Introduction
Market capitalization is estimated for publicly traded companies in general to determine the value of that company. The value is calculated based on the total number of outstanding shares in the market multiplied by the individual share price. In simple words, the market cap is nothing but the market value of a publicly trading company.
Initial Public Offering (IPO)
Initial Public Offering or IPO’s are widely known. Companys which issue IPOs are publicly trading companies willing to raise capital for investing in the business to diversify and expand the company. When a company issues IPO, it agrees to sell a certain stake of the company to the public to raise the company. There are many successful IPO’s since 1602, when the first-ever IPO was recorded. Global companies like Amazon and Apple crossed one trillion-dollar in market cap, making them powerful than some smaller countries.
Initial Coin Offering (ICO)
Similar to IPOs, we have ICOs called Initial Coin offering with regards to cryptocurrencies. ICOs help crypto companies to raise funds that will be invested in creating a new coin, service, or dApps. These companies generally release a white paper detailing the aim of the ICO, minimum capital they intend to raise, and the basic design and properties of the product they are trying to create. Many investors plan to invest in ICOs to make quick bucks and earn tremendous profits. The result of some of the prominent ICOs promises the same.
Hence, the market cap of a cryptocurrency is determined by the number of outstanding coins in the market multiplied by the individual value of a coin.
Now, let’s look at the top 10 cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization.
- Bitcoin (Market Cap – $146.1 BN)
Bitcoin is the first-ever cryptocurrency, and it is obvious that this crypto tops the list in terms of market cap. The market cap of Bitcoin is $146,141,293,771, with the total number of coins in circulation being almost 18 million. As we all know, only 21 million Bitcoins can ever be mined.
- Ethereum (Market Cap – $19.1 BN)
Ethereum rightly earned its second place as it was developed to overcome the limitations of bitcoin, and it has become the second favorite amongst the investors. The market cap of Ethereum is around $19,191,075,792 with 108,182,195 coins in circulation.
- Ripple (Market Cap – $12.8 BN)
Ripples XRP takes third place with $12,833,995,058 as a market cap. The total number of coins in circulation is around 43,166,787,298. This crypto earned its credibility by gaining support from some of the most powerful centralized institutions like Federal Reserva.
- Tether (Market Cap – $4.1 BN)
Tether has been developed to be a stable coin, i.e., the price will always be maintained as one dollar. This coin has been developed to have the stability of fiat currency while having the key properties of cryptocurrency. The market cap of Tether is $4,121,497,986, with 4,108,044,456 coins being circulated in the market.
- Bitcoin Cash (Market Cap – $3.9 BN)
Bitcoin cash is created by forking the main Bitcoin platform. The market cap is around $3,956,035,700 with 18,061,950 number of coins in the market.
- Litecoin (Market Cap – $3.4 BN)
Litecoin is a spinoff of Bitcoin, thus earning the name of altcoin, which means alternate coin (to bitcoin). Around 63,484,804 Litecoins are currently circulating in the market.
Some of the other cryptos with high market cap include
Binance Coin (Market Cap – $2.8 BN)
EOS (Market Cap – $2.7 BN)
Bitcoin SV (Market Cap – $1.5 BN)
Stellar (Market Cap – $1.3 BN)
All the above information is as of 16th October 2019. For real-time figures, you can visit this website.
The adoption and usage of cryptocurrencies will only increase in the future as they are here to stay. At the peak of the bitcoin price in December 2017, the market cap of all the cryptocurrencies was around 125 billion dollars, and as of today, it is 221.3 billion dollars. Given the history, the market cap of all the cryptocurrencies can quickly reach a trillion dollars in the near future.
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