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The way capitalization of cryptocurrency market has been changing

21 March 2018 21:00, UTC

Margareth Nail

In comparison to April 2013, the total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency increased more than 220 times. While the total cost of all altcoins reached a record: it increased more than 2000 times. Bitnewstoday analyses the dynamics of the capitalization of cryptocurrency market.

At the moment, all cryptocurrencies and tokens are estimated at $353 billion on crypto exchanges. Let’s note, that in April 2013 this figure was only $1.6 billion.

In November 2013, the capitalization of cryptocurrency market increased significantly to $15.9 billion, more than 95% of which was the aggregate value of all bitcoins, 1.87% belonged to Ripple coins. Then quotation price adjustment followed, and by mid-January 2015, the cost of сryptocoins fell to $3 billion.

In October 2015, the market slowly rebounded, and capitalization began to grow. By early 2017, coins cost more than $17 billion.

Picture 1. Dynamics of cryptocurrency market capitalization in 2013-2016
Source: coinmarketcap.com

2017 and early 2018 became the "golden age" for the crypto market. During this period, the crypto sphere could attract the attention of the public, and now new coins and tokens appear at breakneck speed.

In 2017, the capitalization of cryptocurrency increased 32-fold — from $17.9 billion to $596.1 billion. On January 7, 2018, the total value of digital money reached its historic high of $828 billion. However, after taking the highest peak, a correction followed, and it continues to this day.

Picture 2. Dynamics of cryptocurrency market capitalization in 2017 - early 2018
Source: coinmarketcap.com

Capitalization of all altcoins in 2017 increased 148 times: from $2.4 billion to $355 billion. The indicator peaked in early January — $540 billion. Such growth can be explained, firstly, by an increase in the number of new coins and tokens, and secondly, by an increase in the cost of altcoins.

During 2017, the share of Bitcoin in the total volume of capitalization was reduced by strengthening the positions of large altcoins. This way, if at the beginning of last year, the share of BTC coins accounted for 87.15% of the total value of cryptocurrency, then only 43.70% of the market is accounted for Bitcoin now. Note that in early 2018, the share of BTC in the capitalization of coins fell below 33%.

Etherium increased its market share from 4% to 16% in 2017 - early 2018. The share of Ripple rose from 1.37% to 7.89%.

Will the capitalization of the cryptocurrency market exceed the mark of at least $500 billion again? It is difficult to say because everything depends on the dynamics of Bitcoin, which affects the price of all altcoins, as well as the increase in the number of currencies and their consumers.