Over the past five years, the group of coins that make up the 10 of the first cryptocurrencies by capitalization has changed significantly. Although this can be expected at any early stage of the technology field, a comparison of today's crypto assets five years ago also serves as a reminder to investors about how risky their portfolios really are.
Looking back at the 2013 year, it is not surprising that Bitcoin (BTC) took first place in the market capitalization rating. The “first cryptocurrency” remains the same from the moment the first altcoin of Namecoin is launched until now.
The list of 10 best coins five years ago, although it includes some familiar names, is basically not familiar to investors who have been in the crypto space over the past couple of years. These are Namecoin, Peercoin, Feathercoin, Novacoin, Primecoin, Terracoin, and Infinitecoin.
In addition to bitcoin, Litecoin (LTC) and Ripple (XRP) have also been part of the top of the cryptocurrency rating throughout their existence.
Litecoin has managed to maintain its status as "digital silver" thanks to an active community and continuous innovation led by Charlie Lee. Litecoin is one of the few digital currencies next to bitcoin that is accepted by merchants due to its fast transactions and low fees.
Ripple took its place in the ranking thanks to strong financial support. Investors also believe that she will successfully cope with the role of cross-border money transfers.
TOP 10 2013 of the year
The fourth largest cryptocurrency in 2013 was Namecoin, the world's first altcoin that was launched in 2011. Namecoin was created to provide data storage on the blockchain and to develop a secure decentralized DNS. At that time, Namecoin (NMC) had a market capitalization of about three, which now ranks around 180th, with a capitalization of $ 20 million and a price of $ 2,17. And this indicates that the project, despite its innovations, could not retain the interest of investors. Number five on the list is Peercoin, the first cryptocurrency in the world that applied the mechanism Proof-of-Stake (PoS) 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, they were not able to attract an active community to move the project forward. Five years ago, Peercoin (PPC) was worth $ 0,17 and had a market capitalization of $ 3,6 million. Today it is somewhere in the 125th position, with a capitalization of $ 37 million and a value of $ 1,33. Like Namecoin, Peercoin survived, but failed to attract the attention of investors.
Next on the list is Feathercoin (FTC), which was launched in April 2013 as a fork of Litecoin. Its main USP is that it is "10 times faster than bitcoin" due to the use of the NeoScrypt hash algorithm. At a time when the FTC had a market capitalization of $ 2,2 million and was trading at 0,15 dollars. Since then, this altcoin has fallen to the 240 position with a market capitalization of 11 million dollars and a price below the 2013 level of the year at $ 0,058.
In seventh place was Novacoin. Like Peercoin, Novacoin combines PoS and PoW for more energy efficient use, but uses a different hashing algorithm. But apparently such differences did not convince investors of the coin's value. In 2013, one NVC cost $ 3,92, and its market capitalization was $1,4 million. Today, Novacoin is ranked 335th with a market capitalization of $5 million and a price of $2,17.
The eighth largest coin in 2013 is Primecoin. As the name suggests, the coin has something to do with prime numbers. More specifically, XPM uses a sanity check system that looks for strings of primes. However, the search for new primes used in mathematical research was not enough to convince investors of the value of this coin. In 2013, Primecoin had a market cap of $1 million and was trading at $0,54. Today, one Primecoin is worth $0,99 and has a market cap of $24 million. He is number 163.
In ninth place was Terracoin, launched in 2012 year, to focus on speed, anonymity and user management. However, despite its innovative capabilities, Terracoin has not attracted the attention of investors for a long time. In September 2013, one TRC cost 0,17 US dollars with a market capitalization of 600 000 US dollars. Today, Terracoin has a market capitalization of $ 2,5 million, and its price is trading at $ 0,11. And her rating is 392.
Finally, closes the top ten Infinitecoin (IFC). It was launched in June by 2013 as a bitcoin clone with little innovation. By September, IFC was trading at $ 0.000004 and had a market capitalization of $ 340 000. Today, Infinitecoin takes the 296 place, and its market capitalization is 7 million dollars. The price of one moneta is $ 0,000078, and it seems that this project falls into the category of unsuccessful altvines.
Although these "fallen angels" do not attract much investor interest, some of them are still actively mined, so they are still in the ratings and trades, even if their development teams no longer work on coins.
Top 10 crypto assets today
The market snapshot from September 4 of 2018 shows a different picture. TOP-10 consists of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, Tether, Cardano and Monero. And looking at it, it becomes clear that the crypto space has come a long way.
Five years ago, altcoins were mostly bitcoin clones that offered slightly more than slightly faster transactions and lower fees. Today, the 10 of the largest digital assets have much more features, ranging from the functionality of a smart contract and acting as transaction layers for the “Internet of things”.
A fast-paced list of the best assets suggests that those who have stood the test of time can potentially continue to do so and thus offer a safer addition to crypto portfolios.
At the same time, the leading altcoins are constantly changing, and many projects that were previously called the “next bitcoin or ether” have already disappeared from the radar, soon after reaching the top 10. And coins like Dogecoin, NEM, Omni, Steem and Nxt are among them.