How Top Crypto Market Cap Alts Have Evolved Over the Last 5 Months

The dynamics of the crypto industry have changed over the last year, and this has affected several assets, including the top projects. Evaluating the market capitalization evolution of top cryptocurrencies since November 2024 shows that some assets have been seeing steady positive growth while others have mostly struggled.

The market analytics platform CryptoQuant selected the top five cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), Binance Coin (BNB), and Solana (SOL). The firm excluded Tether (USDT) from the group because, as a stablecoin, its market cap is affected by different dynamics.

Market Cap Evolution for Top Assets

According to CryptoQuant’s analysis, BNB and XRP have witnessed the most notable growth in market capitalization. Recently, BNB overtook SOL in terms of market cap, returning to the top five cryptocurrencies. At the time this occurred, their market caps were $92 billion and $74 billion, respectively; however, by press time, they had fallen to $86 billion and $64 billion.

Solana’s market cap significantly increased in late 2024 due to the growth of its meme coin ecosystem. However, with the momentum and spotlight shifting towards BNB Chain, BNB has recovered and reclaimed its position as the fifth-largest asset by market cap.

On the other hand, XRP has been on the rise since November 2024, when Donald Trump won the United States presidential election. Optimism about the possible outcome of Trump’s crypto-friendly administration drove the asset’s market cap from $30 billion in early November to $141 billion in March. The latest market drawdown caused the figure to drop to $124 billion by press time.

As for ETH, the asset’s underperformance has caused its market cap to plummet by 50% to roughly $240 billion earlier this month. At writing time, the figure had dropped further to $226 billion.

While ETH struggles, BTC has been winning. The market cap of the number one cryptocurrency has grown from $1.36 trillion in early November to $2.14 trillion in January. In the last eight weeks, macroeconomic uncertainty has dragged BTC down, pulling its market cap back to the $1.66 trillion level.

Price Growth and Circulating Supply

CryptoQuant also evaluated the performance of the top cryptocurrencies in terms of year-over-year (YoY) price growth. The analysis revealed that BTC, BNB, and XRP have grown 25%, 8%, and 280% YoY, while ETH and SOL have fallen 43% and 25%, respectively.

Meanwhile, in terms of circulating supply, some coins have witnessed more growth than others in the past year. SOL has increased from 430 million to 511 million since January 2024, XRP has risen from 54 billion to 58 billion, while BNB has benefited from deflationary dynamics, decreasing over the same period from 154 million to 145 million.