Tracking 2023 Top Ten Cryptocurrencies – Month Seven

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Month Seven – Up +34%

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

July highlights for the 2023 Top Ten Portfolio:

• Reversing a three month trend, the 2023 Top Ten increases in value.
• July belonged to XRP, up +50% this month. 
• XRP has also leapfrogged into the overall lead so far in 2023, followed by BTC and ETH.

July Ranking and Dropouts

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

The rankings have remained remarkably steady so far in 2023: only BUSD has dropped out of the original portfolio, replaced by SOL.

July Winners and Losers

July Winner – Some long awaited good news gave XRP the easy victory in July, finishing the month +50%.

July Loser – LTC was the worst performing of the group this month, -12% in July..

Overall Update: XRP overtakes BTC for the lead, MATIC and only crypto in the red. 

XRP (+117%) shot past Bitcoin (+79%) in July, taking the first place position BTC has held for much of the year. The initial $100 invested in XRP seven months ago is worth $218 today. 

MATIC is the only Top Ten crypto to dip into the red, down -8%.. For some perspective on MATIC’s decline, it was in the lead just four months ago. 

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

The 2023 Top Ten Portfolio gained $69 in July.  The initial $1000 investment on New Year’s Day 2023 is now worth $1,338. 

At +27%, 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 creating a homemade $1,000 Top Ten Index Fund?

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

July Performances:

• The 2023 Top Ten Portfolio: +5% 
• AMKT: -1%

The monthly victory goes to: The 2023 Top Ten Portfolio

Overall since January 1st, 2023: 

• The 2023 Top Ten Portfolio: current value $1,338 (+34%) 
• AMKT: current value $1,650 (+65%)

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 -32% (total value $676)
• 2019 Top Ten Experiment: up +259% (total value $3,592)
• 2020 Top Ten Experiment: up +360% (total value $4,596) (best performing portfolio)
• 2021 Top Ten Experiment: up +84% (total value $1,838)
• 2022 Top Ten Experiment: down -69% (total value $314) (worst performing portfolio)
• 2023 Top Ten Experiment: up +34% (total value $1,338)

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 $12,354. 

That’s up +106% on the combined portfolios, a bit up from last month.  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 +106% 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 +19% so far in 2023, compared to the Top Ten Crypto portfolio’s +34%.  The initial $1k investment into crypto on New Year’s Day would be worth $1,190 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 = $1,710 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2019 = $1,830 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2020 = $1,420 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2021 = $1,220 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2022 = $960 today
• $1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2023 = $1,190 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 $8,330.

That is up +39% since January 2018 compared to a +106% 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.  July’s extended report covers the 2019 Top Ten Portfolio, which you can access here.  You can check out the latest 2018 Top Ten, 2020 Top Ten, 2021 Top Ten, and 2022 Top Ten reports as well.

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