Cryptocurrencies have come to the forefront of global interest, with the most well-known of these being bitcoin, once again surpassing the $60.000 mark and conquering new trading highs. However, it is not just bitcoin, but the cryptocurrency market as a whole, that is moving at a frantic pace.
In just one year, between March 2020 and March 2021, 3.531 new cryptocurrencies were added to the global market, bringing their number to 8.728. According to Crypto Parrot, this number represents an increase of 68% since March 2020, when 5.197 cryptocurrencies were in circulation worldwide.
Indicative of the global attention that cryptocurrencies are getting on them, is that their number has been steadily rising steadily in recent years. In the Coinmarketcap.com database, in March 2019 there were 2.106 cryptocurrencies registered, while in March 2018 there were 1.558 cryptocurrencies in circulation. Just a year earlier, in March 2017, the number of cryptocurrencies was just 649.
This upward trend, according to analysts, translates into the impressive increase of 1.245% in the last five years.
“While some cryptocurrencies are created as speculative tools, others focus on providing solutions to real problems that concern people in every corner of the globe,” analysts said, and despite “inflation” in the number of cryptocurrencies, only those with strong use cases will eventually survive.
As the field of encryption matures, new digital elements emerge to take advantage of the different uses of blockchain technology. The significant increase in the creation of new digital currencies in recent months is clearly linked to the rise in popularity of the most recognised cryptocurrency, bitcoin.
It is no coincidence that in the last two months, as bitcoin has broken one record after another, the overall cryptocurrency market has also been on the rise. The value of the global cryptocurrency market topped $2 trillion for the first time in March, doubling in just two months.
Although bitcoin remains by far the most popular cryptocurrency with a total market capitalisation of $1 trillion, the second most popular cryptocurrency on the market, Ethereum, also holds record highs.
According to CoinGecko, the next five most popular cryptocurrencies are Ether, Binace Coin, Polkadot, Tether, Cardano, with a total value of about $500 billion.
