In summary
Bitcoin’s dominance over the past decade: From $6 billion (2016) to $1.85 trillion (2025), Bitcoin maintains its top spot due to its significant influence.
Ethereum and the rise of altcoins: Ethereum holds the No. 2 position, while newer blockchains like Solana and Polkadot replace older altcoins.
Stablecoins thrive: Tether (USDT) reaches the No. 3 spot with a market cap of $137 billion, confirming the strong demand for stability.
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The TOP 10 leading coins in the market over the past 10 years have undergone significant changes. This reflects the constantly changing interests of investors, as well as the continuous movement of the crypto market, which is full of new ideas.
Below are some observations from BeInCrypto about the major changes in the TOP 10 as well as bold predictions from market leaders.
How has the TOP 10 list of leading cryptocurrencies in the market changed?
The recent report “The Year 2024: A Historic Milestone for Cryptocurrency” by Cryptorank listed the TOP 10 leading projects in the market by capitalization from 2016 to the present. During this period, the market capitalization increased from $6 billion to over $3,000 billion, a 500-fold increase after 10 years
Some key observations can be drawn from this statistic:
- Bitcoin always maintains its leading position
- Bitcoin (BTC) has maintained its No. 1 position in terms of market capitalization from 2016 to 2025. This demonstrates Bitcoin’s dominance and importance in the crypto ecosystem.
- Bitcoin’s market cap has increased significantly over the years, from under $6 billion (2016) to $1.85 trillion (2025).
- Ethereum maintains an important role but grows slower than Bitcoin
- Ethereum (ETH) has held steady at the No. 2 position for most of the years, with its market cap growing significantly, from $715 million (2017) to $400 billion (2025).
- Despite not reaching Bitcoin’s market cap, Ethereum has asserted its important role thanks to smart contract applications and has now become the chain that accounts for 77% of tokenized RWA assets.
- The rise and fall of many coins
- Early generation altcoins like Litecoin, Dash, and Monero were once in the TOP 10 (2016-2018) but were gradually replaced by newer altcoins.
- Changing beliefs in Bitcoin-forked coins: Bitcoin forks like Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV once achieved high positions (2018-2020) but gradually dropped in rank, reflecting declining confidence in Bitcoin’s hard forks.
4. Stablecoins assert their importance
- USDT (Tether) emerged in 2020 and has grown continuously, reaching the No. 3 position in 2025 with a market cap of $137 billion. And to date, Tether’s function has expanded beyond the market, becoming the most profitable business in the crypto sector.
- Other stablecoins like USDC have also appeared, demonstrating the ever-increasing demand for using stablecoins in transactions and preserving value.
- Changes following technological trends
- New blockchain platforms such as Solana (2022), Polkadot (2021), and Avalanche (2023) quickly entered the TOP 10 thanks to their high transaction speeds, low fees, and support for DeFi, NFTs, the creation of Meme coins and AI Agents, and the belief of many investors in “technology coins.”
- Solana (SOL) is a special case. Although SOL’s development in 2023 was interrupted to the point of almost seeming “dead,” this ecosystem has made a spectacular comeback and now holds the 5th or 6th position in 2024-2025.
- XRP has maintained its place in the TOP 10 over the years thanks to its role in the field of cross-border payments within institutions. To date, XRP has received more positive projections thanks to the promising legal environment in the US in 2025
6. Changing market position: In the early stages (2016-2018), the market capitalization of the coins in the TOP 10 was still low (only billions of USD). By 2025, the market capitalization of the leading coins had reached hundreds of billions to trillions of USD, demonstrating the strong expansion of the crypto market.
10 Bitcoin price predictions from 10 reputable market leaders
After 10 years, expectations for Bitcoin still haven’t stopped. The latest Bitcoin price predictions from industry experts are still pointing to surprisingly new highs
The above statistics show a clear division in Bitcoin price predictions. Bitcoin price predictions range from $135,000 (Peter Brandt – 2025) to $13 million (Michael Saylor – 2045), reflecting a large difference in perspective and expected timeframe. Overall, the chart shows strong optimism from experts about Bitcoin’s long-term growth potential.
Macroeconomic factors, blockchain technology, and the level of acceptance from the global community will be the factors that determine the reality of these predictions.
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