Key points
- Bitcoin was the original cryptocurrency, launched in January 2009.
- There are now more than 22,600 that trade on the crypto market.
- Most cryptocurrencies hold small market capitalizations.
The world of crypto assets is much broader than a decade ago. In 2013, there were only a handful of other crypto coins. If you’re into crypto, you’ll probably recognize a few of the names from back then: Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ripple, now rebranded as XRP.
Fast-forward to today and there are a wide variety of coins and tokens with use cases that extend beyond Bitcoin’s functionality as an alternative to centralized currency. According to CoinMarketCap, there are more than 22,600 crypto projects that trade on the market today.
But even though thousands of cryptocurrencies are available, the market is still dominated by Bitcoin, the original crypto, and Ethereum. Combined, Ethereum and Bitcoin’s market capitalizations compromise more than 60% of the $1.1 trillion crypto market.
Among the cryptocurrencies that trade today, most hold a small market capitalization. There are only 18 cryptocurrencies with a capitalization greater than $5 billion. Here’s a look at the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins. We’ve excluded stablecoins since these coins are designed to hold a stable price and are not speculative investments like other crypto projects.
1. Bitcoin (BTC)
Market cap: $458.08 billion
Year-to-date return: 43.51%
Bitcoin, which kicked it all off, firmly nails down the No. 1 spot.
On Halloween night of 2008, when most people were dressing up as Heath Ledger’s Joker from “The Dark Knight,” an anonymous author named Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper titled “A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” which would lay the groundwork for Bitcoin.
Launched in January 2009, Bitcoin was the first virtual currency of its kind as an electronic cash system that bypassed financial institutions. The premise of Bitcoin is to exist outside the control of a centralized authority, such as a bank or government. That’s where the notion of decentralized finances, known as DeFi, comes into play.
Few would have predicted what came next. Today, Bitcoin is a legal tender of El Salvador and is held on the balance sheets of public companies, such as Square and MicroStrategy. It has spawned an entire industry with its mighty $460 billion market cap.
2. Ethereum (ETH)
Market cap: $193.00 billion
Year-to-date return: 35.06%
Chat of the “flippening” pops up now and again, referring to fervent supporters of Ethereum predicting that it will “flip” Bitcoin for the biggest market cap among cryptocurrencies.
It hasn’t come to fruition. But Ethereum has long held the No. 2 spot for market capitalization. The platform can be viewed as a developer’s playground, with many other cryptocurrencies and applications, known as dApps, built on top of it.
Some of the most popular activities on Ethereum include DeFi and non-fungible tokens, known as NFTs. NFTs are digital assets representing real-world items like art, in-game features, videos and music, to name just a few.
The Ethereum network went live in July 2015, six years after Bitcoin’s launch, under the helm of Russian-Canadian programmer Vitalik Buterin.
3. Binance Coin (BNB)
Market cap: $48.19 billion
Year-to-date return: 23.73%
Binance Coin was launched by Binance, the world’s most dominant cryptocurrency exchange. According to a report from CryptoCompare, the leading exchange held nearly 70% of the market share among exchanges in December 2022.
BNB can be used for functions within the Binance ecosystem, such as paying trading fees. In line with its parent, its growth has been meteoric. The exchange was only founded in 2017, yet it reportedly handled more than $5 trillion of trading volume in 2022.
Binance has also developed its own blockchain, on top of which other cryptocurrencies can be launched. Blockchain is a technology that works as a ledger, facilitating transactions and tracking assets within a given network. Within this ecosystem, BNB is the native token used to pay transaction fees.
4. XRP (XRP)
Market cap: $19.8 billion
Year-to-date return: 16.4%
XRP is an unusual cryptocurrency developed by the private company Ripple Labs. Ripple aims to create an alternative payment system that emphasizes streamlining money transfers, akin to a revolutionized version of SWIFT. It’s a payment settlement system that can process international transactions, facilitating transactions between fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies.
The native token for this platform is XRP. The token can be used to pay fees on the network. But XRP is “less crypto” than many others on this list, as XRP is significantly more centralized than traditional crypto because of its ties to fiat currencies.
5. Cardano (ADA)
Market cap: $12.93 billion
Year-to-date return: 54.59%
Cardano was co-founded by one of the initial founding members of Ethereum, Charles Hoskinson, after a disagreement over Ethereum’s future direction.
Hoskinson’s solution was to depart the Ethereum project and found his own cryptocurrency with the founding of Cardano.
Up until last year, one of its biggest differences compared to Ethereum, up was ADA’s use of a proof-of-stake validation mechanism.
Proof-of-stake is a more energy-efficient alternative to validate blockchain transactions. In comparison, Bitcoin’s proof-of-work mechanism requires a lot of computing power, highly wasteful for energy usage. However, Ethereum transitioned to a proof-of-stake model in a major system upgrade in September 2022.
6. Polygon (MATIC)
Market cap: $12.11 billion
Year-to-date return: 78.35%
Polygon is a “Layer 2” blockchain built on top of another blockchain, Ethereum.
It was developed as a scaling solution for Ethereum to carry out faster transactions with lower fees than would otherwise be possible on Ethereum, which is notorious for its higher gas fees. On the Ethereum network, blockchain transaction fees are referred to as gas fees.
Bottlenecks and issues with scaling affect many “Layer 1” blockchains. Examples of “Layer 1” blockchains include Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum. Sidechains, or “Layer 2” cryptos, are a popular solution to these problems.
MATIC is Polygon’s token, used for governance and paying fees on the Polygon protocol, among other uses.
7. Dogecoin (DOGE)
Market cap: $11.58 billion
Year-to-date return: 19.96%
Where to start with Dogecoin? It began as a joke based on an Internet meme of a Shiba Inu dog and founder Billy Markus said he made this cryptocurrency “in like two hours.”
Dogecoin is one of the most popular meme coins. But while DOGE, and rival coin Shiba Inu, boast market caps greater than $7 billion, all other meme coins are less than $400 million in capitalization.
Most meme coins present no inherent value and are “typically built off of the backs of existing cryptocurrency technology with very little innovation,” says Alex McCurry, CEO of Solidity, a blockchain solutions company.
DOGE inexplicably caught the attention of the crypto markets during the pandemic, exploding to nearly $90 billion in market cap at its peak in May 2021. Of course, what goes up must come down. But this crypto, which even the founders agree has no value, still has a market cap of many billions, even after crypto’s bear market in 2022.
8. Solana (SOL)
Market cap: $8.94 billion
Year-to-date return: 134.93%
Once dubbed the “Ethereum killer,” Solana has ambitions to topple Ethereum in the world of decentralized finance and smart contract blockchains.
Solana boasts faster speeds, lower fees and increased capability to process more transactions than Ethereum.
It surged to the third biggest cryptocurrency at one point, but Solana’s downfall has been stark, even by cryptocurrency standards. From an all-time high of nearly $260 in November 2021, it was trading at $8 just over a year later.
Repeated outages on the network, some of its biggest projects fleeing from rival blockchains and ties with disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried have left Solana investors hurting.
9. Polkadot (DOT)
Market cap: $8.08 billion
Year-to-date return: 60.61%
Polkadot, the brainchild of Gavin Wood, is a protocol that connects blockchains. It’s often referred to as the “blockchain of blockchains.”
In a world where blockchains sometimes act as walled gardens, Polkadot aims to connect these many protocols.
Going into the technicals in detail would take a full article. The general gist is that if Ethereum is a Layer 1 and Polygon is a Layer 2, then Polkadot is a Layer 0, the foundation layer beneath Layer 1 blockchains.
Polkadot’s native token, DOT, is used mainly for governance and staking. Staking supports the crypto’s validation system for transactions.
10. Shiba Inu (SHIB)
Market cap: $7.44 billion
Year-to-date return: 55.78%
If you thought Dogecoin was ridiculous, Shiba Inu may be a cut above.
We spoke of “Ethereum killers,” but Shiba Inu may be viewed as the “Dogecoin killer.” Launched in August 2020, it was inspired by Dogecoin and features the same Shiba Inu dog as its mascot.
Once upon a time, it briefly overtook its older brother Dogecoin, and traded with a market cap of $43 billion at its peak. Those days are long gone, but the faithful Shiba Inu dog remains as the logo, a constant reminder of the hysterical bull run that was crypto in 2020 and 2021.
*Market caps and year-to-date returns sourced from CoinDesk, current as of 11 a.m. EST on Feb. 22, 2023.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Cryptocurrencies are run on blockchain technology and are open source, meaning the code behind them is fully public and visible to all. Creating a cryptocurrency can be as simple as copying and pasting an existing blockchain or changing the name.
The top cryptocurrencies by market cap are Bitcoin and Ethereum, which have long been entrenched as the No.1 and No. 2 among cryptocurrencies. After that, a collection of cryptocurrencies jostle for position, although the third biggest is stablecoin Tether (USDT).
Investors should remember that cryptocurrencies are extremely speculative and risky investments. 2022’s crypto crash is the most recent and best example of how perilous these investments can be.
You may want to consult a financial advisor if you’re thinking about buying a particular crypto. Given the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies, you should never invest more than you can afford to lose.
