Based on the information published by Augusta Free Press, the total number of cryptocurrencies increased from 6,000 in July 2021 to about 10,400 in February 2022. However, by August 2022, that number had dropped to about 10,000.
Before surpassing the 10,000 mark, the total number of cryptocurrencies – based on the research by Statista and Investing.com – rose from 66 in 2013 to over 4,500 in 2020. According to the study, the number of digital currencies has doubled between 2021 and 2022.
Augusta Free Press commented on the rapid growth in the number of cryptocurrencies in its report: “In the first half of 2021 only, 1,500 new digital coins entered the market, with their number rising to over 6,000 in July. At the end of last year [2021], the market was adding about 1,000 new cryptocurrencies each month, with their total number reaching 9,900 in January 2022.”
Five cryptocurrencies account for over 75% of market capitalization
In spite of this rapid increase in the number of cryptocurrencies, just five of them account for over 75% of the total market cap of the crypto industry. At the time this article was written, bitcoin, which approached $70,000 in November 2021, was trading at just below $20,000 and had a market cap of over $381 billion.
Ethereum, the second highest ranked cryptocurrency by market cap, corresponds to about 20% of total capitalization. The top five cryptocurrencies in the chart also include stable coins Tether and USDC, as well as BNB. It means that about 10,000 of the remaining coins account for only 24% of total market cap.
Although the report prepared by Augusta Free Press seems to indicate that cryptocurrencies will not exceed the 10,000 mark until 2022, cryptocurrency market cap aggregator coinmarketcap.com has 20,797 coins listed, and coingecko.com has 12,892.
What is market capitalization
This concept came to the crypto industry from the stock market. For cryptocurrencies, the calculation of this indicator is very simple: you should multiply the total number of coins issued by their current value. Capitalization allows you to see the total value of the entire network.
Due to the high volatility, the indicator varies greatly, but the overall prevalence of a particular digital currency remains constant. The undoubted leaders are bitcoin and ether. The total capitalization of all digital assets makes it possible to evaluate the cryptocurrency market as a whole.
According to coinmarketcap, it is currently worth $970,851,364,075,246 and bitcoin’s capitalization is $381,178,637,512, which is two-fifths of the total market.
