Ten years of growth, change, progress and retreat

While some digital assets have stood the test of time, others have fallen short of the thousands of new digital currencies available today.

Bitcoin price on Christmas Day

2023: $43,2542022: $16,8492021: $50,8882020: $23,7602019: $7,2662018: $4,0212017: $14,30222016: $16,8492021: $50,8882020: $23,7602019 : $7,2662018 : $4,0212017 : $14,30222016: $14,30222016: $89442015 $19442015

— CoinGecko (@coingecko) December 25, 2023

On December 28, the total market capitalization of the crypto space stood at around 1.77 trillion dollars, Bitcoin (BTC) still leads the charge with 842 million dollars. Next are market leaders such as Ether (ETH), BNB (BNB) and Solana (SOL), as well as stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC).

Projects like XRP (XRP), Cardano (ADA) and Avalanche (AVAX) are among the top ten digital assets by market cap and have proven their resilience over the years. In addition, Lido Staked Ether (stETH), which represents ETH stored in the liquid stake protocol Lido and combines the value of the initial deposit and stake rewards, is also in the top ten.

On December 28, 2013, the top ten tokens by market capitalization looked very different compared to today. A snapshot from coin data tracker CoinMarketCap showed that the total market cap of crypto was around $12 billion. BTC traded at $726.89, with a total market value of $8.8 billion. This means that the digital asset has grown almost 100 times since then.

Related: ‘Revenge of ETH' – Will Ethereum's 9% Start Something Big?

Ripple, another token that ruled the charts a decade ago, is now known as XRP. Ten years ago, the token followed BTC, taking the number two position in market capitalization. The token traded at $0.027 with a market value of $2.6 billion. The next token was Litecoin (LTC), which at the time was $22.66 and had a market value of $550 million. Both coins have appreciated in value and are still some of the most traded tokens today.

While the top three tokens are growing in value and total value, the same cannot be said for the rest of the list. MasterCoin, now known as Omni, was in the previous four, with a market cap of around $100 million. Today, the token is ranked 2337 by CoinGecko, with a total value of 1 million dollars.

Ten years ago, the top five to ten tokens, crypto assets have dropped in the thousands or been completely deleted from coin tracking websites. In the rankings, a token with the same name as Sam Altman's WorldCoin (WLD) appeared, but had a different symbol, WDC. The token has nothing to do with today's popular Eye Scan crypto project.

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