Nine years and nine months ago, on May 9, 2013, coinmarketcap.com listed 14 cryptocurrency assets, and the overall bitcoin valuation was $1.24 billion, with 11.13 million bitcoins in circulation at the time. As of today, the same website indicates that there are 22,709 crypto assets. Furthermore, the market capitalization of the crypto economy has grown significantly, increasing by 80,466% since 2013.
The evolution of the crypto economy: from 14 coins to 22,709 coins
Although more than $1.5 trillion has been lost from the crypto economy since its peak in November 2021, its market capitalization has increased by more than 80,466% since 2013. snapshot from coinmarketcap.com (CMC) hosted by archive.org shows that, in 2013, there were 14 coins listed on the website. These include bitcoin, litecoin, peercoin, namecoin, feathercoin, terracoin, devcoin, freicoin, novacoin, chncoin, bbqcoin, mincoin, bitbar, and ixcoin. Together, the value of these crypto assets on May 9, 2013 was just over $1.32 billion.
Of course, many of these coins have been forgotten and a lot of today’s top crypto assets didn’t exist back then, such as ethereum, bnb coin, solana, cardano, tether, usd coin, and avalanche. Stablecoins did not exist at the time and today they represent a value of $137 billion out of the current crypto economy of $1.06 trillion. On May 9, 2013, BTC it was trading for much less than it is today, trading at $111.87 per coin. There were only 11.13 million BTC outstanding compared to 19.30 million today BTC.
In 2013, BTC‘s overall valuation was $1.24 billion, and litecoin’s (LTC) market capitalization was the second largest. At the time, LTCThe market valuation of was around $59.05 million, according to the CMC snapshot. Today, LTCThe market capitalization of is much larger, at $6.79 billion. The market cap of Peercoin (PPC) was $5.23 million and despite being a forgotten coin, the market valuation of PPC is around $13.15 million today. Other coins, like terracoin (TRC), were not so lucky. TRC’s market capitalization in May 2013 was $1.14 million and today it has fallen to $340,296. Also, some coins are so forgotten that they are no longer listed on coin market cap aggregation sites like CMC.
In 2013, there were only a small handful of cryptocurrency exchanges, and some of them were sketchy to say the least. Digital currency wallets were also few and far between, and overall, the infrastructure of the crypto economy nine years ago was a shell of what it is today. 2022 was a difficult year in the cryptocurrency sector and a large number of companies collapsed due to the recession. Despite the crashes and the hundreds of billions that evaporated from the market, it’s a significantly larger forest compared to the tiny patch of trees it once was in 2013. Other than the internet, not many sectors have seen growth. 80.466% in less than a decade.
What do you think the future holds for the crypto economy and how do you see its evolution in the coming years? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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