It is estimated that the cumulative market cap of cryptocurrencies increased in early 2023 after the downfall in November 2022 due to FTX. That value declined in the summer of 2023, however, as international uncertainty grew over a potential recession. Bitcoin's market cap made up the majority of the overall market capitalization.

What is market cap?

Market capitalization is a financial measure typically used for publicly traded firms, computed by multiplying the share price by the number of outstanding shares. However, cryptocurrency analysts calculate it as the price of the virtual currencies times the number of coins in the market. This gives cryptocurrency investors an idea of the overall market size, and watching the evolution of the measure tells how much money is flowing in or out of each cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency as an investment

The price of Bitcoin has been erratic, and most other cryptocurrencies follow its larger price swings. This volatility attracts investors who hope to buy when the price is low and sell at its peak, turning a profit. However, this does little for price stability. As such, few firms accept payment in cryptocurrencies.

A league table of the 120 cryptocurrencies with the highest market cap reveals how diverse each crypto is and potentially how much risk is involved when investing in one. Bitcoin (BTC), for instance, had a so-called "high cap" - a market cap worth more than 10 billion U.S. dollars - indicating this crypto project has a certain track record or, at the very least, is considered a major player in the cryptocurrency space. This is different in Decentralize Finance (DeFi), where Bitcoin is only a relatively new player. A concentrated market The number of existing cryptocurrencies is several thousands, even if most have a limited significance. Indeed, Bitcoin and Ethereum account for nearly 75 percent of the entire crypto market capitalization. As crypto is relatively easy to create, the range of projects varies significantly - from improving payments to solving real-world issues, but also meme coins and more speculative investments. Crypto is not considered a payment method While often talked about as an investment vehicle, cryptocurrencies have not yet established a clear use case in day-to-day life. Central bankers found that usefulness of crypto in domestic payments or remittances to be negligible. A forecast for the world's main online payment methods took a similar stance: It predicts that cryptocurrency would only take up 0.2 percent of total transaction value by 2027.

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Cryptocurrency Market Size 2025-2029

The cryptocurrency market size is forecast to increase by USD 39.75 billion at a CAGR of 16.7% between 2024 and 2029.

The market continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, driven by increasing investment in digital assets and growing acceptance by retailers as a legitimate form of currency. According to recent reports, global investment in cryptocurrencies reached an all-time high in 2020, with institutional investors leading the charge. This trend is expected to continue, as more financial institutions explore the benefits of cryptocurrencies for portfolio diversification and transaction settlement. However, the market's volatility remains a significant challenge for both investors and businesses. The value of cryptocurrencies can fluctuate dramatically in a short period, making it difficult to predict future trends and assess risk. Despite this, many companies are finding ways to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the market. For instance, some retailers have begun accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as payment, while others are exploring blockchain technology to streamline transactions and enhance security. To navigate this complex and dynamic market, companies must stay informed about the latest trends and developments. This includes keeping abreast of regulatory changes, technological advancements, and market sentiment. By doing so, they can position themselves to take advantage of emerging opportunities and mitigate potential risks. Overall, the market offers significant potential for growth and innovation, but also presents unique challenges that require careful planning and strategic foresight.

What will be the Size of the Cryptocurrency Market during the forecast period?

Request Free SampleThe market, driven by the underlying technology of blockchain, represents a decentralized currency system that has gained significant global adoption as a digital alternative to traditional fiat currencies. With a total market capitalization surpassing USD2 trillion, this dynamic market is characterized by price volatility, presenting both opportunities and risks for investors. Theft and security concerns, regulatory outlook, and energy consumption with environmental effects are among the challenges faced by this industry. Skilled developers and financial services institutions are increasingly embracing this digital revolution, leveraging blockchain technology to create innovative consumer protection solutions and ensure financial stability. Meanwhile, the rise of decentralized systems and public ledgers has given way to the proliferation of digital assets, leading to an influx of fraudulent investments. Renewable energy sources and blockchain talent are becoming essential components of the cryptocurrency ecosystem as the industry strives to address concerns related to energy consumption and environmental effects.

How is this Cryptocurrency Industry segmented?

The cryptocurrency industry research report provides comprehensive data (region-wise segment analysis), with forecasts and estimates in 'USD billion' for the period 2025-2029, as well as historical data from 2019-2023 for the following segments. TypeBitcoinEthereumOthersRippleBitcoin CashCardanoComponentHardwareSoftwareProcessMiningTransactionMiningTransactionEnd-UseTradingE-commerce and RetailPeer-to-Peer PaymentRemittanceTradingE-commerce and RetailPeer-to-Peer PaymentRemittanceGeographyNorth AmericaUSCanadaEuropeGermanyItalySwitzerlandThe NetherlandsUKAPACChinaJapanSouth AmericaBrazilMiddle East and Africa

By Type Insights

The bitcoin segment is estimated to witness significant growth during the forecast period.Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is a decentralized digital currency valued at over USD470 billion. It operates on a peer-to-peer (P2P) system without central authorities. The top four stablecoins, Tether, USD Coin, Binance USD, and DAI, are directly pegged to the US dollar and collectively hold a significant market share. In the US, approximately 8% of the population engages in cryptocurrency trading. Bitcoin, as a digital asset, is created, stored, processed, and transferred using blockchain technology – a decentralized system. Other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin also follow this model. The market is evolving, with financial services increasingly adopting digital assets for transactions, investments, and consumer protection. Blockchain technology powers digital wallets, crypto exchanges, and smart contracts, enabling decentralized finance, token offerings, and decentralized applications. The market is subject to price volatility and theft risk, necessitating wallet security and regulatory compliance. Energy consumption and environmental effects are areas of concern, with renewable energy solutions emerging. Skilled developers are in high demand for cre

Bitcoin's role within the overall cryptocurrency market picked up in 2024, whilst Ethereum lost terrain to currencies like Solana. This according to a metric that compares a coin's market cap relative to the overall crypto market called "dominance". This ratio shows how strong, for example, Bitcoin is compared to all the other cryptocurrencies. A comparison between Bitcoin and multiple other coins reveals that the shape of the crypto market has changed dramatically over time.

Cryptocurrency historical datasets from January 2012 (if available) to October 2021 were obtained and integrated from various sources and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) including Yahoo Finance, Cryptodownload, CoinMarketCap, various Kaggle datasets, and multiple APIs. While these datasets used various formats of time (e.g., minutes, hours, days), in order to integrate the datasets days format was used for in this research study. The integrated cryptocurrency historical datasets for 80 cryptocurrencies including but not limited to Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), Cardano (ADA), Tether (USDT), Ripple (XRP), Solana (SOL), Polkadot (DOT), USD Coin (USDC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Tron (TRX), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), EOS (EOS), Cosmos (ATOM), Stellar (XLM), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Uniswap (UNI), Terra (LUNA), SHIBA INU (SHIB), and 60 more cryptocurrencies were uploaded in this online Mendeley data repository. Although the primary attribute of including the mentioned cryptocurrencies was the Market Capitalization, a subject matter expert i.e., a professional trader has also guided the initial selection of the cryptocurrencies by analyzing various indicators such as Relative Strength Index (RSI), Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD), MYC Signals, Bollinger Bands, Fibonacci Retracement, Stochastic Oscillator and Ichimoku Cloud. The primary features of this dataset that were used as the decision-making criteria of the CLUS-MCDA II approach are Timestamps, Open, High, Low, Closed, Volume (Currency), % Change (7 days and 24 hours), Market Cap and Weighted Price values. The available excel and CSV files in this data set are just part of the integrated data and other databases, datasets and API References that was used in this study are as follows: [1] https://finance.yahoo.com/ [2] https://coinmarketcap.com/historical/ [3] https://cryptodatadownload.com/ [4] https://kaggle.com/philmohun/cryptocurrency-financial-data [5] https://kaggle.com/deepshah16/meme-cryptocurrency-historical-data [6] https://kaggle.com/sudalairajkumar/cryptocurrencypricehistory [7] https://min-api.cryptocompare.com/data/price?fsym=BTC&tsyms=USD [8] https://min-api.cryptocompare.com/ [9] https://p.nomics.com/cryptocurrency-bitcoin-api [10] https://www.coinapi.io/ [11] https://www.coingecko.com/en/api [12] https://cryptowat.ch/ [13] https://www.alphavantage.co/ This dataset is part of the CLUS-MCDA (Cluster analysis for improving Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis) and CLUS-MCDAII Project: https://aimaghsoodi.github.io/CLUSMCDA-R-Package/ https://github.com/Aimaghsoodi/CLUS-MCDA-II https://github.com/azadkavian/CLUS-MCDA

By 2025, the Bitcoin market cap had grown to over 2,000 billion USD as the cryptocurrency kept growing. Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying the total number of Bitcoins in circulation by the Bitcoin price. The Bitcoin market capitalization increased from approximately one billion U.S. dollars in 2013 to several times this amount since its surge in popularity. Dominance The Bitcoin market cap takes up a significant portion of the overall cryptocurrency market cap. This is referred to as "dominance". Within the crypto world, this so-called "dominance" ratio is one of the oldest and most investigated metrics available. It measures the coin's market cap relative to the overall crypto market — effectively showing how strong Bitcoin compared to all the other cryptocurrencies that are not BTC, called "altcoins". The Bitcoin dominance was above 50 percent. Maximum supply and scarcity Bitcoin is unusual from other cryptocurrencies in that its maximum supply is getting closer. By 2025, well over 19 million out of all 21 million possible Bitcoin had been created. Bitcoin's supply is expected to reach its maximum around the year 2140, likely making mining more energy-intensive.

The cryptocurrency market surpassed the barrier of $100 billion market capitalization in June 2017, after months of steady growth. Despite its increasing relevance in the financial world, a comprehensive analysis of the whole system is still lacking, as most studies have focused exclusively on the behaviour of one (Bitcoin) or few cryptocurrencies. Here, we consider the history of the entire market and analyse the behaviour of 1469 cryptocurrencies introduced between April 2013 and May 2017. We reveal that, while new cryptocurrencies appear and disappear continuously and their market capitalization is increasing (super-)exponentially, several statistical properties of the market have been stable for years. These include the number of active cryptocurrencies, market share distribution and the turnover of cryptocurrencies. Adopting an ecological perspective, we show that the so-called neutral model of evolution is able to reproduce a number of key empirical observations, despite its simplicity and the assumption of no selective advantage of one cryptocurrency over another. Our results shed light on the properties of the cryptocurrency market and establish a first formal link between ecological modelling and the study of this growing system. We anticipate they will spark further research in this direction.

The cryptocurrency market size is predicted to reach $3.33 billion in 2024 to $11.07 billion by 2035, growing at a CAGR of 11.54% from 2024 to 2035.

Investment cannot be separated from the level of return and risk inherent in assets. Today, investment instruments are not only stocks, currencies, bonds, deposits, savings and others. The beginning of Bitcoin’s emergence as a pioneer of Cryptocurrency was in 2009. Crypto assets are emerging rapidly and are accompanied by an increase in the number of transactions each period. The growth in the market capitalization value of crypto assets has also grown significantly. During COVID-19, many investments, such as stocks, experienced a decline due to market uncertainty. The results of this study prove that with the existence of COVID-19, the crypto market is not affected. Crypto is an attraction characterized by a high degree of fluctuation, and there is no limit to transactions in the open market 24 hours to trade. The Cryptocurrency market is currently a market that can provide short-term benefits to risk-taking investors, while the market in other investment instruments is declining. 78% of the value capitalization of the top 200 cryptocurrencies is represented by the top 9 cryptos used as samples in this study. So that if there is a decrease in these 9 cryptos, it will also have an impact on the overall capitalization value of crypto in the market. The future development of Cryptocurrencies will no longer be digital assets traded with many speculators who can control prices, it can even be digital money that can be used worldwide without any transaction fees and is controlled on a blockchain system. (2023-01-12)

Decentralized finance or DeFi became less important within the overall crypto market, after its market share declined in 2022. This decline continued over the course of that year, when the DeFi TLV - total value locked, essentially the market size - decreased more and more. What exactly is DeFi, however? Whilst there is no general consensus what this market entails exactly, it generally refers to financial applications built atop Ethereum (ETH) especially. Applications can consist of decentralized exchanges or DEXs, such as Uniswap or PancakeSwap, or crypto protocols regarding lending and borrowing, such as Aave. These applications, on their turn, are powered by their own cryptocurrencies: The Uniswap DEX uses the Uniswap token (UNI) for governance. Nevertheless, the price development of ETH was heavily influenced by the growing popularity of DeFI.

Cryptocurrency prices

As of August 2021, AXS was the leading Vietnamese-based cryptocurrency, having a market capitalization of around 2.5 billion U.S. dollars. AXS was created by blockchain-based game developer Axie Infinity.

Bitcoin and Ethereum together made up more than half of the crypto market in 2024, with newer coins losing out. One example is Polkadot or DOT, an altcoin that went live in August 2020 but, at first, increasingly attracting interest in 2021 as it was seen as a viable competitor to Ethereum's blockchain structure. Indeed, six months after its initial release, the value of Polkadot was already six times higher than it during its launch. By 2024, the market position of Ethereum had not changed that much.

The cryptocurrency market surpassed the barrier of $100 billion market capitalization in June 2017, after months of steady growth. Despite its increasing relevance in the financial world, a comprehensive analysis of the whole system is still lacking, as most studies have focused exclusively on the behaviour of one (Bitcoin) or few cryptocurrencies. Here, we consider the history of the entire market and analyse the behaviour of 1469 cryptocurrencies introduced between April 2013 and May 2017. We reveal that, while new cryptocurrencies appear and disappear continuously and their market capitalization is increasing (super-)exponentially, several statistical properties of the market have been stable for years. These include the number of active cryptocurrencies, market share distribution and the turnover of cryptocurrencies. Adopting an ecological perspective, we show that the so-called neutral model of evolution is able to reproduce a number of key empirical observations, despite its simplicity and the assumption of no selective advantage of one cryptocurrency over another. Our results shed light on the properties of the cryptocurrency market and establish a first formal link between ecological modelling and the study of this growing system. We anticipate they will spark further research in this direction.

The production and consumption of information on Bitcoin and other digital-, or crypto-, currencies have grown, along with their market capitalization. However, a systematic investigation of the relationship between online attention and market dynamics across multiple digital currencies is still lacking. Here, we quantify the interplay between the attention to digital currencies in Wikipedia and their market performance. We consider the entire edit history of currency-related pages and their views history from July 2015. First, we quantify the evolution of cryptocurrency presence in Wikipedia by analyzing the editorial activity and the network of co-edited pages. We found that a small community of tightly connected editors are responsible for most of the production of information about cryptocurrencies in Wikipedia. Then, we show that a simple trading strategy informed by Wikipedia views, performs better than baseline strategies, in terms of returns on investment, for most of the covered period, although the “buy and hold strategy” dominates during the periods of explosive market expansion. Our results contribute to the recent literature on the interplay between online information and investment markets, and we anticipate that it will be of interest for researchers as well as investors.

The market cap of the top 10 stablecoin initially multiplied over time, reaching a combined value of over 221 billion USD in March 2025. Note this value does not include TerraUSD (UST), the algorithmic stablecoin tied to the LUNA crypto which declined severely in May 2022. Up to then, estimates reveal that the market cap had more than tripled within five months - likely in the wake of growing interest worldwide in cryptocurrencies, after sudden price spikes in a coin like Dogecoin (DOGE). Stability above all, or what does a stablecoin do? Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies - like the commonly known Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) - but their value is determined in a different way. Whilst the price of Bitcoin mainly follows supply - how many coins are being mined or are available to purchase - and demand - how many investors want buy the coin - stablecoins are synthetically connected to the price of an altogether different asset. Tether's USDT, for instance, is connected to the price development of the U.S. dollar (USD): if the U.S. dollar falls in the FX market, so does the USDT. Compare this to the "regular" price history of a cryptocurrency like Ripple (XRP) and stablecoins reveal themselves to be a relatively less volatile digital currency to either use or invest in that their counterparts in the free market. A test ground for digital payments This stability of these particular cryptocurrencies is important for two areas in digital payments that do not prefer volality. For instance, these coins are a popular choice within the world of Decentralized Finance or DeFi - an online financial market without the supervision of central bank that relies on cryptocurrencies for payments and loans. Because of that reliance, it is a market that can rapidly change in size due to price fluctuations or changing transaction fees of certain cryptocurrencies - something that is less likely to occur when using stablecoins. Additionally, stablecoins are seen as the inspiration for so-called CBDC or Central Bank Digital Currencies - such as China's e-CNY currency or the "digital euro" that is being researched in the EU-27. In terms of how advanced countries worldwide are into researching their own cryptocurrency, China ranked third in 2020, behind Cambodia, and The Bahamas.

The Cryptocurrency Market size will exceed a valuation of USD 3141.32 million by 2032, to grow at a CAGR of 11.5% during the forecast period.

This is a submission for Challenge #28 by Desights User

Click here for Challenge Details Note: This submission is in REVIEW state and is only accessible by Challenge Reviewers. So you might get errors when you try to download this asset directly from Ocean Market.

Submission Description

Introduction In recent years, cryptocurrencies have garnered significant attention from researchers and inventors, among other financial investments. Many investment firms have been investing in and maintaining a strong portfolio of cryptos. Some even have specialized in crypto trading. More than 1,500 crypto currencies are being actively traded by individual and institutional investors worldwide across different exchanges. Over 170 cryptocurrencies focussed hedge funds, have emerged since 2017. Further, in response to increased institutional demand for trading and hedging, Bitcoin futures and ETFs were launched recently.

This report as part of association with Desights.ai Data Challenge (OCEAN and Numer.ai) explores cryptocurrency investment strategies by adapting the robust framework of multi-factor investing, traditionally applied in equity markets, to the distinctive landscape of cryptocurrency assets. We conduct an in-depth examination of prominent cryptocurrencies from 2018 to 2024 (in some cases – 2020/21), employing models such as (i) Fama–MacBeth regression method, (ii) Fama-French 3 and 4-factor model, (iii) Carhart 4-factor model, (iv) GARCH, (v) CAPM (single factor) and (vi) Machine Learning-based regressions to assess the predictive capabilities of market, size, value, and momentum factors, adjusted for the unique characteristics of the cryptocurrency market. We extract and identify other factors such as Macroeconomic factors and Social Media factors to identify the correlation between the cryptocurrency market and their volatility, returns, risks and sentiment. Need for this analysis: There is a need to analyse the cryptocurrency market from the empirical rule-based approach for at least two reasons. The first reason is to understand whether the returns of cryptocurrencies share similarities with other asset classes, most importantly, with equities. The second reason is that to assess and develop theoretical models of cryptocurrency, it is meaningful to build an empirical model to be used as stylized facts and inputs. Since there is no simple universal framework to construct a crypto portfolio unlike the equity market, we, therefore, propose to create a factor model for cryptocurrencies. The factor model has been traditionally used in the equity markets to decompose the assets return and risk. (e.g., CAPM, Fama-French, Carhart-4-factor, BARRA), so it could also provide a paradigm to analyze such patterns in the cryptocurrency market. Therefore, in this work, we have tested if there are factors similar to the equity market, such as market, size, value, and momentum present in the crypto market. We have also used machine learning algorithms to look for the underlying factors in the market returns matrix.

For each cryptocurrency in the sample the data for prices, volumes and market capitalization is retrieved from https://coinmarketcap.com/, as well as from https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/tweets-btc-eth-ltc-xrp.html for the number of tweets for each cryptocurrency in the period from 2017-2019.

Bitcoin is edging closer to reaching its finite, maximum supply, pushing its price up and making it harder to mine. As a rule of thumb, the fewer coins available to the general audience, the higher the value of the cryptocurrency becomes. No more mining is possible when a cryptocurrency reaches its maximum supply. The market price then reflects supply and demand. Bitcoin has a set limit of 21 million coins, the last of which is to be mined around the year 2140 according to a 2017 forecast - with the assumption that the rate of Bitcoin mining halves every four years.

Why are there so many differences in crypto supply?

Cryptocurrency developers can determine whether a coin should have a fixed limit, depending on the blockchain it utilizes or monetary strategies. Ethereum has no maximum supply, meaning miners can create and indefinitely extract this cryptocurrency. This is called an inflationary cryptocurrency, one that continuously inflates the supply. The idea is that the number of tokens in circulation keeps outpacing demand, decreasing overall value. Some coins limit the release of their (indefinite) supply or even destroy (burn) tokens. Such deflationary events took place with LUNA in 2022.

The appeal of low-supply cryptocurrency for investors

Crypto investors tend to be on the lookout for crypto with limited supply, ideally with low levels. After a token reaches maximum supply, the argument goes, the coin's supply becomes static - miners can no longer create new coins. The demand should continue to grow. A maximum cap, they hope, guarantees value gains. Not many such coins exist. DeFi platform AAVE is an example of a cryptocurrency with a max supply smaller than 100 million.