The crypto industry has burgeoned into a massive financial disruptor in the last decade.
Spurred by the success of Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies are now everywhere and are more widely accepted than ever before.
The list of things you can now purchase using cryptocurrency now includes luxury items and even high-value assets like vehicles.
The extraordinary growth of the industry has uniquely positioned cryptocurrency as a key investment option for skilled traders and amateur investors alike.
As the year develops, here’s a look at some of the most fascinating statistics that prove why cryptocurrency is one of the hottest commodities of 2024.
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1. The Growth of Bitcoin
Bitcoin remains the most valuable, successful, and famous of all cryptocurrencies.
As the original one that kick-started the revolution, it’s still the cryptocurrency of choice, even amid the huge number of newest options available in 2024.
Despite the massive rise in fresh entrants going into circulation all the time, Bitcoin’s staggering growth has cemented its place as the premier cryptocurrency around.
When it first started, for a long time, Bitcoin never grew beyond its price of $0.1. Incredibly, once the gains did start, massive periods of growth have seen it reach heights in excess of $68,000 at its peak.
Its highest return percentage was a staggering 30,203%, and it’s grown over 540,000% since inception.
While it has seen sharp drops in prices too, the immense growth it’s had has turned ordinary people into millionaires overnight.
2. The Number of Cryptocurrencies Available Today
Bitcoin’s success sparked a modern-day gold rush that’s seen an enormous amount of new cryptocurrencies enter the market every year.
Incredibly, by March 2023, the number of cryptocurrencies in circulation exceeded 23,000.
That number has continued growing, but ebbs and flows since not all coins are active, and not all survive.
However, new offerings still go into circulation virtually every day. Last year saw a sharp rise in new entrants, and that number has only been growing since 2024 kicked off.
3. The Number Of New Cryptocurrencies Since 2024 Started
Following on from last year’s spike in new cryptocurrencies, January 2024 has already seen over 1000 new currencies. That number is staggering, considering the year’s only just begun.
If that kind of growth keeps up all year (which seems likely), it means there will easily be more than 10,000 new cryptocurrencies by next year.
It should be understood that the number of cryptocurrencies that are active and can be traded is currently more than 11,000.
That in itself tells you how volatile, and perhaps overly saturated the concept has become. The reason for this has to do with the failure rate.
4. The Failure Rate of New Cryptocurrencies
Despite there having been over 25,000 cryptocurrencies created, many of these remain inactive due to awaiting a launch date. .
On the other hand, a huge number of cryptocurrencies simply fail. As a result, they become inactive, and although they add to the number of currencies in existence, they have no value and cannot be traded.
There were approximately 11,000 cryptocurrencies in circulation by December 2023. Given that more than 25,000 cryptocurrencies exist, that means the failure rate of them is more than 50%.
That stark statistic throws into sharp relief how important it is to consider wisely, or seek professional advice, when choosing a cryptocurrency to invest in.
5. The Number Of People Who Deal In Cryptocurrency
The cryptocurrency landscape for its use as a payment method has been rapidly expanding for years now.
That expansion has seen it become accepted as a form of tender by more and more retailers, online stores, and even physical stores each year.
Its use has become more mainstream, with everything from online casinos to famous stores, and even car dealerships accepting it now.
All that has translated into a lot more people who either own, trade, or deal with cryptocurrency in some form.
By 2022, more than 300 million people globally either owned or dealt in cryptocurrency in some form. That number is likely to keep increasing exponentially as cryptocurrency grows its global financial footprint.
6. Rags To Riches
While many other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, XRP, and Binance Coin have grown enormously too, Bitcoin is still the most valuable one.
Part of its allure came from the fact that it was responsible for making so many people wealthy overnight.
To put it into context, this next statistic is usually one that makes people want to rush out and buy cryptocurrency immediately.
As a tantalizing fact to mull on if you’re considering getting into crypto trading, if you invested $22 in Bitcoin in 2012, by 2022, you would have made roughly $1 million.
7. The Top 10
Despite the staggering amount of cryptocurrencies out there today, the vast majority of them are basically worthless or still have very low values.
Perhaps the sad thing about the cryptocurrency revolution, is that the idea of Bitcoin was to give the world a way to break the monopolies that central authorities and banks had on the financial world.
However, since its success, the huge influx of new cryptocurrencies have now saturated the market as much as any other financial instrument out there.
That’s led the most powerful financial institutions to go after it in droves too, with many of them now being the largest holders of cryptocurrencies out there.
While this does help grow the value of crypto for everyone, it’s also led to the top 10 cryptocurrencies making up over 80% of total market value.
By market capitalization, the top 10 cryptocurrencies are currently:
- Bitcoin
- Ethereum
- Tether
- Binance Coin
- Solana
- XRP
- USDC
- Cardano
- Avalanche
- Chainlink
8. The Leading Crypto Nation
As strange as it may seem, countries like the USA and the UK, which have the world’s most powerful currencies, don’t have the highest numbers of cryptocurrency holders.
While it may seem surprising, India has the most, with more than 100 million people owning cryptocurrency.
Given that they are the world’s second most populous country, it does make sense from that point of view.
And considering that China has an outright ban on all cryptocurrency transactions, there’s a good chance that if it were legal there, the Chinese would have more crypto owners than anyone else.
