Overall the crypto market along with its economy remained bullish for the entire 12 months of 2021. While there were phenomenal value gains for each and every single cryptocurrency and stablecoin, yet there were subsequent changes in rankings that came after the increase and decrease of the market capitalization of the top ten cryptocurrencies.
At the end of 2020, particularly on 28th December, an entire pack of cryptocurrencies was led by Bitcoin and Ethereum from the front. The situation for the two leaders hasn’t changed at all even to date as both are still the leading cryptocurrencies. Their market caps were however under US$ 490 Billion and US$ 78 billion respectively. Similarly, their values were under US$ 28,000 per BTC and US$ 682 per Ether coin.
As of today, however, Bitcoin has been trading for approximately US$ 50,000 while Ethereum’s value is US$ 3,600 plus. In terms of their respective market caps, Bitcoin is leading the digital economy with US$ 870 Billion plus while Ethereum’s market cap is above US$ 434 Billion. While the status of the leading crypto coins is unchanged but for the rest of the top 20 coins, it was like shuffling of decks.
For instance, on 28th December 2020, the third-place amongst the top 20 lead coins was held by stablecoin Tether i.e. ‘USDT’. However, USDT has come down one position below at number 4 in respect of its market cap. At the end of 2020, Tether’s market cap was over US$ 20 Billion and it was trading hands for US$ 0.998 per unit. Now at the fourth position, Tether is growing with a market cap above US$ 78 Billion with a single-unit price of US$ 1.00.
The third position of Tether in 2020 was snatched by Binance’s native coin BNB who was at number 7 in 2020. In terms of single unit value, however, BNB was already in the lead from Tether with the value of US$ 33.51. Yet in respect of market cap, BNB was lagging behind Tether as at the relevant time BNB’s market cap was US$ 48 Billion.
Another very prominent shuffle that took place between 2020 and 2021 was with regard to XRP losing its third position. As of today, XRP has now moved on to the 7th position amongst the world’s leading crypto coins. However, XRP cannot blame the crypto market conditions for the change. Instead, it was XRP, particularly its dispute with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which forced it to move downwards. As a matter of fact, value gains and an increase in the market cap were both top-notch for XRP during 2020-21.
Similarly, in 2020, the fifth largest crypto asset by market cap was Litecoin (LTC). However, LTC also lost its position which was taken by SOLANA ultimately. As of today, LTC has fallen drastically below at the 17th ranking but it also had some phenomenal gains over the year.
