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From $250 Billion to $2.35 Trillion: A Look at the Top Ten Crypto Market Cap Shifts Over 2 Years

03/09/2021 by Idelto Editor

From $250 Billion to $2.35 Trillion: A Look at the Top Ten Crypto Crypto Market Cap Shifts Over 2 Years

While the crypto economy is worth more than $2.35 trillion, there’s a variety of new cryptocurrencies that have claimed top ten positions, in terms of market capitalization, in recent times. Two years ago, the top ten crypto assets by market cap looked a lot different than today, and things have also changed a great deal in the past 12 months.

The Top Ten Crypto Assets in August 2019

Since the crypto asset’s inception, bitcoin (BTC) has held the largest market valuation out of all the coins in existence and no other digital currency has ever taken the top position. We know the crypto economy is valued at more than $2.3 trillion, and out of the 10,000+ cryptocurrencies, dominance levels are changing. Top ten shifts are happening, and the top ten crypto-asset positions in terms of valuation have changed a great deal last year and the year before.

At the end of August 2019, bitcoin (BTC) held the top position but only had a market valuation of around $181 billion. Today, BTC has an overall market valuation of $929 billion or 413% more than it was in August 2019. That same summer, ethereum (ETH) was the second-largest crypto asset by market cap with just over $20 billion. Today, ETH has an overall valuation of around $443 billion which is a whopping 2,115% increase in two years.

Cryptocurrency market capitalization in August 2019.

In August 2019, XRP held the third-largest crypto valuation with an $11 billion market cap. The market cap has increased by 427% but XRP now holds the sixth-largest position in terms of valuation among the top ten. Bitcoin cash (BCH) was the fourth largest crypto cap in the late summer of 2019 with an overall valuation of $5 billion. Today it is $12.4 billion which is an increase of 148%, but BCH is now in the 15th position in terms of market valuation. Litecoin (LTC) held the fifth biggest market with $4 billion two years ago, but today, LTC is in the 16th position.

Cryptocurrency market capitalization on September 3, 2021. These prices were recorded at 8:30 a.m. (EST) on Friday morning.

Binance coin (BNB) managed to move up from the sixth position that year, as it now holds the fourth largest crypto market valuation today. Tether (USDT) moved up from two years ago when it was in the seventh position and today, USDT is the fifth position. Tether is still the most valuable stablecoin and has been for the last two years in a row. EOS was in the eighth position back in 2019 and today, EOS has slid all the way down to the 35th top position in terms of market cap.

Bitcoinsv (BSV) was in ninth place in 2019 and stellar (XLM) held the tenth position in August the same year. BSV has plummeted to the 52nd position in terms of market cap and XLM is now the 22nd largest crypto asset. BSV had a $2.3 billion market cap back then and it has improved a bit (34.78%) to today’s $3.1 billion. Stellar had a $1.4 billion market valuation while today it is $8.5 billion, gaining 507%.

The Top Ten Crypto Assets in August 2020

In August 2020, things were also different. While BTC and ETH held the first and the second position, XRP was really close to being overtaken by tether (USDT) that year. XRP held the third position with a $12 billion market cap and USDT was around $10 billion in August 2020. At that time, BCH, BSV, LTC, and BNB remained top ten contenders. Meanwhile, Chainlink (LINK) held the fifth-largest market cap with a $5.7 billion valuation. LINK is now the 12th largest coin market cap today with $13.5 billion.

Cryptocurrency market capitalization in August 2020.

Crypto.com (CRO) was in the ninth position in August 2020 with a $3.5 billion market cap and CRO is sitting in the 43rd position today with $4.1 billion. It is interesting to note that all the top ten coins in 2021 have market caps of over $20 billion. While in August 2020, only five coins had market caps over $10 billion, and in 2019 only three coins were over $10 billion. CRO and BSV have seen very little increases in market valuation in two years, while other markets have seen much larger gains.

Moreover, coins like dogecoin (DOGE), solana (SOL), cardano (ADA), polkadot (DOT), and usd coin (USDC) are all newcomers as far as the top ten cryptos are concerned. Solana (SOL) is up more than 19% in 24 hours and recently flipped dogecoin (DOGE) in terms of market cap.

What do you think about the changes in the top ten cryptos during the last two years? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

As Bitcoin Drops in Value, Proof-of-Stake Tokens That Use Less Energy See Double-Digit Gains

15/05/2021 by Idelto Editor

Crypto markets have been very volatile in recent times and a great number of digital assets have dropped more than 30% in value during the last three days. Although, not all the coins in the crypto economy are doing badly, as coins that do not leverage proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithms have actually done well after the recent Tesla controversy. Distributed ledgers that use delegated validation nodes and proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains have made double-digit gains in recent days.

Green Energy Gains: Cardano, Polkadot, and Polygon Shine

As soon as Elon Musk and Tesla sparked the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm controversy, a few blockchains that use less energy and alternative consensus algorithms have seen massive gains. For instance, cardano (ADA) tapped an all-time high at $2.37 per unit on Saturday.

ADA is up a whopping 4,362% against the U.S. dollar during the last 12 months. Seven-day stats show ADA has gained 40% and more than 18% during the last 24 hours. The Cardano network leverages proof-of-stake and the project is backed by the Ethereum cofounder Charles Hoskinson.

Meanwhile, XRP, which also does not use a PoW consensus algorithm, hasn’t gained massive percentages but has remained stable during the downturn. Ripple Labs cofounder Chris Larsen recently explained that BTC would lose its dominance if it didn’t address the energy problems just before Elon Musk stirred the controversy.

Polkadot (DOT) is also a proof-of-stake blockchain and it has remained profitable after Musk’s environmental concern statements. The PoS crypto-asset DOT has seen a 40% gain during the last seven days.

Crypto Industry’s First PoS Coin Comes Back to Life

Stellar (XLM) has done well, polygon (MATIC) is up 25% today, and dogecoin (DOGE) markets held steady because Musk recently said he was working with DOGE developers. The biggest gainers on Saturday include kicktoken (KICK +132%), stakenet (XSN +91%), origin sport (ORS +42%), and peercoin (PPC +40%).

In fact, the Peercoin project is the first PoS blockchain to pioneer distributed ledger systems without using massive energy. The token peercoin (PPC) was invoked in 2012 and the website calls it a “green cryptocurrency for a sustainable future.” For years now PPC floundered as an old and mostly forgotten PoS coin but since the recent concerns over PoW, the Peercoin project has made a strong comeback.

What do you think about all the PoS coins that are seeing gains because they don’t leverage PoW? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Polkadot’s Potential Gathers Momentum as Tether Joins the Ecosystem

06/04/2021 by Idelto Editor

The largest stablecoin by market capitalization will be the first to enter the ecosystem as the Kusama canary network adds support for tether before the eventual deployments to parachains.

Tether Inclusion Complements Polkadot’s Efforts to Attract More Defi Applications

With cryptocurrency once again on the ascent and the aggregated market capitalization nearing $2 trillion, tether (USDT) is increasingly playing an outsized role in many of the ecosystem’s activities.

Since emerging as the stablecoin of choice for many participants and applications alike, Tether’s market capitalization has eclipsed $40 billion, underscoring its large footprint, which outstrips any competing stablecoins by a large margin.

Now, as decentralized finance (defi) applications expand new horizons while hunting for more cost-effective and scalable platforms, support for USDT in the Polkadot ecosystem will grant the stablecoin new avenues for growth.

A Partnership to Catalyze Adoption

Polkadot, which is in the process of rolling out its multi-chain network, has developed a reputation as a potent alternative for Ethereum due to its inherent security and scalability delivered through its unique parachains.

USDT compatibility will ensure that the many new and existing defi applications endeavoring to become parachains will have access to a stablecoin needed to facilitate borrowing and lending protocols, yield farming, and more.

At the outset, USDT will join Kusama, Polkadot’s canary network, which serves as a more flexible testing ground and sandbox for new projects to test features with looser governance. Given Tether’s widespread use, this network’s interoperability will help transfer value across the blockchain universe.

While Polkadot does not seek to displace competing blockchains, the inclusion of USDT will make it possible for users and projects to transition between networks smoothly. Above all, tether will ensure greater stability in planned Polkadot defi projects given its low volatility and ability to preserve value. Moreover, its properties make it an excellent liquidity source, which is paramount for running successful defi protocols.

This new development adds value for both Polkadot and tether by fusing stability with scalability and affordability. Together, these two projects are forging a promising relationship that can overcome many pain points currently hamstringing other networks’ growth.

Will we see a rise in tether’s value as a result of this? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Dubai Based Crypto Investment Fund to Convert $750 Million Worth of BTC Into ADA and DOT Tokens

26/02/2021 by Idelto Editor

A Dubai based crypto-based investment fund, FD7 Ventures says it will offload bitcoins worth $750 million and will use the proceeds to increase positions in Cardano and Polkadot tokens. According to FD7 Ventures, this switch to the two altcoins will help the fund to better serve the interests of investors who are looking to diversify their portfolios.

Altcoins Preferred

In his remarks following this announcement, Prakash Chand, the managing director at FD7 Ventures, touts the potential of the two altcoins while claiming that BTC “is actually pretty useless.” Chand added:

Projects such as Cardano, Polkadot and Ethereum are the foundation of the new internet and Web 3.0.

The managing director adds that after spending time with the founders of both projects, he is “willing to bet that each of Ethereum, Cardano and Polkadot will be more valuable than Bitcoin within the next few years.”

ADA and DOT Surging

Meanwhile, since the start of the new year, both Cardano’s ADA and Polkadot’s DOT have surged with the latter setting a new all-time high (ATH) of over $41 on February 20. However, at the time of writing, DOT, which is the sixth-ranked token according to Messari data, was trading at just over $29. On the other hand, the token’s market cap was just under $27 billion.

In the meantime, the fifth-ranked ADA token surged to its 52 week high of $1.18 on February 25 after starting the same month at $0.175. Since the start of the year 2021, ADA is now up by more than 500% and this growth has seen token move up the crypto market cap rankings. At the time of writing, the ADA token was trading $1.05 translating to a market capitalization of $32 billion.

In the meantime, FD7 Ventures says it expects to complete the conversion of BTC into the two altcoins by mid-to-end of March.

What are your thoughts on FD7 Ventures’ decision to increase its altcoin holdings? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Polkadot Lays Out Its Plans for Parachain Rollout as the Token’s Price Climbs

17/02/2021 by Idelto Editor

The price of Polkadot’s native token hit an all-time high (ATH) this week, soaring above $30, as the company laid out the next steps of its plans and the systems to finalize the network launch.

Polkadot Roadmap Outlines Layer 0 Deployment Initiatives

Polkadot released a roadmap highlighting that it is currently in its Rococo phase, the first of three major phases until the network goes live.

Here is a breakdown of the roadmap.

Rococo Testnet Rollout

Polkadot (DOT) plans to continue with its launch of parachains, also referred to as application-specific data structures. These parachains, just like with parathreads, are what will allow Polkadot to pair with other more established networks, such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, through a mechanism called Cross-Chain Message Passing-lite.

Polkadot is still in the Rococo phase of testing its parachains. Once the code is evaluated and approved, we can expect to see Polkadot submit its vote via onchain governance to power the parachains and slot auctions on Kusama.

Kusama Rollout

The scalable multi-chain network, Kusama, is what Polkadot says will serve as an “additional proving ground” for parachains. It’s effectively a sandbox designed to support further testing and network effects before launching on Polkadot. Its looser parameters allow developers to test new ideas while also helping gain visibility amongst community members.

Enabling parachain functionality will ultimately fall down to a vote by Kusama governance. Should the rollout be approved, non-permissioned candle auctions will be used to allocate 100 parachain slot leases. Polkadot emphasizes that users can expect a new auction “roughly every two weeks,” with more set to come available as each lease expires.

Polkadot Slot Bidding

The slot bidding involved in parachain offerings plays a significant role. Rather than using the initial coin offering (ICO) model, which can be (and was) easily exploited due to the limited terms of proof needed, its parachain offerings incorporate candle auctions alongside a heavy focus on governance.

But these aren’t traditional candle auctions. Rather than taking the typical route of using a random number to determine the duration of its opening phase in bids, Polkadot’s will be retroactively determined, meaning that the bids that have been placed earliest stand the highest probability of success.

Once an auction has ended, Polkadot will deploy the winning parachain to the network at the beginning of its lease period. Parachain slots can be leased in six-month increments for a maximum of two years, after which they’ll go back up for auction.

Although difficult to estimate the costs of running these parachains, given the price, is “purely a function of market supply and demand,” as Polkadot is aiming for a safer and more secure way of bidding with its parachain auctions.

Next Steps

Once auctions have ended and these parachains are live, Polkadot says the network’s launch will be fully complete. While it’s possible to see future upgrades to the network, this scalability will ultimately be in the hands of its community.

What do you think about the Polkadot network and the project’s roadmap? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.