If 2017 was a year of unexpected and unsustainable growth, and 2018 represented an inevitable and subsequent crash; then 2019 was a year in which we saw Bitcoin and other top tier crypto assets across the market enjoying an organic recovery. This resulted in each token’s respective market caps and prices stabilizing, with numbers more accurately representing their true values than those seen in either of the two preceding years.
If you look at the markets right now, you may have noticed that the market caps and token values of top-tier tokens have appreciated dramatically. 2020 is look as if it could be one of the strongest years for blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies with regards to returns on investments (ROI).
CoinGecko provides a variety of cryptocurrency-specific metrics and aggregate analysis services: based on data gathered from exchanges and blockchains, in addition to public resources and community submissions. Every quarter, the company publishes a retrospective report on the performance of the overall cryptocurrency market as well as top-tier (market cap and daily volume) tokens.
On an annual basis CoinGecko publishes a much more comprehensive document pertaining to how cryptocurrencies have fared, not only in comparison with one another but within the perspective of general / alternative (and often considered more ‘traditional’) investment options – such as publicly traded stocks and options, as well as precious metals.
In its 2019 report, CoinGecko foremostly claimed that there had been an increase in market-capitalisation (i.e. the full representative value of a cryptocurrency, stock, or other investment mechanism) and trading volume across the board for cryptocurrencies.
This appreciation totalled +44.1% and was calculated by comparing data from the same time period in the previous year. 2019 also saw a specific peak market capitalization of $350 billion (USD) for Bitcoin alone – which authors attribute to a price rally which saw the value of a single bitcoin reaching heights of over $13,000 per token.
The report also claimed that the trading volumes of the cryptocurrency industry had “far outpaced” that of its market capitalization volumes: having achieved “gains” of “nearly” 600% over the course of the year, before comparing the performances of what it believes to be the ‘top five cryptos’ (based on year-on-year price returns).
According to CoinGecko, the best performing token of the year was Bitcoin (BTC), which saw a +95% ROI (return on investment); with Bitcoin Cash (BCH) following as a close runner-up with a +38% ROI increase when compared to statistics from the previous year. Litecoin (LTC) was the third greatest earner, achieving a 37% increase of ROI.
Conversely: the worst performer out of the most popular tokens, according to CoinGecko was Ripple (XRP) which saw investors being left with a negative on their ROI of -45% earning the token the title of “the biggest loser for 2019”.
Decentralized and community-oriented token Ethereum (ETH) also delivered disappointment to its speculative investors as CoinGecko had reported that it had resulted in an ROI of -2%.
The report additionally concludes that cryptocurrency, specifically referring to Bitcoin (BTC), greatly outperformed a number of its most popular ‘traditional investment’ peers.
In 2019, Bitcoin saw a year-on-year percentile value increase of approximately +95%, as already discussed. Precious metals gold and silver achieved +19% and +15.6% respectively, whilst the ‘S&P 500’ stock market index appreciated in value by around 29%.
