Tracking 2023 Top Ten Cryptocurrencies – One Year Report

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Month Twelve – Up +73%

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

December highlights for the 2023 Top Ten Portfolio:

• A strong/all green month to end 2023
• ADA takes its second monthly victory in a row, followed closely by DOT in second place
• End of year champ: BTC holds off second place ADA for the 2023 victory

December Rankings

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

December Winners and Losers

December Winner – ADA (+67%) outperformed the field this month for the second month in a row, followed by DOT (+62%).

December Loser – at +4%, XRP turned in the worst performance of the month.

Overall Update: BTC takes the yearly victory followed by second place ADA.  Litecoin finishes in last place. 100% of cryptos in the green. 

Bitcoin (+173%) was the best performing Top Ten crypto of 2023, followed by second place ADA (+158%).  The initial $100 invested in BTC twelve months ago is worth $272 today. 

All Top Ten cryptos finished in positive territory this year.

Litecoin was the worst performer of this year’s Top Ten Experiment, up just +8%.

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

The 2023 Top Ten Portfolio picked up $344 bucks in December and ended the month at a yearly high.  The initial $1000 investment on New Year’s Day 2023 is now worth $1,729, +73% this year.

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)

The first Top Ten Crypto Experiment was started on 1 January 2018 in an attempt to capture the gains of the entire market. Much has changed over the last six years, including the introduction of index products designed to capture the entire crypto market (instead of manually buying coins and tokens like I do for my Experiments).

This year’s friendly competition is 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 is an excellent proxy for the entire cryptocurrency market – exactly what my Top Ten Portfolios have been trying to recreate from the start.  

To mirror traditional index fund products, AMKT also provides a 5% APR match, creating its own dividend.

Here’s the question I tracked this year: would I have been better off with $1,000 of AMKT instead of creating a homemade $1,000 Top Ten Index Fund?

On 1 January 2023, $1000 was equal to 17.15 AMKT.  Here’s the snapshot, one year later: 

December Performances:

• The 2023 Top Ten Portfolio: +25% 
• AMKT: +18%

The monthly victory goes to: The 2023 Top Ten Portfolio

FINAL TALLY FOR 2023: 

• The 2023 Top Ten Portfolio: current value $1,729 (+73%) 
• AMKT: current value $2,407 (+141%)

Overall winner: The Alongside Crypto Market Index Token (AMKT)

For the more visual, here’s the table I used to track the friendly Top Ten vs. AMKT competition this year:

That’s a wrap on the 2023 Top Ten vs. AMKT competition.  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%.

Not bad for doing nothing.

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

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

• 2018 Top Ten Experiment: down -10% (total value $903)
• 2019 Top Ten Experiment: up +355% (total value $4,548)
• 2020 Top Ten Experiment: up +474% (total value $5,739) (best performing portfolio)
• 2021 Top Ten Experiment: up +139% (total value $2,393)
• 2022 Top Ten Experiment: down -52% (total value $484) (worst performing portfolio)
• 2023 Top Ten Experiment: up +73% (total value $1,729)

Taking the six portfolios together, here’s the bottom bottom bottom bottom bottom bottom line: 

After a $6,000 total investment in the 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 Top Ten Cryptocurrencies, the combined portfolios are worth $15,796. 

That’s up +163% 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 +163% gain by investing $1k on whichever cryptos happened to be in the Top Ten on January 1st (including stablecoins) for six 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 +24% so far in 2023, compared to the Top Ten Crypto portfolio’s +73%.  The initial $1k investment into crypto on New Year’s Day would be worth $1,240 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 = $1,780 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2019 = $1,900 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2020 = $1,480 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2021 = $1,270 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2022 = $1000 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2023 = $1,240 today

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

After six $1,000 investments into an S&P 500 index fund in January 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 my portfolio would be worth $8,670.

That is up +45% since January 2018 compared to a +163% 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 Experiments: 

Conclusion:

That’s a wrap for the first year of the 2023 Top Ten Crypto Index Fund Experiment.  It ended up being a very solid year, despite some bumps along the way, par for course in crypto.

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.

We are doing this again!  Check out the announcement post for the 2024 Top Ten Crypto Index Fund Experiment.

You can check out the latest the OG 2018 Top Ten Portfolio, 2019 Top Ten, 2020 Top Ten, 2021 Top Ten, and 2022 Top Ten reports as well.

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