According to CoinMarketCap, since the beginning of 2017, the overall market cap of 699 cryptocurrencies has risen by 53%, from $17.7 billion to $27.144 billion. Comparing with the last year’s figures, the growth is more than threefold, from $8.184 billion as of 5 April 2016.
Altcoins demonstrated the most aggressive year-to-date growth with total market capitalisation having jumped 4 times, from $2.188 billion to $8.785 billion. This dynamic is unique for 2017, whereas from April to December 2016 altcoins’ total cap rose only by one-third.
In 2017, Ethereum exchange rate has risen almost six times from $7.98 to $46.65 per token. Ripple’s price has also jumped nearly six times, from $0.006523 to $0.037736. Dash has grown 621%, from $11.18 to $69.39, while litecoin added almost 100%, from $4.33 to $8.39.
Meanwhile, bitcoin share in the world’s cryptocurrency capitalisation has been going down. As of now, the cryptocurrency accounts for 67.64% of the total capitalisation, comparing to 87.56% in January 2017.
In general, five cryptocurrencies account for more than 91% of the total market cap: bitcoin, ether, ripple, dash and litecoin, with only three of them (bitcoin, ether and ripple) having capitalisation higher than $1 billion.
Source: coinfox.info