Where were we one year ago? An analysis of the top 40 cryptocurrencies market share over the last 12 months

Andrea Cardaropoli
Jul 28, 2017 · 4 min read

Are we in a bear market? If you believe so, please zoom out your graphs to the last 12 months, alternatively, just read this article.

We are just few days away from August 1st 2017 which seems to a crucial point (in a positive way, we hope) for the cryptocurrencies market. Bitcoin is scheduled to split generating a second blockchain and a second cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin Cash. We do not know if Bitcoin will be here to stay and its status is beyond the scope of the article.

As expected, market has reacted to the news and since mid June 2017 most of the cryptocurrencies tanked.

A Bitcoin on June 12th 2017 was one cent shy to touch 3000 USD on Gdax, while on the same day Ethereum peaked as high as 420 USD. Ever since, a retreatment has started bringing the price of Bitcoin below 2000 USD and Ethereum one’s below 130 USD on July 16th to then recover in the following days.

Today Bitcoin is at ~90% of the all time high, while Ethereum is at ~48%.

This is what happened in the last two months for the top two players in the market but what’s the story in the last 12 months?
What follows is a brief yet effective analysis on the cryptomarket.

Numbers and graphs shown in the article will put things in perspective for any investor or potential investor.

Most investors very likely do not need any of this as they are well aware of the exponential growth of cryptocurrencies, however for a new investor who may be trapped looking at the last month graphs, this will definitely help.

I have gathered the market cap value for the top 40 currencies (in 2017) from coinmarketcap.com on July 27th 2016 and 2017 at around 10PM UTC. As you can imagine, if you get your values at a different time you will see marginally different numbers, however the final result will be the same.

First and foremost, the market cap for the top 40 cryptocurrencies has increased from from 12.5 billion USD to 83.5 billion USD (still less than Jeff Bezos’ net worth).

That is over 660% increase year on year.

If numbers are not clicking yet, look at the graph below and see the massive increase.

Market Cap Comparison July 2016–2017

As you would expect, the big contributor to the 2017 market cap is Bitcoin with over 42 billion USD. The graph below shows the market share as of 27th July 2017.

Market Share — End July 2017

Bitcoin dominance is clear and its total market share fluctuates between 45% and 60% with the ups and downs of Ethereum (mostly). Having said so, it is very interesting to see a snapshot of the market share 12 months ago.

Market Share — End July 2016

As you can see, in 2016 Bitcoin market dominance was even more prominent. The rise of other cryptos (Ethereum in primis) started the whole flippening discussion in 2017.

How long will Bitcoin hold the leadership? This is a tough question to answer. It looks highly unlikely that Ethereum investors will manage to overtake Bitcoin by the end of 2017 but this market is highly unpredictable and everyone needs to be ready to expect the unexpectable.

Let’s now take a look at the top 10 cryptos in 2017 and their market share comparison between 2016 and 2017.

Market Share Percentage Top 10 Cryptos

Here the rise of Ethereum looks crystal clear, Ripple holds a solid podium place over Litecoin. Bitcoin still manages to have over 50% of the total Market cap.

While gathering numbers and stats, I have noticed that 7 out of the top 40 cryptos were created (or at least they started being traded) between June and July 2017.

IOTA, with almost 800 USD million takes the number 9 spot in the market cap chart, less than two months from its release.

EOS, Qtum and Veritaseum are in the top 20 (ever changing, given the small difference in market caps). Status, OmiseGo and Basic Attention Token are the remaining three in the top 40.

What do these numbers tell us?

Despite the uncertainty surrounding August 1st I believe there is enough room for optimism. Expecting another 660% year on year increase for July 2018 is very optimistic but the trend is definitely positive and hopefully will continue to stay that way.

P.S. I have stakes in some of the cryptocurrencies listed above. Numbers may vary based on daily changes.

Andrea Cardaropoli

Written by

I work with Systems and I love Video and Board Games. Passionate about blockchain tech.

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