Tracking 2023 Top Ten Cryptocurrencies – Month Seventeen

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Month Seventeen – Up +101%

The 2023 Top Ten Crypto Index Fund Portfolio is BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, BUSD, DOGE, ADA, MATIC, DOT, LTC.

May highlights for the 2023 Top Ten Portfolio:

• All green or flat month
• ETH takes the monthly victory
• Overall: BTC still well ahead followed distantly by ETH in second and BNB in third. MATIC is the only crypto in negative territory.

May Rankings

Here’s a look at the movement in the ranks seventeen months into the 2023 Top Ten Index Fund Experiment:

May Winners and Losers

May Winners – ETH (+28%) and DOGE (+24%) were the clear winners this month

May Losers – ADA and XRP didn’t lose any ground, but basically remained flat in May, making them the worst performers of the month

Overall Update: BTC well ahead followed distantly by ETH in second.  MATIC is in last place.  90% of cryptos in the green. 

Bitcoin (+308%) is the best performing Top Ten crypto in the 2023 Portfolio, followed by second place ETH (+217%).  The initial $100 invested in BTC seventeen months ago is worth $408 today. 

90% of the 2023 Top Ten cryptos are in positive territory this year.

MATIC (-8%) is the worst performer and the only crypto in negative territory.

Overall return on $1,000 investment since January 1st, 2023:

The 2023 Top Ten Portfolio ended May up +101%.  The initial $1000 investment on New Year’s Day 2023 is now worth $2,014.

Here’s a visual summary of year one of the 2023 Top Ten portfolio:

2023 Top Ten Portfolio vs. The Alongside Crypto Market Index Token (AMKT)

Last year I ran a friendly competition between The 2023 Top Ten Portfolio and The Alongside Crypto Market Index Token (AMKT).  

AMKT is an ERC-20 token that represents a cap weighted index of 15 Cryptocurrencies (minus stablecoins) backed 1:1 by the underlying assets represented within the index and completely onchain.  

Since the index represents approximately 95% of the value within crypto, AMKT was an excellent proxy for the entire cryptocurrency market – exactly what my Top Ten Portfolios have been trying to recreate from the start.  

Here was the result of that side Experiment:

Overall winner: The Alongside Crypto Market Index Token (AMKT).  In the end, it really wasn’t close – AMKT took 9 out of 12 monthly victories and held the overall lead throughout 2023, returning +141% vs. my Top Ten’s 73%.

The value of the AMKT provided by Alongside for the Experiment was donated to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

Combining the 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 Top Ten Crypto Portfolios 

The 2023 Top Ten is one of seven concurrent experimental portfolios.  Where do we stand if we combine all of the Top Ten Crypto Index Fund Experiments?

• 2018 Top Ten Experiment: up +23% (total value $1,234)
• 2019 Top Ten Experiment: up +526% (total value $6,263)
• 2020 Top Ten Experiment: up +813% (total value $9,130) (best performing portfolio)
• 2021 Top Ten Experiment: up +230% (total value $3,287)
• 2022 Top Ten Experiment: down -39% (total value $615) (worst performing portfolio)
• 2023 Top Ten Experiment: up +101% (total value $2,014)
• 2024 Top Ten Experiment: up +24% (total value $1,237)

Taking the seven portfolios together:

After a $7,000 total investment in the 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 Top Ten Cryptocurrencies, the combined portfolios are worth $23,780. 

That’s up +240% on the combined portfolios.  

For context, the peak  for the combined Top Ten Index Fund Experiment Portfolios was November 2021’s all time high of +533%.  

Here’s the combined monthly ROI since I started tracking the metric in January 2020 for those who do better with visuals:

In summary: That’s a +240% gain by investing $1k on whichever cryptos happened to be in the Top Ten on January 1st (including stablecoins) for seven straight years.

Comparison to S&P 500

I’m also tracking the S&P 500 as part of my Experiment to have a comparison point to traditional markets.

The S&P 500 is up +37% so far in 2023, compared to the Top Ten Crypto portfolio’s +101%.  The initial $1k investment into crypto on New Year’s Day would be worth $1,370 had it been redirected to the S&P.  

Taking the same invest-$1,000-on-January-1st-of-each-year approach with the S&P 500 that I’ve been documenting through the Top Ten Crypto Experiments, the yields are the following:

• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2018 = $1,970 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2019 = $2,110 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2020 = $1,630 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2021 = $1,410 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2022 = $1,110 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2023 = $1,370 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2024 = $1,110 today

Taken together, the results for a similar approach with the S&P: 

After seven $1,000 investments into an S&P 500 index fund in January 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 my portfolio would be worth $10,710.

That is up +53% since January 2018 compared to a +240% gain of the combined Top Ten Crypto Experiment Portfolios. 

The visual below shows a comparison on ROI between a Top Ten Crypto approach and the S&P as per the rules of the Top Ten Crypto Experiments: 

Conclusion:

To the long time followers of the Top Ten Experiments, thank you for sticking around so long. For those just getting into crypto, I hope these reports will help prepare you for the highs and lows that await on your crypto adventures.  Buckle up, go with the flow, think long term, and truly don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose.  Most importantly, try to enjoy the ride.

A reporting note: I’ll focus on 2024 Top Ten Portfolio reports + one other portfolio on a rotating basis this year, so expect two reports from me per month.  May’s extended report is on the 2023 Top Ten Portfolio, the one you’re reading now.  You can check out the latest 2018 Top Ten, 2019 Top Ten, 2020 Top Ten, 2021 Top Ten, and 2022 Top Ten reports as well.

This article contains affiliate links. If you click on a link in this article, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

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