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The crypto community is patiently waiting for the long-awaited Ethereum network upgrade from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) as The Merge is expected to happen 27 days from now. After Ethereum transitions from PoW to PoS, only two cryptoassets in the top ten market capitalization rankings will be PoW tokens, which is a stark contrast to the top ten nine years ago.
This year, for the first time in crypto history, three stablecoins entered the top ten market cap positions. During the first week of May, Terra’s stablecoin UST entered the top ten along with USDT and USDC, but after UST’s depegging incident, the token dropped 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 was not the case nine years ago, on August 18, 2013, as there were no stablecoins in the top ten, because the stablecoin trend was not widespread at all back then. In 27 days, Ethereum will change from PoW to PoS after operating as a PoW chain for seven years, and when that happens, only two coins in the top ten will be PoW tokens. The last standing top two PoW crypto tokens in the top ten will be bitcoin (BTC) and dogecoin (DOGE). This trend was also not prevalent nine years ago in 2013, when the top ten crypto tokens were mostly PoW coins.
On August 18, 2013, bitcoin (BTC) changed hands at $113 per unit, and ethereum was non-existent. In fact, the Ethereum blockchain did not launch for another 711 days after August 18, 2013, and litecoin (LTC) was the second largest crypto token by market capitalization. Proof-of-stake crypto-assets were conceptualized at the time, and in 2013 a number of hybrid proof-of-work and proof-of-stake tokens with peercoin (PPC) led the charge. PPC was the first hybrid PoW/PoS blockchain introduced to the crypto community, and it was created by the pseudonymous developer Sunny King.
Nine years ago, the top ten PoW and hybrid PoW coins included bitcoin (BTC), litecoin (LTC), namecoin (NMC), peercoin (PPC), feathercoin (FTC), novacoin (NVC), primecoin (XPM ), terracoin (TRC) and infinitecoin (IFC). At that time in 2013, the only non-PoW coin in the top ten positions was XRP, and XRP remains in the top ten crypto market caps in 2022. Almost seven years ago, on August 23, 2015, there were fewer PoW coins in the top ten, even with ethereum (ETH) joining the ranks as a PoW coin.
At the time, only six PoW coins existed in the top ten, including BTC, LTC, ETH, DASH, DOGE and BCN. At the time in 2015, hybrid PoW/PoS coins were being pushed down in value and pure PoS networks were becoming more widespread. On August 23, 2015, banx shares (BANX) and bitshares (BTS) were among the most valuable PoS assets. BTS still exists and is worth $0.010 per unit today, while BANX is non-existent after considerable controversy.
Two years later, six PoW coins were still in the top ten on August 20, 2017. PoW coins included at that time were BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC, DASH, and ETC. BCH, LTC, DASH and ETC no longer appear in the top ten positions. Furthermore, a few other coins that once held top ten positions such as IOTA, NEM, and NEO have also dropped out of the top ten since then. It was almost five years ago and today DOGE and BTC are the last PoW coins in the top ten.
Also, it is worth noting that dogecoin (DOGE) is in tenth position and is quite close to polkadots (DOT) market cap in size. When The Merge takes place and Ethereum becomes a PoS chain, there is a chance that DOGE will not be in the top ten if the prices change. If DOGE is knocked out and the merger is completed, BTC will be the only proof-of-work digital asset among the top ten crypto market capitalizations.
What do you think about the top ten coins losing proof-of-work dominance over the past nine years? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.
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