Notes

How Many Cryptocurrencies Are There In 2022?

The idea of anonymous cryptographic electronic money had long since been postulated, but it wasn’t until 2009 when decentralized cryptocurrency Bitcoin was first created. Namecoin, Litecoin, and Peercoin followed in the proceeding years and cryptocurrency began to gain momentum.

By the end of 2013, there were over 50 different cryptocurrencies. And by the end of 2014, this figure had increased by approximately 10x to over 500.

Today, there are over 18,000 cryptocurrencies in circulation.

But how did the financial landscape reach this point? And where is it heading?

This roundup will reveal key facts and figures on the state of crypto right now.

Here’s a summary of what you’ll find below:

Cryptocurrency Statistics (Top Picks)
How Many Cryptocurrencies Are There In 2022?
Growth Of Cryptocurrency Over Time
Crypto Usage Demographics
Top 20 Cryptos By Market Cap
How Many Cryptocurrency Exchanges Are There?
Crypto Space Statistics (Top Picks)
There are 18,465 total cryptocurrencies
The total market cap of all cryptocurrencies is $2.023 trillion
The trading volume of all cryptocurrencies per 24 hours is currently $75 billion
Bitcoin has the highest current market cap at over $700 billion - more than double its closest rival Etherum
four of the top 20 cryptocurrencies are directly pegged to USD value - Tether, USD Coin, Binance USD, Terra USD.
Approximately 8% of the US population trades cryptocurrency
As a continent, Asia has over 4x more cryptocurrency users than any other continent
95% of crypto holders/crypto-curious people are aware of Bitcoin
Sources: CoinMarketCap, investing.com, Triple-a

How Many Cryptocurrencies Are There In 2022?
As of March 2022, there are 18,465 cryptocurrencies in existence.

However, not all cryptocurrencies are active or valuable. Discounting many “dead” cryptos leaves only around 10,363 active cryptocurrencies.

There are upwards of 300 million cryptocurrency users across the globe. And approximately 18,000 businesses now accept a form of crypto as payment.

Sources: CoinMarketCap, investing.com

Growth Of Cryptocurrency Over Time
In less than a decade, cryptocurrency has exploded onto the scene and has grown at an ever-increasing rate. The following section will highlight some of its dramatic growth with snapshots of the decentralized finance landscape at various points in time.

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Before we get into that, here is a quick overview of the total number of legit cryptocurrencies listed on CoinMarketCap from 2013 to today:

Month, Year Number of Cryptocurrencies
April 2013 7
January 2014 67
January 2015 501
January 2016 572
January 2017 636
January 2018 1,359
January 2019 2,086
January 2020 2,403
January 2021 4,154
March 2022 10,363
2013
In April 2013, there were just seven cryptocurrencies reported by Coin Market Cap. Bitcoin led the way in terms of market capitalization with almost 20x the value of any other cryptocurrency.

Here is a breakdown of the state of play almost a decade ago:

Rank Currency Abbr. Price (2 d.p.)* Market Cap
1 Bitcoin BTC $134.21 $1.49 billion
2 Litecoin LTC $4.35 $74.64 million
3 Peercoin PPC $0.39 $7.25 million
4 Namecoin NMC $1.11 $6.00 million
5 Terracoin TRC $0.65 $1.50 million
6 Devcoin DVC $0.0003* $1.42 million
7 Novacoin NVC $4.25 $1.16 million
* Excluding Devcoin

2014
Fast-forward a year and a half to November 2014, and there were 513 cryptocurrencies in existence.

Bitcoin remained the dominant force, now with a market cap of around $5.13 billion. Only Litecoin ($122.63 million market cap) and Peercoin ($16.26 million market cap) remained in the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap.

The rest of the original seven had made way for the likes of XRP ($346.22 million market cap) and Dogecoin ($23.30 million market cap).

At this stage, Bitcoin’s price had more than doubled to $378.05. And approximately 76,000 merchants accepted Bitcoin worldwide.

2015

One year later, the cryptocurrency landscape hadn’t changed so drastically. Nevertheless, there were now 564 cryptocurrencies at the end of November 2015.

Bitcoin’s market cap increased to over $5.5 billion, while November 2014’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, XRP, fell to approximately $144.18 million.

In total, seven of November 2014’s largest cryptos by market cap remained in the top 10 a year later. These were:

Bitcoin - Approximately $406 million market cap increase
Litecoin - Approximately $37 million market cap increase
XRP - Approximately $202 million market cap decrease
Bitshares - Approximately $39 million market cap decrease
Dogecoin - Approximately $10 million market cap decrease
Peercoin - Approximately $6 million market cap decrease
Dash - Approximately $1 million market cap increase
The most notable newcomer to the top ten was Ethereum with a market cap of $65.98 million.

2016
By the end of 2016, there were 663 cryptocurrencies in existence.

Bitcoin’s price reached a three-year high of almost $900, increasing nearly 3x on November 2015’s price.

The best-performing cryptocurrencies by market cap increase for the year were as follows:

Bitcoin ($14.59 billion) - Market cap increase of approximately 2.5x
Ethereum ($638 million) - Market cap increase of approximately 8x
Ripple ($232 million) - Market cap increase of approximately 1.1x
Litecoin ($212 million) - Market cap increase of approximately 1.5x
Monero ($134 million) - Market cap increase of approximately 28x
Ethereum Classic ($91 million) - Market cap increase of approximately 2x
Dash ($71 million) - Market cap increase of approximately 4.5x
2017
By mid-2017 (April 30th to be exact) a further 126 cryptocurrencies were now being traded, bringing the total number up to 789.


Ethereum’s market cap had skyrocketed more than 1000% in just four months to over $7.2 billion. Likewise, XRP also saw a large increase from approximately $232 million to $1.96 billion.

Despite the healthy growth, there were (and are) several factors keeping cryptocurrency from mass adoption.

2018
A year later, the number of cryptocurrencies had surged to more than double. The success of blockchain technology and varied use of coins continued to lead to further market growth.

By the end of 2018, there were 2,073 cryptocurrencies. And 12 of those had a market cap of over $1 billion.

Here is a look at the top five cryptocurrencies by market cap as we went into 2019:

Rank Currency Abbr. Price (2 d.p.) Market Cap
1 Bitcoin BTC $3,865.95 $67.48 billion
2 XRP XRP $0.37 $15.08 billion
3 Ethereum ETH $139.86 $14.56 billion
4 Bitcoin Cash BCH $163.62 $2.87 billion
5 EOS EOS $2.68 $2.43 billion
2019
A November 2019 article indicated there were almost 3,000 cryptocurrencies in circulation at the time of writing.


However, some sources were reporting figures closer to 6,000. This discrepancy was (and is) a result of differing review processes for a range of criteria.

For example, test cryptos and joke cryptos are often quickly abandoned but may appear on some listings. To combat this, trade volume and market caps are often used as determining factors when calculating the true number of active cryptocurrencies.

During the course of 2019, Bitcoin’s market cap surpassed the $100 billion mark, ending at $134.57 billion. Despite this, the number of cryptocurrencies with a market cap exceeding $1 billion dropped to nine.

2020
The pandemic did little to halt the increase of cryptocurrencies hitting the market. By April, there were a reported 5,392 cryptos being traded.

According to CoinMarketCap, the top 10 cryptocurrencies combined for a total market cap of almost $200 billion. And Bitcoin was responsible for over $140 billion of this valuation.

Having seen a small drop to nine in 2019, the total number of cryptocurrencies with a market cap over $1 billion stood at 28 by the end of 2020.

These four cryptos each exceeded $10 billion market caps:

Bitcoin - $488.21 billion
Ethereum - $77.83 billion
Tether - $20.73 billion
XRP - $12.85 billion
2022
Flash forward to today, there are now 18,465 cryptocurrencies in circulation. However, many of these are inactive or completely worthless.

Chances are, as you read this, that figure is already an underestimate as more ICOs happen each week.

The thousands of cryptos we have today can be most simply broken down into three categories:

Bitcoin - the market leader and original cryptocurrency
Altcoin - Alternatives to Bitcoin (not necessarily similar)
Tokens - Cryptocurrencies using pre-existing blockchains
The evolution of cryptocurrency has come a long way in a relatively short space of time. To illustrate just that, here is a comparison of the first seven cryptocurrencies in 2013 compared to now:

Currency 2013 Rank 2022 Rank* Market Cap Change Price Change (2 d.p.)*
Bitcoin 1 1 ↑ $850.96 billion ↑ $44,848
Litecoin 2 20 ↑ $8.79 billion ↑ $122.45
Namecoin 3 625 ↑ $30.62 million ↑ $1.37
Peercoin 4 830 ↑ $14.45 million ↑ $0.21
Terracoin 5 2,064 ↓ $0.81 million ↓ $0.63
Devcoin 6 - - -
Novacoin 7 2,170 ↓ $0.91 million ↓ $4.14
* Excluding Devcoin

All figures are accurate as of Mar 25, 2022.

Sources: CoinMarketCap 1, CoinMarketCap 2, investing.com, Bank of Canada, CoinDesk, TechCrunch, Bob’s Guide, Liquid, Yahoo, gfinity esports

Crypto Usage Demographics
The average cryptocurrency owner is a white 38-year-old male with a $111,000 annual salary.

average-crypto-owner-min.png

Here is the breakdown of Gemini’s 2021 survey on crypto usage:

71% of crypto holders identify as white/caucasian
Three quarters (74%) of crypto holders are male
Almost three in four (74%) of crypto owners are between 25 and 44 years old
Approximately 63% of people are “crypto-curious”
Of those who identified as “crypto-curious”, 53% are female
Cryptocurrency Awareness
The 2021 Gemini report also shed light on the knowledge and awareness of cryptocurrency. In https://controlc.com/abdddfda , 39% of people who do not own crypto described themselves as “somewhat or very” knowledgeable about crypto.

knowledgeable-about-crypto-min.png

Here are some interesting findings about specific cryptocurrencies:

Just 1 in 20 crypto owners/crypto-curious people have not heard of Bitcoin
Over one third (38%) are aware of Ethereum
Less than 1 in 4 (24%) know about Bitcoin Cash
16% of participants claim to have heard of Litecoin
Approximately 1 in 10 (11%) are aware of Tether
Just 1 in 50 (2%) surveyed know of Cardano or Polkadot
Continents by Cryptocurrency Usage
continents-by-usage-min.png

1. Asia - Approximately 160 million crypto users
2. Europe - Approximately 38 million crypto users
3. Africa - Approximately 32 million crypto users
4. North America - Approximately 28 million crypto users
5. South America - Approximately 24 million crypto users
6. Oceania - Approximately 1 million crypto users
Top 5 Countries by Cryptocurrency Usage
countries-by-usage-min.png

1. India - Approximately 100.7 million crypto users
2. US - Approximately 27.5 million crypto users
3. Nigeria - Approximately 13 million crypto users
4. Vietnam - Approximately 6 million crypto users
5. UK - Approximately 3.4 million crypto users
Top 5 Countries by Cryptocurrency Usage (Population %)
countries-by-usage-percentage-min.png

1. Ukraine - Approximately 12.7% of the population use crypto
2. Russia - Approximately 11.9% of the population use crypto
3. Venezuela - Approximately 10.3% of the population use crypto
4. Singapore - Approximately 9.4% of the population use crypto
5. Kenya - Approximately 8.5% of the population use crypto
Sources: Yahoo, Gemini

Top 20 Cryptos By Market Cap
Many cryptocurrencies have become household names over the past decade. The most noteworthy of which, without a doubt, is Bitcoin, which comfortably leads the way in terms of market cap.

Here is a full breakdown of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap:

Rank Currency Abbr. Price Market Cap
1 Bitcoin BTC $44,860 $851.27 billion
2 Ethereum ETH $3,180 $382.3 billion
3 Tether USDT $1.00 $81 billion
4 BNB BNB $420.1 $69.44 billion
5 USD Coin USDC $1.00 $52.50 billion
6 XRP XRP $135.72 $42.30 billion
7 Cardano CAR $1.13 $38.25 billion
8 Terra LUNA $94.1 $33.82 billion
9 Solana SOL $103.88 $33.59 billion
10 Avalanche AVAX $86.65 $23.26 billion
11 Polkadot DOT $86.63 $23.26 billion
12 Dogecoin DOGE $0.14 $18.13 billion
13 Binance USD BUSD $1 $17.63 billion
14 TerraUSD UST $1 $15.93 billion
15 SHIBA INU SHIB $0.00003 $13.83 billion
16 Polygon MATIC $1.65 $12.78 billion
17 Wrapped Bitcoin WBTC $44,966 $12.28 billion
18 Cronos CRO $0.46 $11.67 billion
19 Dai DAI $1 $9.7 billion
20 Litecoin LTC $126.5 $8.86 billion
All figures accurate as of Mar 25, 2022.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Key Statistics on the top 20 cryptos right now
Bitcoin has the highest current market cap at over $850 billion - more than double its closest rival Etherum
Together, Bitcoin and Ethereum have a market cap of almost 3x the size of the rest of the top 20 cryptocurrencies combined
The top five cryptocurrencies each have a market cap of over $50 billion
Only three of the top 20 cryptocurrencies have a per-token price higher than $1,000 - Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Wrapped Bitcoin
Almost half (10) of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap are priced at under $5
Four of the top 20 cryptocurrencies are directly pegged to USD value - Tether, USD Coin, Binance USD, and Terra USD
Sources: CoinMarketCap, investing.com

How Many Cryptocurrency Exchanges Are There?
Naturally, as the number of cryptocurrencies has increased, so too has the number of cryptocurrency exchanges.

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As of March 2022, there are 476 exchanges.

Here is a closer look at the top five decentralized exchanges (according to coingmarketcap.com) right now:

CMC Rank Exchange 24hr Trading Volume Markets Coins
1 Binance $19.18 billion 1,646 395
2 Coinbase Exchange $3.89 billion 503 169
3 FTX $2.26 billion 456 319
4 Kraken $1.06 billion 472 133
5 KuCoin $1.90 billion 1,197 622
All figures are accurate as of Mar 25, 2022.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Conclusion
That wraps up the state of cryptocurrency today. Specifically, how many cryptocurrencies currently exist.

Cryptocurrency has exploded into the general consciousness. And while there has been a fair amount of fluctuation, the general market is only going one way (up), with Bitcoin still leading the charge.



My Website: https://controlc.com/abdddfda