Crypto Market Cap Trends: 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023 | Updated December ‘23

The crypto space has been a pocket full of surprises ever since the 2020 pandemic had shaken the traditional financial markets. The market capitalization, which dropped heavily after reaching nearly $1 trillion, maintained a consolidated trend below $300 billion for quite a long time. However, as the last quarter of 2020 approached, the bull market intensified and spiked extremely high.

At the beginning of 2021, the bull run reached its peak, and the market cap also registered its highs close to $3 trillion. Soon after, the crypto market saw a long stretched bear run through 2022, where the crypto market capitalization fell below $1 trillion briefly. And with the beginning of 2023 – we see a strong recovery in the crypto market, led primarily by Bitcoin, and the overall crypto market cap recovering back above $1 trillion and all the way to nearly $1.7 trillion as of writing this article.

Market Cap	2020	2021	2022	2023
All crypto	$757.31 billion	$2.32 trillion	$1.01 trillion	$1.68 trillion
All crypto, excluding Bitcoin	$226.15 billion	$1.32 trillion	$615.69 billion	$836 billion

Year-on-Year Growth Analysis of the Crypto Market

All Crypto

Year	Market Cap	% Change
2020	$757.31 billion	+74.44%
2021	$2.32 trillion	+67.35%
2022	$1.01 trillion	-56.4%
2023	$1.68 trillion	+118%

All crypto, excluding Bitcoin

Year	Market Cap	% Change
2020	$ 225.05 billion	+72.67%
2021	$1.32 trillion	+82.95%
2022	$638.50 trillion	-51.6%
2023	$836 billion	+31%

Crypto Market Cap Trends – 2020:

Bitcoin Price close to $10,000

The Crypto space began surging high as Bitcoin price gained significant bullish momentum. The price which had dropped hard below $4000 after the 2018 crash remained consolidated for a pretty long time. Moreover, the uncertainty over the traditional financial system gained mass attention and adoption. This in turn uplifted the BTC price close to $10,000 for the first time since the 2018 crash. 

Apart from Bitcoin some of the altcoins also made a notable move.

Ethereum Price Gained More than 660%

Ethereum price throughout 2020 followed a firm trend line and continued to surge towards the north. The ETH crypto gained more than 660% of its value and ended the yearly trade on a huge bullish note marking highs beyond $700.

Additional Read: Top Cryptos to Buy other Bitcoin

Litecoin Gained Nearly 120% but Lost All Gained Value and Maintained a Notable Consolidation 

The lite version of Bitcoin, Litecoin, spiked since the beginning of 2022 by gaining nearly 120%. However, the crypto asset in the next 30 days, lost all the gained value and maintained a notable consolidation until the beginning of Q4. The last quarter ignited a huge bull rally which uplifted the price beyond $100 but failed to close 2020 trade above $140. 

Check out latest Bitcoin INR Price , Chart, and Data.

Yearn. Finance

Yearn.Finance price rally came out to be a shutter shock for the entire crypto space which ignited a significant DeFi boom. Most of the DeFi tokens followed the YFI rally and marked their highs surging by a double-digit margin. Crypto Tokens like Polkadot, Uniswap, Chainlink, etc and much more spiked notably. 

Crypto Market Cap Trends – 2021:

Global Crypto Market Cap smashed the highs above $2 trillion!

The crypto market bull run ignited immediately with the beginning of the 2021 trade, during which 99% of the crypto asset recorded new all-time highs. However, the beginning of the rally was with Bitcoin which smashed $64,000 for the first time and after recovering from a pullback, marked new highs at $69,000. Moreover, the crypto market achieved a milestone of briefly surpassing the $3 trillion market cap in November 2021.

The overall crypto market cap also briefly touched highs of $3 trillion for the first time in 2021 and later after hitting the lows, recovered quickly and spiked to hit the ATH at $2.8 trillion. The 2021 bull run was initially ignited by the Dogecoin surge that occurred due to the mentions of Elon Musk. 

While BTC price rallied for the first time, most of the altcoins made a huge move, while during the second time, Non-Fungible Tokens(NFTs) marked their strong presence. 

However, Cardano was one of the tokens that spiked while the entire crypto market was chopping around within narrow regions. 

Cardano

Cardano price ignited a massive bull run ever since the beginning of the year 2021 and achieved highs above $2. However, it also experienced a 50% drain but rebounded finely to mark new highs above $3. The second spike was fueled by the ‘Alonzo Hard Fork’. But soon after the event, the price drained heavily and marked a bearish yearly close. 

By the end of Q3, most of the crypto assets were closer to igniting a significant bull run, but the tokens which outperformed all the other traditional assets were NFTs. 

Crypto-Asset	Growth Recorded in 2021
Gala(GALA)	50,829%
Axie Infinity (AXS)	18,966%
The SandBox (SAND)	14,629%
Polygon(MATIC)	12,817%
TerraClassic(LUNC)	11,558%
Solana(SOL)	10,118%
Fantom(FTM)	8,966%
Kadena(KDA)	8,131%
Harmony (ONE)	4,464%
Decentraland(MANA)	4,397%

The NFT bull run was ignited soon after Beeple sold his NFT called ‘Everyday’s: For the First 5000 Days’ for a whopping $69 million. The NFTs emerged as the top performing assets in 2021 recording a trading volume of over $23 billion. The NFT marketplace Metaverse recorded a $500 million volume whereas in-game assets registered $4.5 billion trading volume. 

Crypto Market Cap Trends – 2022:

The Crypto markets underwent a notable pullback after marking their highs in the last quarter of 2021. However, the trend continued in 2022 but most of the assets including Bitcoin moved sideways. During the second fortnight of 2022, most of the assets geared up and recovered most of the losses. 

Bitcoin was on the verge to regain its levels above $50,000 when the LUNA-UST crisis slaughtered the entire market. Most of the assets were slashed by a minimum of 50% but failed to recover quickly as it did after the May 2021 crash. The asset registered the lows that it had not visited in the last 18 to 20 months as the BTC price plunged below $18000. On the other hand, the global market cap also slumped hard below $1 trillion.

Currently, Bitcoin and the other assets are attempting extremely hard to nullify the bearish impact and maintain a consolidated trend. While some believe the star crypto is closer to making a large move, the other bunch of traders predict the bottoms of the current cycle are yet to be reached. 

Collectively, the crypto space is expected to swing within the same braces for some more time, as the bulls and the whales still remain uncertain over the coming trend. Therefore, until and unless the Bitcoin price secures its levels above $30,000, the markets may continue to remain consolidated.

Key Moments of Crypto Market 2022

• The year began with a significant descending trend, which was further fueled by the Russian-Ukraine crisis in February. The US inflation reached a 42-year high standing at 9.1% while the G.D.P remained negative during H1 2022.
• The Terra Luna UST depegging fiasco in the month of May also played a pivotal role in the bearish spree in the overall crypto market.

Terra LUNA Crash 

The crypto market meltdown began with the liquidity crisis which first hit TerraClassic as the native stablecoin de-pegged heavily. To stabilize the peg, nearly 80K BTC were moved out of their reserves which dragged the entire market into bearish captivity. This event shook the entire crypto space which began the domino effect impacting the other platforms.

Read more on LUNA Crypto Crash

Crypto Lender Celcius Network Collapse

It was a huge shock for crypto enthusiasts when Celsius Network halted the deposits and withdrawals, citing the shaky market conditions. The New Jersey-based crypto lending company announced that it was pausing all withdrawals, swaps, and transfers between accounts “due to extreme market conditions.

US Federal Reserve Begins Rate Hike Regime

It is known that the inflation rates have been soaring high since the beginning of the year and the FED has been struggling to cope with the same. The US Federal Reserve has raised interest by 75 basis points for the second time. Crypto and other financial markets took the hit when the reserve raised the interest for the first time.

Introduction of 1% TDS on Crypto 

As the crypto markets trend began to fall, the need for regulation tightened. Therefore, the Indian Government announced new tax policy according to which a trader is required to pay 30% tax on the profits and 1% TDS on every transaction

Read more on 1% TDS on Crypto

Crypto Market Cap Trends – 2023:

The overall crypto market has been on a bullish roll all through 2023 – especially led by the king coin, Bitcoin. Bitcoin has rallied over 160% so far in 2023, and has pulled up the overall crypto market too, which has rallied a solid 120% in the same timeframe!

Bitcoin led the rally in the crypto market in 2023, going from around $16500 at the beginning of the year all the way to around the $43,000 to $44,000 range towards the end of December 2023 – scripting a massive 160% rally. The altcoin king, Ethereum too saw strong gains, albeit lesser than Bitcoin’s – going from under $1200 to near $2400 as of writing, gaining a solid 100% in the process.

Overall indications look very optimistic and promising for 2024, as we have the fourth Bitcoin halving event coming up sometime in April 2024. Thus the year 2023 is poised very well to end on a strongly bullish note. 

Solana

Solana has been one of the strongest performers amongst the top cryptos by market cap after Bitcoin. Early on in the year, Solana’s market cap was somewhere around $3.5 to $4 billion and in the last couple of months has catapulted to over $45 billion as of writing this article, having seen over 950% in gains in 2023 alone!

Conclusion

The crypto market’s rollercoaster ride over the past years showcased incredible highs and staggering lows, echoing global economic shifts and emerging digital currency dynamics. After plummeting below $300 billion in the pandemic’s wake, the market surged aggressively in late 2020, peaking near $3 trillion in early 2021. However, the subsequent bear run in 2022 saw the market dip below $1 trillion before regaining strength in 2023, reaching nearly $1.7 trillion.

Bitcoin, the prime market mover, surged from around $16,500 to $43,000–$44,000 by December 2023, marking an impressive 160% rally and driving the market’s robust 120% ascent. Ethereum followed suit, witnessing a solid 100% gain.

Notable altcoins like Solana surged remarkably in 2023, experiencing an astronomical 950% increase, with its market cap skyrocketing from $3.5 to $4 billion to over $45 billion.

As 2024 approaches with Bitcoin’s fourth halving event slated for April, the optimistic market sentiments linger. Nevertheless, the crypto landscape remains volatile, impacted by global events like the Russian-Ukraine crisis and regulatory shifts, exemplified by the Indian Government’s introduction of a 1% TDS on crypto transactions.

Amid these evolving dynamics, the crypto market’s trajectory continues to be a fascinating saga, exhibiting resilience and promise for the future while being susceptible to ongoing global influences. This intricate interplay underscores the volatile yet captivating nature of the crypto realm.

For a detailed analysis of the crypto market’s historical and predicted trends, explore the comprehensive charts and insightful data presented in this article.