Bitcoin spawned a market that nearly reached one trillion US dollars this year (one trillion defined as a million million, equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon “trillion”). Today there are more than 1,500 digital currencies that can be ranked by their aggregate market capitalization. Below we explore the cryptocurrency ranking to identify which tokens are the most important.
TOP CRYPTOCURRENCIES ON ETORO!
Cryptocurrency ranking
All available cryptocurrencies can be listed using various criteria. The most common and widely accepted metric is market capitalization. What does this mean? Also called market cap, it measures the economic size of the asset. It is calculated with a simple, intuitive formula:
Number of coins in circulation x current price
For example, to estimate Bitcoin’s current market capitalization, multiply the circulating supply (for instance, 16.97 million BTC) by its current price (at the time of writing $8,092.99). That yields approximately $137.37 billion, placing BTC as the market leader. Market capitalization is the most objective method to rank cryptocurrencies by economic size.
The most important cryptocurrencies
As an illustration, we include a widget showing the prices of the top six cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. The list reflects current positions, which can change at any time. You will see up-to-date prices and market caps in the table below:
| Position | Price and market cap | Buy |
| 1 |
Buy Bitcoin |
|
| 2 |
Buy Ethereum |
|
| 3 |
Buy Ripple |
|
| 4 |
Buy BCH |
|
| 5 |
Buy Litecoin |
|
| 6 |
Buy EOS |
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| 7 |
Buy Cardano |
|
| 8 |
Buy Stellar |
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| 9 |
Buy IOTA |
|
| 10 |
Buy NEO |
Where can I find a reliable ranking?
The most useful site for checking cryptocurrency rankings is CoinMarketCap. It is a primary tool for any crypto investor because it aggregates reliable data from major exchanges and blockchain networks and reports it in real time. Prices, for example, are a weighted average of the quotes reported across available markets. For price and ranking information, CoinMarketCap is widely considered the most dependable source.
CoinMarketCap also offers other useful tools: charts of the combined market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin dominance metrics versus other digital currencies, calculators and historical data.
Where should I buy my first cryptocurrencies?
If you are not experienced with trading, we recommend using the eToro platform. It allows simple investing via CFDs, which lets you gain exposure without owning the actual tokens and enables both long and short positions. eToro is a regulated broker that helps ensure the safety of funds, and it provides advanced trading tools plus features for beginners, such as copy trading, which lets you mirror the trades of successful investors.