Tracking 2019 Top Ten Cryptocurrencies – Month Thirty-Eight

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Month Thirty-Eight – UP 401%  

The 2019 Top Ten Crypto Index Fund consists of: BTC, XRP, ETH, BCH, EOS, Stellar, USDT, Litecoin, BSV, and Tron.  

February highlights for the 2019 Top Ten Crypto Portfolio: 

• A nice bounceback after a couple of very bloody months
• Ethereum in the overall lead, up +2,073% since January 2019, more than double the ROI of second place Bitcoin (+1075%)

February Ranking and Dropout Report

Here’s the difference in rank since January 2018:

Top Ten dropouts since January 2019: After thirty-eight months, 60% of the cryptos that started in the Top Ten in January 2019  have been knocked out.  EOS, Litecoin, BSV, Stellar, Bitcoin Cash, and Tron are well out of the Top Ten.  

BSV has fallen the furthest so far (#62) – it is the only 2019 Top Ten crypto that has dropped out of the Top Sixty. 

February Winners and Losers 

February Winners – XRP, +27% this month, followed by BTC and BCH (both +15%)

February Losers –  BSV and EOS, down -4% and -3% this month, respectively.

ETH easily outperforms its peers, 80% of cryptos in positive territory, EOS and BSV worst performing

ETH (+2,073%) is far and away the best performer of this group, nearly doubling the ROI of second place BTC (+1,075%) over the same period of time.

The $100 investment into first place ETH on January 1st, 2019 is currently worth $2,230.

After thirty-eight months, 80% of the cryptos in the 2019 Top Ten Portfolio are in positive territory. Only worst performers EOS (-13%) and BSV (-7%) are in the red.

Total Market Cap for the Entire Cryptocurrency Sector:

The entire cryptocurrency sector is up +1,429% since January 2019.  

This is still well behind first place ETH (2,073%) but much better than the rest of the Top Ten cryptos, including second place Bitcoin (+1,075%).  

The total market is performing much better than the Top Ten approach (+401%) as well.

However, the Top Ten approach has beaten every individual crypto except ETH and Bitcoin.

Translation: unless you went all in on ETH or Bitcoin thirty-eight months ago, you were better off diversifying into the Top Ten.  And you would be much, much better off if you had captured the gains of the entire crypto market unless you guessed right with ETH.

Crypto Market Cap Low Point in the 2019 Top Ten Crypto Index Experiment: $114B in January 2019.

Crypto Market Cap High Point in the 2019 Top Ten Crypto Index Experiment: $2.65T in October 2021.

Bitcoin Dominance:

BitDom rebounded slightly in February, ending the month at 43.3%.  

For context, here are the high and low points of BTC domination over the life of the 2019 Experiment:

Low Point in the 2019 Top Ten Crypto Index Experiment: 40.2% in December 2021..

High Point in the 2019 Top Ten Crypto Index Experiment: 70.5% in August 2019.

Overall return on $1,000 investment since January 1st, 2019:

After thirty-eight months, the value of the initial $1000 investment is $5,014, up +401%. This is down from November 2021’s all time high for the 2019 Portfolio. 

Below is a table summarizing the monthly ROI over the life of the 2019 Top Ten Index Fund experiments, providing a pretty good sense of the journey up to this point:

Fairly steady upward movements punctuated by massive dips.  During the Zombie Apocalypse in March 2020, for example, the 2019 Top Ten Portfolio was returning only +6%. 

Although the 2019 Top Ten Portfolio is up an impressive +401%, it is still a distant second place behind the 2020 Top Ten Portfolio which is up +625%.

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

Speaking of other Top Ten Portfolios, let’s put them all together now:

• 2018 Top Ten Experiment: up +10% (total value $1,099)
• 2019 Top Ten Experiment: up +401% (total value $5,014)
• 2020 Top Ten Experiment: up +625% (total value $7,248)
• 2021 Top Ten Experiment: up +211% (total value $3,110)
• 2022 Top Ten Experiment: down -14% (total value $861)

So overall? Taking the five portfolios together, here’s the bottom bottom bottom bottom bottom line: 

After a $5,000 investment in the 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 Top Ten Cryptocurrencies, the combined portfolios are worth $17,332.

That’s up +247% on the combined portfolios, down from November 2021’s all time high for the Top Ten Index Fund Experiments of +533%.  Here’s the combined monthly ROI since I started tracking the metric in January 2020:

In summary: That’s a +247% gain by investing $1k on whichever cryptos happened to be in the Top Ten on January 1st (including stablecoins) for five straight years.

Comparison to S&P 500:

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

Because the S&P 500 Index is up 72% since January 2019, the initial $1k investment I put into crypto thirty-eight months ago would be worth $1,720 had it been redirected to the S&P 500 in January 2019. 

But what if I took the same world’s-slowest-dollar-cost-averaging $1,000-per-year-on-January-1st-Crypto-Index-Fund-Experiment approach with the S&P 500? It would yield the following:

• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2018 = $1,610 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2019 = $1,720 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2020 = $1,330 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2021 = $1,150 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2022 = $900 today

Taken together, here’s the bottom bottom bottom bottom bottom line for a similar approach with the S&P: 

After five $1,000 investments into an S&P 500 index fund in January 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, my portfolio would be worth $6,710.

That is up +34% since January 2018 compared to a +247% gain of the combined Top Ten Crypto Experiment Portfolios.

Here’s a table providing an overview of the five year ROI comparison between a Top Ten Crypto approach and the S&P: 

Conclusion:

To both old-timers and newcomers: thanks so much for taking the time to read and for supporting the Top Ten Crypto Index Fund Experiments. I hope you find the updates helpful in terms of perspective as you navigate the crypto landscape.  Be careful out there and don’t put your mental, physical, or financial health at risk chasing gainz. If crypto is causing you to lose sleep at night, chances are you have too much in crypto: try to think long term and don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose. Feel free to reach out with any questions and stay tuned for the latest progress reports.

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

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