Tracking 2023 Top Ten Cryptocurrencies – Month Five

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Month Five – Up +32%

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:

• For the second month in a row, the 2023 Top Ten drops modestly – but back to back losses are enough to land the Portfolio back to January levels of ROI.
• XRP easily outperformed the field in May (+9%), followed by Litecoin.  The rest either maintained or lost ground.
• Bitcoin holds on to the lead so far in 2023, followed by XRP and ETH in second place.

May Ranking and Dropouts

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

Remarkably steady so far during the five months of 2023, with only BUSD dropping out of the original portfolio, replaced by SOL.

May Winner and Loser

May Winner –  XRP easily outperformed its peers, up +9% in May.

May Loser – DOT, down -10%, was the worst performing crypto of the 2023 Top Ten Portfolio this month.

Overall Update: BTC maintains lead, XRP and ETH move into second place, all crypto still in the green for the year, barely.

Every crypto in this year’s Experiment is still in positive territory, although DOGE is very close to being the first in the Top Ten Portfolio to get back down to the break even point. It is turning in the worst non-stablecoin performance so far, barely in the green at +2% for the year.

For the second month in a rown, BTC holds on to the top spot after overtaking MATIC for the lead two months ago. The initial $100 invested in BTC five months ago is worth $162 today. 

XRP and ETH are next, +55% since New Year’s Day.  

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

The 2023 Top Ten Portfolio lost $45 in May.  The initial $1000 investment on New Year’s Day 2023 is now worth $1,317. 

At +32%, the 2023 Top Ten Portfolio is at its lowest month end ROI of the year. Here’s a visual summary of the progress so far:

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

New feature this year – 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 in the last 5+ 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 the Top 25 Cryptocurrencies (minus stablecoins) backed 1:1 by the underlying assets represented within the index.  Since the Top 25 represent approximately 97% 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.

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

On 1 January 2023, $1000 was equal to 17.15 AMKT.  Five months into the Experiment, here’s the AMKT snapshot: 

May Performances:

• The 2023 Top Ten Portfolio: -3% 
• AMKT: -4%

For the first time in 2023, the monthly victory goes to: The Top Ten Crypto Experiment Portfolio.

Overall since January 1st, 2023: 

• The 2023 Top Ten Portfolio: current value $1,317 (+32%) 
• AMKT: current value $1,560 (+56%)

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

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

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 -37% (total value $628)
• 2019 Top Ten Experiment: up +229% (total value $3,286)
• 2020 Top Ten Experiment: up +379% (total value $4,788) (best performing portfolio)
• 2021 Top Ten Experiment: up +87% (total value $1,870)
• 2022 Top Ten Experiment: down -70% (total value $299) (worst performing portfolio)
• 2023 Top Ten Experiment: up +32% (total value $1,317)

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 $12,188. 

That’s up +103% on the combined portfolios.  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 +103% 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 +10% so far in 2023, so the initial $1k investment into crypto on New Year’s Day would be worth $1,100 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 = $1,580 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2019 = $1,680 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2020 = $1,310 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2021 = $1,120 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2022 = $890 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2023 = $1,100 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 $7,680.

That is up +28% since January 2018 compared to a +103% 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:

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 2023 Top Ten Portfolio reports + one other portfolio on a rotating basis this year, so expect two reports per month.  May’s extended report covers the 2022 Top Ten Portfolio, which you can access here.  You can check out the latest 2018 Top Ten, 2019 Top Ten, 2020 Top Ten, and 2021 Top Ten reports as well.

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