The hype around cryptocurrency may have subsided, but the market is still more active than ever. Bitcoin has been leading the pack, but it’s not the only one – there are now numerous cryptocurrencies that have been created and developed over the years. According to Coinmarketcap, there are currently over 2,000 different coins in existence.
Of course, with so many options on offer, it’s hard for anyone to truly keep up with all of them. That’s why we’ve been keeping tabs on which ones are trending, as well as which ones have a chance of maintaining their current value or even increasing it.
This list is based on data from https://coinmarketcap.com/ and considers market capitalization along with various other metrics. It also includes some of the more recent coins that have taken off in late 2017 and 2018 such as EOS and Cardano (ADA), along with more established currencies like Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
The graph below shows the top performing cryptocurrencies with market cap above $10 million. Since the bottom in February 2018, this group of coins has been outperforming bitcoin by a significant margin.
The percentage gain since the bottom shows how much money could have been made if someone had bought at the low and sold at today’s price. The next column shows the average percentage gain of all large-cap coins during that same time frame. The difference between these two columns is the relative performance of each coin over the past year.
Large-cap cryptocurrency relative performance
The results show that XRP has performed the best of any large-cap coin over the past year. It’s also important to note that IOTA has been a laggard in terms of price performance which is concerning when you consider it’s one of the most hyped projects in crypto. IOTA has a lot of well known partnerships but their Tangle protocol has not been peer reviewed and a lot of other projects have gone away from DAG based protocols because they don’t scale well and are vulnerable to attacks like 32% attack.
Here is how each coin did since its all-time high:
Largest market cap cryptocurrencies since all-time highs
Not surprisingly, bitcoin performed better than
The world of cryptocurrency is full of highs and lows. The markets are always changing and there is always something new to learn. Cryptocurrencies can fluctuate hundreds of dollars in just a few minutes. It is not uncommon for a coin to lose or gain 20% in a single day.
If you are new to the space, this can be incredibly stressful and confusing. You may not know what is happening and why. Moreover, you may be tempted to panic sell and end up losing out on gains.
Luckily, we here at CoinMarketCap have compiled some useful information for you! This page will help you understand the best times to buy your favorite cryptocurrencies; as well as when it’s best to sell them.
This page also has a nifty chart that shows the percentage of coins that are experiencing a rise or fall in price. It also shows what percentage of coins have no change in price at all.
Bitcoin is the most recognized cryptocurrency around. It was the first of its kind and has maintained a strong position since its launch in 2009, even despite recent dips in value. Ethereum and Ripple are two other well-known cryptocurrencies, with Ripple being less valuable than Ethereum and Bitcoin.
Ripple is the third largest cryptocurrency by market cap and saw huge gains in 2017. However, it’s seen a sharp drop off since January 2018. Litecoin, meanwhile, was created by former Google employee and ex-Director of Engineering at Coinbase, Charlie Lee. Like Bitcoin, Litecoin also uses blockchain technology but has some technical differences to Bitcoin such as quicker processing times and lower transaction fees.
Launched in 2011 and currently boasting a market cap of $17 billion, Dash is another strong contender for top spot within the crypto space thanks to its security features which include an optional privacy element that allows users to protect their transactions if they wish.
Monero is a privacy-focused coin which currently sits around the top 10 of cryptocurrencies by market cap. It differs from previous cryptocurrencies in that it allows users to make completely anonymous transactions on its blockchain while still keeping it completely decentralised with mining operations spread out across the globe. In this way it can be seen as similar to Zcash but
Bitcoin has been the best investment asset of the last 5 years, but that doesn’t mean that it will continue to be in the future. Just like any other asset, it is subject to the forces of supply and demand.
There are several factors which influence the price of Bitcoin. These include:
– The overall health of the cryptocurrency market. If this is weak then we can expect Bitcoin to follow suit.
– The number of Bitcoins in circulation, vs the total number that can ever be mined. As more coins are mined, there are less left for new buyers and with a limited supply, prices go up.
– The amount of mainstream interest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. How many people are talking about it? How many people are using it? How much media coverage does it have? When people think it’s going to go up in value they buy more and when they think it’s going down they sell some (or all). This is called crowd psychology and can have a powerful effect on price changes.
– Publicity, both good and bad – Positive publicity tends to make people buy more Bitcoin while negative publicity (hacking incidents and so on) tends to make them sell, at least in the short term (as we saw
Cryptocurrencies have garnered the attention of the entire world. In 2017 the cryptocurrency market cap skyrocketed to $600 billion, and the price of 1 bitcoin surpassed $20k. Amidst all this buzz, one question remains unanswered: what exactly is a cryptocurrency?
A cryptocurrency is a medium of exchange like normal currencies such as USD, euros, CNY Chinese yuan, but designed for the purpose of exchanging digital information through a process made possible by certain principles of cryptography. Cryptography is used to secure the transactions and to control the creation of new coins. The first cryptocurrency to be created was Bitcoin back in 2009. Today there are hundreds of other cryptocurrencies, often referred to as Altcoins.