Cryptocurrencies by Market Capitalization (Top 100)

When someone says cryptocurrency most people directly associate the term with Bitcoin. Yes, BTC is the first cryptocurrency, but it is one part of the whole.

You have probably read about some of the most popular types of alternatives like Litecoin and Ethereum. While Bitcoin is still defined as the flagship cryptocurrency, many new projects have appeared on the market that aim to change the traditional financial system.

In general, cryptocurrencies are becoming an increasingly recognizable form of payment, among other functions. However, anyone who decides to venture into the space and buy crypto should get a closer look at what cryptocurrencies are, what the risks are when using them, and how to protect your investment.

Let's start with an explanation of the term "cryptocurrency".

What is cryptocurrency? 

It is essentially a digital form of currency that is created using encryption algorithms – in other words, cryptocurrencies function both as currency and as a virtual accounting system. 

A defining characteristic of cryptocurrencies is that they are not typically issued by a central authority, making them theoretically impervious to government interference or manipulation.

It is a peer-to-peer system that allows anyone, anywhere to send and receive payments. Rather than being physical money that is carried and exchanged in the real world, cryptocurrency payments exist solely as digital records in an online database detailing specific transactions. When you transfer funds to cryptocurrency, the transactions are recorded in a public ledger. Cryptocurrency is stored in digital wallets.

History of cryptocurrencies

1983: The first electronic money

American cryptographer David Chaum devised a type of cryptographic electronic money called cash, which later, in 1995, applied through DigiCash – an early form of cryptographic electronic payments. 

Digicash required user software to download notes from a bank and specify specific encryption keys before they could be sent to a recipient. This allowed the digital currency to be untraceable by a third party.

1998: The emergence of "b-money"

Computer engineer Wei Dai describes "b-money" – an anonymous, distributed electronic money system, and shortly after Nick Szabo describes bit gold. Like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that will follow it, bit gold (not to be confused with the BitGold exchange, which is based on gold) is described as an electronic currency system that requires users to perform a proof-of-work function with decisions being cryptographically compiled and published.

2009: Genesis of Bitcoin

In January 2009, the pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin. It uses the SHA-256 cryptographic hashing function in its proof-of-work consensus mechanism.

2011: Genesis of the first altcoin

In April 2011 it was created "Namecoin" as an attempt to form a decentralized DNS. In October 2011, Litecoin was released, which used scrypt as the hashing function instead of SHA-256. Established in August 2012, Peercoin uses a hybrid Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS) model.

2010: The first big one "jump"

Bitcoin's first major spike occurred in the summer of 2010. The price rose from fractions of a cent in the spring to $0.09 in July. Very few people, except for very niche tech experts and financial enthusiasts, knew enough about Bitcoin to buy the currency. As of October 2010, the price was around $0.10. 

2011: Bitcoin breaks $1

In April 2011, BTC broke the $1 level for the first time, entering its first mini "bull cycle". Over the next three months, it gained about 3,000% and by June 2011 it peaked between $29 and $32 (depending on the source). By November 2011, the price had bottomed out at $2 again. 

2013: Bitcoin breaks above $1,000 before falling again

Bitcoin started 2013 at just over $13. In the first quarter of the year, it rose to the $30 range, then quickly accelerated its growth in the last week of March. As of April 1st, Bitcoin breaks above $100. Online forums on Reddit have become a hotbed of curious enthusiasts and techies wondering why this new asset class—not tied to any physical commodity—might actually have value.

In November 2013, Bitcoin broke $1,000 – and in December its price dropped dramatically to around $530.

2013: Genesis of Ethereum

In November 2013, Vitalik Buterin published a white paper explaining the concept of Ethereum.

After Buterin's initial work, other great minds stepped in in various capacities to help bring the project to fruition. Vitalik Buterin, Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Amir Chetrit, Anthony DiLorio, Jeffrey Wilke, Joseph Lubin and Mihai Alisi are considered co-founders of Ethereum. 

Ethereum rose to prominence in early 2014 when Buterin brought the concept of the blockchain project into the public domain at a Bitcoin conference in Miami, Florida. 

Later that year, the project raised capital through an initial coin offering (ICO), selling millions of dollars worth of ETH in exchange for funds to use to develop the project. Between July 22 and September 2, 2014, the asset sale sold over $18 million worth of ETH paid in Bitcoin. 

2015: Ethereum begins trading as a currency

Although ETH coins could be purchased in 2014, the Ethereum blockchain didn't actually go live until July 30, 2015, meaning ETH buyers had to wait for the blockchain to launch before they could move or use their ETH. 

2021: Bitcoin becomes legal tender in El Salvador

El Salvador has become the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender after the Legislative Assembly voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill introduced by President Nayib Bukele classifying the cryptocurrency as such.

In August 2021, Cuba followed suit with Resolution 215 to recognize and regulate cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

In September 2021, the Chinese government declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal. This ended the crackdown on cryptocurrencies that had previously banned middlemen and miners from operating in China.

On September 15, 2022, the world's second largest cryptocurrency at the time, Ethereum, switched its consensus mechanism from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS) in an upgrade process also known as “The Merger”. The idea behind this migration is that the Ethereum network's energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions will drop by 99.9%.

In January 2015, Bitcoin bottomed around $170.

2014: Collapse after the hack of Mt. Gox

The long crypto winter of 2014 is associated with the hack of the crypto exchange Mt. Gox, which in early February 2014 stopped all BTC withdrawals. The platform then suspended all trading and eventually filed for bankruptcy in Tokyo and the United States.

The general sentiment surrounding Bitcoin was mostly negative until August 2015, when a long-term trend reversal began. Amid a strong bull market, Bitcoin eventually returned to the $1,000 price mark in January 2017. 

2017: The first serious bull market

After recovering to $1,000 in January 2017, Bitcoin continued its ascent to $20,000 by the end of that year.

However, similar to Bitcoin's previous all-time high of $1,000, the asset failed to hold on to that value for long, losing more than 60% of its value in a few months.

2018: The First Serious Crypto Winter

2018 was dubbed the “crypto winter” as the Bitcoin market continued to contract, with BTC hitting a low of around $2018 in December 3,200.

Bearish sentiment dominated the crypto market until 2020,

2021: Record year for Bitcoin

In 2021, Bitcoin not only returned to the $20,000 level, but also reached a new high of over $63,000 in April 2021. 

Although 2021 turned out to be one of the biggest years for Bitcoin since the cryptocurrency passed the $1 trillion market cap, Bitcoin went through a lot of difficulties.

Shortly after hitting new all-time highs in mid-April, Bitcoin retreated slightly, eventually falling to just $29,000 in three months.

The “mini” bear market of 2021 came amid a media-promoted scenario suggesting that Bitcoin mining has an environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) problem.

The bear market did not last long, although China began a serious crackdown on local mining farms. The bullish trend returned towards the end of July, with Bitcoin eventually climbing to its all-time high of $68,000 – reached in November 2021.

Bitcoin failed to break $70,000 and began to decline in late 2021. From November 2021, the cryptocurrency entered a bear market, and in 2022 it registered one of its biggest historical crashes.

In June, the cryptocurrency crashed below $20,000 for the first time since 2020, fueling extreme fear in the market.

Bitcoin and the beginning of the new financial status quo

Bitcoin (BTC) is a type of digital money that can be stored, exchanged and used for payments. 

Cryptocurrency was invented in 2008 by an anonymous person or group of people going by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. The currency was launched in 2009 as an open source software.

What makes Bitcoin different from national currencies such as the Euro, the US Dollar or the Japanese Yen lies in its decentralized structure and the model on which it operates.

At the centralized ones "fiat money" currency is issued by central banks, and citizens must use their country's money. Except for cash, transactions are done through intermediaries such as banks and payment processors.

Transactions with the currency are verified by network nodes using cryptography and recorded in a distributed public ledger called the blockchain. 

A blockchain is a linked array of data made up of units called blocks. They contain information about each transaction, including details such as buyer and seller, time and date, total value and a unique identification code for each transfer. 

The records are linked in chronological order, forming a digital chain of blocks. When a block is uploaded to the blockchain, it becomes available to anyone who views it, thus acting as a public record of Bitcoin transactions.

What is an altcoin and what is its function?

Altcoins are all cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin.

The majority of altcoins are forks (or forks) of Bitcoin in most cases with minimal changes.

Many people prefer the term "shitcoin" to clearly distinguish all these altcoins from Bitcoin. This term was even used in the US Congress in 2019.

Altcoins attempt to improve upon the perceived limitations of the cryptocurrency and blockchain they are forked from or compete with. 

The first altcoin, as already mentioned, was Litecoin (LTC), which forked from the Bitcoin blockchain in 2011. 

Ethereum is another altcoin that, however, has not branched off from the Bitcoin network. It was developed to support the world's largest scalable blockchain-based virtual machine. 

Types of altcoins

Since altcoins fall into different categories, here is a quick summary of some of the types and what they are for. 

Payment token

As the name suggests, payment tokens are intended to be used as a currency to exchange value between parties. Bitcoin is the primary example of a payment token.

Stable coins

The trading and use of cryptocurrencies have been marked by volatility since their inception. Stablecoins aim to reduce this overall volatility by tying their value to a basket of commodities, such as fiat currencies, precious metals or other cryptocurrencies. The basket is meant to act as a backup should the cryptocurrency fail or run into problems. Price fluctuations in stablecoins should not exceed a very narrow range.

Notable stablecoins include Tether (USDT), MakerDAO (DAI), Binance USD (BUSD), and USD Coin (USDC). 

Security Tokens

Security tokens are tokenized assets offered on stock markets. Tokenization is the transfer of value from an asset into a token, which is then provided to investors. Any asset can be tokenized, for example real estate or stocks. Tokens, which are treated and function as securities, are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In 2021, Exodus successfully completed an SEC-qualified token offering that allowed 75 million common shares to be converted into tokens on the Algorand blockchain.

This was a historic event as it represented the first security-based digital asset to offer shares of an issuer based in the United States.

Functional (utility) tokens

Utility tokens are used to provide services within a given network. For example, they can be used to purchase services, pay network fees or redeem rewards. Filecoin (FIL), which is used to purchase storage space on the web and to protect information, is an example of such a token.

Ethereum (ETH) also falls into this category. It is designed to be used on the Ethereum blockchain and virtual machine to pay for transactions. 

Utility tokens can be bought on exchanges and held, but they are meant to be used on the blockchain network to keep it running.

Meme tokens

As their name suggests, meme tokens were originally created as a mockery of classic cryptocurrencies. They usually gain popularity in a short period of time with the help of famous influencers or investors who try to take advantage of short-term profits.

Many are calling the surge in the price of this type of altcoin in April and May 2021 the “meme token season” as hundreds of these cryptocurrencies saw huge percentage gains based on pure speculation.

Examples of meme tokens are Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB).

Management Tokens

Governance tokens allow their holders certain rights within the blockchain, such as voting on protocol changes or having a say in the decision-making of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Because they are usually native to a private blockchain and used for network purposes, they are utility tokens, but because of their purpose they are accepted as a separate species.

How is the price of a cryptocurrency determined?

Cryptocurrencies are a tradable asset, just like stocks, commodities, securities, etc. Their price is determined by how much the market is interested in buying them - this is called demand - and what quantity is available for purchase - this is supply. The relationship between them determines the price.

If there is significant demand for a coin, but the currently available supply is limited, then the price increases. Coin demand sometimes rises regardless of the currency's true value - this is called overbought. Alternatively, if a significant amount of a coin is sold for no good reason, it is described as oversold.

CRYPTOCURRENCY PRICE KEY ELEMENTS

• Price is determined by the relationship between supply and demand.
• The total amount of most cryptocurrencies is limited by the maximum supply.
• Overbought coins are in high demand and usually expensive.
• Oversold coins are in high supply and are usually underpriced.

Demand and supply of cryptocurrencies

The law of supply and demand is an economic theory that determines the relationship between the supply of a particular good or service and its demand to see what effect this has on its price. The theory describes the fluctuations in the price of anything that can be exchanged in the market.

If a coin is in short supply or if its demand is high, the situation causes the price to rise. Those wishing to buy it are ready to compete by offering higher and higher prices. Conversely, if a cryptocurrency is abundant and demand is low, prices fall.

In general, the law of supply and demand states that if demand for something rises, suppliers will produce more of it. Manufacturers are willing to expand their production to sell larger quantities, with the intention of profiting from more sales. But this is impossible when it comes to most cryptocurrencies, for two simple reasons: they are limited by the maximum supply and they are distributed.

The maximum supply determines the total amount of any particular cryptocurrency that will ever exist. When it comes to Bitcoin (BTC), the asset is limited to 21 million coins. But couldn't someone just change the protocol to put more coins into circulation? The answer is "no". In a distributed network, a person who wanted to abuse the system by spending double the coins simply could not do so unless they were willing to spend much more money than they would earn.

How do you know if a cryptocurrency is a good investment?

With over 20,000 cryptocurrencies listed on the market, one would wonder which of the projects in question are legitimate and which could turn out to be a scam? However, the space is not regulated to such an extent that investors' funds are protected - unlike the stock market.

The only security that the investor receives is that of the due diligence of the project in which he is interested.

Always one who has in-depth knowledge of any cryptocurrency has a better chance of profiting from its trading. First and foremost, everyone should ask themselves the following questions before committing to an investment:

•  How does the project plan to solve the given problem?
• Who is behind the project? Does he have the necessary knowledge and experience to solve the problem effectively?
• Is the technology behind the project secure?

These questions can provide initial guidance for anyone unfamiliar with the space and help them choose an investment. What determines whether a project is worth considering is:

The team

The experience and confidence instilled in the team behind a project can play a significant role in its success or failure. 

If the team is not open with the work processes, this is a serious cause for concern (Bitcoin is an exception). You'll also want to look at the team's past experience in the crypto space and other projects they've worked on. For example, you will want to know if this is their first project or if they have a solid history of developing successful crypto projects. Also, look at the team leaders. Projects with reputable executives or partnerships with established firms are also a positive sign.

White Paper and Roadmap

A critical component of assessing the long-term value of a given coin or token for any investor is the project's white paper and roadmap. A solid crypto project will have a strong and well-defined white paper and roadmap. A white paper is a document prepared and published by a crypto project that gives you technical information about its concept to help you determine if it has any merit, while a roadmap helps set expectations for how the crypto project plans to grow and develop in hopes of success and adoption. 

In the roadmap, you want to see a general timeline detailing the progress of the project. If the project doesn't have a clear vision with a white paper and a roadmap, you have to question its future success and value.

The big investors

Find out if the project already has investors, and if so, who they are. A good sign is if well-known investment companies or large investors have already invested in the project. This means they have done their due diligence and believe in the long-term viability of the project. 

Developer activity

A growing user base isn't the only thing that increases the value of a network: developer activity is also important. And since crypto projects are open source, the level of developer activity can be seen by the number of new "commits" for code to a project on GitHub.

Social engagement

Check out the crypto project's website and its social media channels to get an idea of ​​how socially active the project is, the team behind it, and of course its community. The project website should be easy to navigate, functional, and openly share details about the project, the team behind it, and its white paper and roadmap. 

Built and active community

Usually, the community that supports the project can do so to spoil the potential of a cryptocurrency. Enthusiasm and community size play a large role in initial and continued success, although you should be careful with this factor when evaluating a coin. 

Sometimes the hype can exceed and even obscure the actual utility or value of the project, which is why you shouldn't invest in a coin or token based on hype alone – instead, you should take the time to familiarize yourself with all of the above factors before betting too much on its community. 

Although subjective, your goal is to reach an opinion on whether the asset is overvalued or undervalued. Keeping these things in mind will guide your selection of potential coins to invest in. Once you've mastered the basics, you can use more technical indicators and metrics as a supplement to make informed investment decisions.

Cryptocurrency prices and charts

One of the basic skills that every cryptocurrency trader should acquire is to read charts of crypto tokens.

There are many methods you can use to research an asset you are interested in trading. But two of the main strategies that investors use are called technical analysis (TA) and fundamental analysis (FA). 

To begin with, technical analysis focuses on the historical market performance of an asset by examining price over time and trading volume. This way you can get an idea of ​​how the market sees the asset. Is it rising or falling? Are people putting money into it or withdrawing it? Is it traded in large quantities? These are the questions that technical analysis can answer.  

Fundamental analysis, on the other hand, involves looking at the "fundamentals" of the asset - it's more of a broader perspective approach. It includes information such as cryptocurrency finance, user community, and potential real-world applications.

Although technical analysis may seem like a complicated subject at first, don't be intimidated by the term. As already mentioned, TA uses information that is determined by the market as well as other market technical indicators to inform the trader about the best available opportunities to trade an asset. 

In the "Cryptocurrencies" section, you can see a price chart for all major cryptocurrencies, as well as detailed information about the asset.

Here you can see a constantly updated price chart for each specific trading pair. Most often, the trading pair is set by default as USD/the cryptocurrency you are viewing. 

The information provided in the chart in question shows the key data points that form the basis of the numerous indicators you can use to trade cryptocurrencies.

The indicators you should pay attention to are:

• Trading Pair: This shows the base currency and the quote currency that are used in that particular market.
• Current Price: This part shows the prevailing price of the base currency that is being bought or sold against the quote currency. There are also indicators that show how much the price has risen compared to 24 hours ago. These indicators change rapidly depending on how active a market is.
• High/Low: These numbers show the highest and lowest price of an asset over a 24-hour period. 
• 24-hour volume: This indicator shows how much of a particular asset has been traded in the last 24 hours. This volume is expressed in the form of the quote currency.
• Time Unit: You can choose the time intervals you want to be reflected in the trading market. Increments can vary from one minute to one month. 
• Price Chart: This chart visualizes the rise and fall of the currency's price over a period of time. In the cryptocurrency markets, the price movement for a specific unit of time is usually shown by a candlestick. The range of candles on the chart would show the overall recent price trend for an asset. You can set a time frame from 24 hours to months and years.
• Trading Volume: Below the main chart where price action is shown is a smaller trading volume chart, with individual bars showing the trading volume of an asset corresponding to the candle shown. Longer “bars” indicate larger trading volumes compared to other time periods. Typically, a green bar indicates an increase in price and a red candle indicates a decrease in price, although you can edit this color to your preference.

But perhaps the most important part of this chart is the candles that make up the price chart.  

The candlestick is the main price indicator in most cryptocurrency charts. Each candle represents the price action within one unit of time (eg 30 minutes).

A candle consists of two main bars: a body (the thicker part), which shows the opening and closing prices of an asset, and a wick (the thinner part), which shows the highest and lowest price points. 

On most cryptocurrency charts, a green candlestick indicates an increase in price, while a red candlestick indicates a decrease in price.

Cryptocurrency Trading Risks

Of course, cryptocurrency trading carries its own risks due to the highly volatile nature of the market. Before an investor ventures into the space, he must be fully aware of the risks, both of the project he is targeting and of the space as a whole.

Volatility: Unexpected changes in market sentiment can lead to sharp and sudden price movements. It is not uncommon for cryptocurrencies to quickly drop in value by hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

Lack of regulation: Cryptocurrencies are currently unregulated by both governments and central banks. Recently, however, they have begun to attract more attention. For example, there are questions about whether they should be classified as a commodity or as a virtual currency.

Losing keys: Cryptocurrencies may not have the risks associated with using central intermediaries, but that doesn't mean they're completely free of security issues. As a cryptocurrency owner, you may lose the private key that allows you to access your coins, and with it, all your funds. You also have hacking attacks, phishing scams and all other attempts to gain control through malicious means. This is something experienced investors watch out for, but newer investors are more likely to be vulnerable to these types of pitfalls.

Cryptocurrency trading fees

There are three important factors that traders should consider when thinking about buying or selling cryptocurrencies on an exchange:

• Fee Schedules: You may encounter transfer fees (to transfer funds to and from your bank account), mining fees, account maintenance fees, spot fees and multi-level transaction fees
• Location: Many exchanges are unregulated, and some are only available to those who live in certain geographic areas
• Availability: Not all cryptocurrencies are available on every exchange

The most popular charging scheme used by cryptocurrency exchanges uses the tiered model of “market makers” and “market takers”. It uses trading volume to create levels and charges “maker” and “taker” fees based on your trading volume.

A market maker is a party that makes a market on an exchange by selling a cryptocurrency, and a market taker is a party that takes it off the market by buying it. Each party pays fees for the transaction, but makers usually pay less.

Cryptocurrency exchange fee rates are designed to encourage frequent trading with large amounts of thousands of dollars worth of transactions. Fees often decrease as a trader's 30-day cumulative trading volume increases.

Conclusion

Cryptocurrencies are becoming more and more popular and in order to keep up with the trends, one needs to keep an eye on the space on a daily basis. Be it mainstream news or cryptocurrency prices – everything can be found on the CryptoDnes site.

Here you can find all the information you need before you start trading cryptocurrencies. Every investor can benefit from data on cryptocurrency prices, trading volumes, detailed information about tokens, trading volume, total market supply and price charts. All this is available to absolutely everyone, completely free of charge.

We offer access to real-time information that is easy to digest, as well as the most convenient user experience possible. Immerse yourself in the digital space with the CryptoDnes platform and start your journey in the world of cryptocurrencies.