This series – An Investor’s Guide to Cryptocurrency – is a very significant topic that aims to provide current and prospective investors with relevant, useful, and timely information about major and important concepts of cryptocurrency.
This article comes as the third part of the series as we look at the trend analysis of the prices of several cryptocurrencies traded across the globe.
The cryptocurrency market is a very large market that trades about 8,360 different cryptocurrencies within about 32,561 markets. As at 2:38 am on January 30, 2021, the CoinMarketCap quoted the cryptocurrency market to have a total market capitalisation of about $1,019,520,282,602. As explained in the previous articles in the series, the cryptocurrency market is a very volatile market. This volatility causes its prices to change rapidly. Elon Musk, on January 29, 2021, stated that the Dogecoin (DOGE) is his favourite crypto; and this caused the crypto to gain about 635% within a day. According to CoinMarketCap, Dogecoin (DOGE) ranks as the 12th most valuable crypto with a market capitalisation of $6.10B as at 2:11 am on January 30, 2021. This is an example of how volatile the market is.
There exists a large volume of cryptocurrencies available hence, for this article, we would narrow our scope down to the top ten (10) most valuable cryptos. The table below highlights key details about the top ten (10) cryptocurrencies in the world:
| Rank | Name | Market Cap. | Price | Supply |
| 1 | BTC Bitcoin | $638.85B | $34,320.44 | 18.61M |
| 2 | ETH Ethereum | $156.73B | $1,369.35 | 114.46M |
| 3 | USDT Tether | $25.36B | $1.00 | 25.35B |
| 4 | DOT Polkadot | $15.17B | $16.75 | 905.45M |
| 5 | XRP XRP | $13.45B | $0.2963 | 45.4B |
| 6 | ADA Cardano | $10.74B | $0.3451 | 31.11B |
| 7 | LINK Chainlink | $9.11B | $22.55 | 404.01M |
| 8 | LTC Litecoin | $8.94B | $134.63 | 66.38M |
| 9 | BCH Bitcoin Cash | $7.53B | $403.77 | 18.64M |
| 10 | BNB Binance Coin | $6.64B | $42.97 | 154.53M |
*The details in the table above were extracted from coinmarketcap.com/all/views/all/ as at 2:24 am on January 30, 2021. Thus, it is imperative to understand that these figures are subject to changes as the market moves.
Bitcoin (BTC) is the most valuable cryptocurrency in the world today. Since its creation in 2009, it has had a volatile track record with its first hike taking place in 2013 when one bitcoin traded for around $1,124. Few days into 2021, the price of a Bitcoin soared as high as reaching $40,000 for the first time.
Ethereum (ETH), on the other hand, which started trading in 2015 costs over $1,200 in January 2021, an increase of around 25% from its price in December 2020.
Tether (USDT) has been in the market since June 10, 2014. It was first traded in the cryptocurrency exchange on February 25, 2015 at $1.21. Today, Tether (USDT) trades at about $1.00.
There are several factors that affect the changes in the prices of these cryptos which will be discussed in our next article.
It is very important to understand the price trend of these cryptos as they will help one make better and informed investment decisions. While the knowledge about the prices does not guarantee a successful investment and trading in cryptocurrency, it places one at a vantage point and must be understood.
We hope this article has been able to feed you with helpful insights on the cryptocurrency market in a bid to enable you take better and informed cryptocurrency investment decisions.
Thank you for reading.
Watch out for the next part of this series!
References:
Best, R. (2021, January 25). Statista. Retrieved from statista.com/statistics/806453/price-of-ethereum/
Best, R. (2021, January 25). Statista. Retrieved from statista.com/statistics/655492/most-valuable-currencies-globally/
CoinMarketCap. (2021, January 30). Retrieved from coinmarketcap.com/all/views/all/
CryptoGround. (2021, January 30). Retrieved from cryptoground.com/tether-price-history
Broadstreet Financial Review 
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