Crypto Economy grew 80,466% in the past decade

The crypto economy has come a long way since 2013. Back then, coinmarketcap.com recorded only 14 cryptocurrency assets, and bitcoin’s overall valuation was a mere $1.24 billion, with 11.13 million bitcoins in circulation. However, as of today, the same website shows that there are 22,709 crypto assets. Additionally, the market capitalization of the crypto economy has grown significantly, increasing by 80,466% since 2013.

While the crypto economy has experienced a difficult year in 2022, with over $1.5 trillion lost since its peak in November, its market capitalization has still increased significantly. A snapshot of coinmarketcap.com (CMC) hosted on archive.org shows that, in 2013, there were only 14 coins listed on the website. These included bitcoin, litecoin, peercoin, namecoin, and feathercoin, among others. Together, the value of these crypto assets was just over $1.32 billion.

However, many of these coins have been forgotten, and many of today’s top crypto assets did not exist back then. Ethereum, BNB coin, Solana, Cardano, Tether, USD coin, and Avalanche are just some of the crypto assets that have since emerged. Stablecoins, which did not exist in 2013, now represent $137 billion in value out of the current $1.06 trillion crypto economy. Moreover, BTC’s overall valuation was $1.24 billion in 2013, and litecoin’s (LTC) market capitalization was the second-largest. LTC’s market valuation was around $59.05 million at the time. Today, LTC’s market cap is much larger, at $6.79 billion.

The crypto economy has grown significantly in terms of infrastructure as well. In 2013, there were only a small handful of crypto exchanges, and digital currency wallets were few and far between. However, today, the crypto economy’s infrastructure is much more robust, and many well-regulated exchanges and wallets exist. Despite the downturn in 2022, the crypto economy’s growth is impressive, and it remains a significantly larger forest compared to the small patch of trees it once was in 2013. Besides the internet itself, not many sectors have seen 80,466% growth in less than a decade.