The eagerly awaited upgrade to the Ethereum network, from proof of work (PoW), into proof-of–stake is awaiting crypto communities. This is due to occur in just 27 days. The only PoW tokens will remain in the top 10 market caps after Ethereum switches from PoW-to PoS. This is quite a contrast to nine years ago’s top 10.
PoS Age: Top Ten Market Caps Fall in Proof-of Work Crypto Assets
Three stablecoins climbed to the top ten market capital positions this year for the first-ever time in crypto history. During the first week of May, Terra’s stablecoin UST made it into the top ten alongside USDT and USDC, but after UST’s depegging incident, the token fell from the top ten coin rankings. After UST’s implosion, the Binance Smart Chain-issued BUSD stablecoin joined the top coins by valuation and today, three stablecoins remain in the top ten.
That wasn’t the case nine years ago, on August 18, 2013, as there were no stablecoins in the top ten, because the stablecoin trend was not prevalent at all back then. The PoW status of Ethereum, which has been operating for seven years as a PoW-chain, will shift to PoS within 27 days. There will only be two PoW-tokens in the top 10 coins. BTC (Bitcoin) and DOGE (Doge) are the two PoW crypto tokens that remain at the top of this list. The trend wasn’t as prevalent in 2013 when most of the top 10 crypto tokens had been PoW coins.
Bitcoin (BTC), which was trading at $113/unit, was available for purchase on August 18, 2013. ethereum however was not yet in existence. The Ethereum blockchain was not launched for 711 more days. Litecoin (LTC), however, was still the largest crypto token market. At the time proof-of stake crypto assets were being conceptualized. In 2013, a variety of proof-of work and proof-ofstake tokens were available with peercoin leading the charge. Sunny King, a pseudonymous developer created PPC. It was the first PoW/PoS hybrid blockchain to be introduced to crypto-community.
In the PoW/hybrid PoW coin rankings, nine years ago, there was bitcoin (BTC), LTC), namecoin(NMC), peercoin [PPC], feathercoin (“FTC”) and novacoin® (NVC), as well as primecoin ($XPM), TRC and infinitecoin („IFC“). The only non-PoW currency in the top 10, at that point in 2013, was XRP. In 2022, XRP will still be in the top 10. Nearly seven years ago, on August 23, 2015 there were less PoW coins than the top ten. Even though ethereum was added to the ranks in PoW currency, it wasn’t quite that long ago.
Six PoW coins were among the top ten at that point, along with DASH, DOGE and ETH. In 2015, the value of hybrid PoW/PoS coin started to decline and more pure PoS networks began to emerge. BTS (banx shares) and Bitshares (BTS), were two of the most important PoS assets. BTS is still available and worth $0.010 an unit, while BANX has been dissolved due to significant controversy.
A Thread Ranks Doge in the Top Ten
On August 20, 2017, six PoW Coins remained at the top of the list, despite being two years old. BTC, ETH and BCH were all included in that list. BCH, LTC and DASH no longer make up the top ten. A handful of other coins like NEM, IOTA and NEO that were once in the top-10 have dropped off the list. This was almost five years ago, and DOGE and BTC today are the only PoW coins still in the top 10.
Moreover, it’s worth noting that dogecoin (DOGE) is in the tenth position and is fairly close to polkadot’s (DOT) market cap in size. When The Merge takes place and Ethereum becomes a PoS chain, there’s a chance DOGE may not be in the top ten if prices change. BTC, if DOGE is removed and The Merge completes, will become the sole proof-of work digital asset from the top 10 largest crypto market capitalizations.
How do you feel about top ten coins losing their proof-of work dominance in the past nine years? Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.
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