but now, they have declined and have been replaced by other coins and probably in the future too, the top 10 coins today could be below the list but Bitcoin will always sit on the top.

However, things might change. Altcoins can't and will not remain here for a very long time. If people hold altcoins for 5 years more and the growth remain like this, there wouldn't be interest and I'm sure the market makers wouldn't sit around and watch their investments that way but I will admit, none can pass Bitcoin with any growth.

 I refuse to believe that altcoins will cease to exist, I know that that's just an assumption of you but you don't have to sound too sure about it as if you know what will happen next. There are some altcoins that won't die, they don't have to compete with Bitcoin but during every Bitcoin bull season, they could also experience a new high or price pump and I am not referring to those memecoin but some established projects like Ethereum, Solana, and those ones that have their own chain and a macro community. Most tokens are going die like so many already did but some few coins will survive.