10 Biggest Digital Currencies in the World

Published on August 12, 2022 at 9:06 am by Usman Kabir in Lists, News

In this article, we discuss the 10 biggest digital currencies in the world. If you want to read about some more digital cryptocurrencies, go directly to 5 Biggest Digital Currencies in the World.

Soaring inflation and rising interest rates over the past few months have hammered risk assets, resulting in a broad correction in value of several digital currencies. The aggregate market capitalization of the crypto market has more than halved in size from a peak value of over $3 trillion at the end of 2021. Most of this decline can be attributed to the two biggest digital currencies that have had a horrible start to 2022, with Bitcoin down close to 50% year-to-date while Ethereum is down nearly 49%.

In tandem with this crisis for the crypto world, firms which have invested in digital assets, like Visa Inc. (NYSE:V), Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ), and PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL), have also witnessed their share prices tumble. The worst, however, seems to be behind the crypto world, as coin prices are showing signs of rallying once again as July inflation data points to slowed gains due to rising inventories and falling energy prices. In the month of July, Bitcoin rallied nearly 20% while Ethereum prices climbed by around 58%.

A slew of bankruptcies in the sector have served to lower overall investor confidence in the crypto world this year. Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital collapsed in June, a $10 billion setback for the overall industry. Crypto lenders Voyager Digital and Celsius also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing overall market conditions and exposure to other collapsed crypto firms in their filings. Crypto experts believe these filings mark the bottom for the crypto world which can only go up from here.

Ben Small, analyst at digital asset broker GlobalBlock, told Forbes magazine in early August that a “sea of green is showing across digital assets” and this “show of optimism” reflects the view among investors that a more aggressive plan of action from the Federal Reserve was expected. As regulators push ahead with plans to promote crypto, investors are eyeing up buying opportunities in the sector once again, with the biggest currencies in the crypto world dominating the headlines.

Our Methodology

These were picked from a careful assessment of the cryptoverse. The details of each cryptocurrency are mentioned alongside a discussion around top companies working in the sector to provide readers with some context for their investment decisions. A database of around 900 elite hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey in the first quarter of 2022 was used to calculate the popularity of these firms among hedge funds.

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Biggest Digital Currencies in the World

10. Dogecoin

Market Capitalization as of August 12: $9 billion

Dogecoin is a surprise inclusion in the biggest digital currencies in the world. The coin, which started out as a joke in 2013, has become one of the most popular in the world thanks to celebrity promotions. The real-world usage of the coin has increased in the meanwhile as well. The coin has inspired other joke coins as well, and the trades in these coins have become notorious in the crypto world. Billionaire Elon Musk is one of the biggest backers of the coin and regularly hypes it on social media.

Currencies like Dogecoin are becoming popular as companies like Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), the California-based technology giant, hype the crypto industry. Among the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, London-based investment firm TCI Fund Management is a leading shareholder in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), with 2.3 million shares worth more than $6.6 billion.

Just like Visa Inc. (NYSE:V), Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ), and PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL), Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is one of the stocks popular in the cryptoverse.

In its Q2 2022 investor letter, Wedgewood Partners, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) grew its core search revenues +24% on a +30% year-ago comparison. Despite this stellar top-line performance, shares sold off as the market began to discount fears of a recession. However, the stock has outperformed relative to other holdings as core Google Search has been less affected by disruptions related to Apple’s privacy initiatives. Alphabet’s Cloud segment is generating revenue at a $24 billion run rate but is still running at a loss. We think this business can generate much better margins at some point. In the meantime, the Company has 4% to 5% of shares authorized for repurchase which is an attractive use of capital as the stock trades for about just 18X 2023 consensus estimates.”

9. Polkadot

Market Capitalization as of August 12: $9.5 billion

Polkadot is a cryptocurrency whose primary use is to act as a chain between different blockchain networks. As cryptocurrencies become more popular, the use of Polkadot has been increasing as well. Polkadot allows users to utilize the network to create new blockchains through the use of a function called the relay chain. These new blockchains operate independently of the Polkadot network but still use the inbuilt security. This allows the smaller blockchains to be protected against attacks. Polkadot can be traded through the services offered by CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME), the Illinois-based derivatives exchange.

At the end of the first quarter of 2022, 58 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $2.9 billion in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME), compared to 55 the preceding quarter worth $2.7 billion.

In its Q4 2021 investor letter, ClearBridge Investments, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME), for example, maintains a dominant franchise in electronic commodities and options trading with high incremental margins. Its interest rate trading business had been depressed coming out of the recession, but with a tightening policy environment, it now provides upside optionality that augments robust free cash flow growth and capital return. Willscot Mobile Mini is another compounder that executed well through the pandemic but was not initially recognized for the synergies of its Mobile Mini acquisition. The deal has reduced costs and created greater operating leverage as the company rides the tailwinds of improving industrial production and construction.”

8. Solana

Market Capitalization as of August 12: $13.7 billion

Solana is a cryptocurrency that operates on a network with one of the fastest transaction speeds in the crypto industry. The network can process 50,000 transactions per second, dwarfing the speeds of other prominent networks. Solana is in the process of making the network more friendly to decentralised finance and non-fungible tokens, two of the fastest growing sectors in the cryptoverse. The network also charges lower fees per transaction than peers, making it even more competitive as an alt-coin to Ethereum.

Solana is rising in prominence on social media through the crypto mainstreaming efforts of companies like Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), the EV maker from California. At the end of the first quarter of 2022, 80 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $11 billion in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), compared to 91 in the previous quarter worth $12 billion.

Here is what Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC has to say about Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) in its Q1 2022 investor letter:

“To put the demand growth for clean energy materials into perspective, let’s look at Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA). At its Battery Day last year, Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) projected three terawatt hours of lithium-ion battery capacity needed in 2030 for the EVs and storage they expect to produce. To reach this target, Tesla alone would gobble up approximately 75% of the world’s current nickel production and four times the world’s current lithium production. These numbers are astounding enough, but when one considers that EVs currently represent just 15% of global nickel demand and about 45% of lithium demand and that Tesla will likely be producing only a small proportion of the world’s EVs in 2030, the implications are staggering. Clean energy materials companies will make a lot more money in the decades to come than they ever have both because they will be selling a lot more metric tons of material and because there are certain to be shortages where supply can’t keep up with the rapidly growing demand.”

7. Cardano

Market Capitalization as of August 12: $17.1 billion

Cardano is one of the Ethereum spinoffs that has gained a cult following of its own in recent years. The reason that the coin has a cult following is that it was launched by a group of scientists and engineers that are experts in the field of blockchain technology. This group has more than 100 research papers on the subject published in various reputable journals around the world. Cardano has already transitioned to a more environment-friendly consensus mechanism, beating Ethereum in this endeavour.

The popularity of Cardano owes a lot to the crypto initiatives of firms like Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA), the New York-based payments processing firm. Among the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Virginia-based investment firm Akre Capital Management is a leading shareholder in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA), with 5.8 million shares worth more than $2 billion.

In its Q4 2021 investor letter, Saturna Capital, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“Given the likelihood of rising inflation and interest rates ahead, we anticipate adjustments to the portfolio to reduce exposure to highly valued stocks dependent on low interest rates to support terminal year valuations, while seeking investments in companies more correlated with a return to economic normalcy. We sold our position in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA). Although Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) does not charge or collect interest, its association with credit activities was problematic.”

6. Ripple

Market Capitalization as of August 12: $17.4 billion

Ripple is the coin used by RippleNet, a platform that has become popular as an alternative to the SWIFT payments system in the traditional banking world. The platform has gained in relevance as it charges lower fees and processes transactions quicker than the traditional banking system. The coin uses a consensus model called a Unique Node List, a little different from other coins that use proof-of-stake or proof-of-work mechanisms. The coin was created by RippleLabs in 2012.

Coins like Ripple are mined using the powerful machines manufactured by NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), the microchip maker from California. At the end of the first quarter of 2022, 102 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $6.3 billion in NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), compared to 110 the preceding quarter worth $10.4 billion.

In addition to Visa Inc. (NYSE:V), Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ), and PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL), NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is one of the stocks that crypto enthusiasts are buying.

In its Q1 2022 investor letter, RiverPark Funds, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is the leading designer of graphics processing chips (commonly known as GPU’s- graphics processing units), required for powerful computer processing. Over the past 20 years, the company has evolved through innovation and adaptation from a predominantly gaming- focused chip vendor to one of the largest semiconductor/software vendors in the world, dominating the core secular growth markets of gaming, data centers and professional visualization. Over the past decade, the company has grown revenue at a compound annual rate of over 20% while expanding operating margins and, through its asset light business model, producing ever increasing amounts of free cash flow. For 2021 the company generated 61% revenue growth to $27 billion, expanded its EBITDA margins to over 44% and generated over $8 billion of free cash flow. Over the past five years, the company has generated a cumulative $23 billion of FCF after cumulative capital expenditures of less than $4 billion.

We expect future growth to remain robust as NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) chips and software are critical to many of the core technologies being adopted globally, including cloud computing, virtual reality and advanced artificial intelligence. As with NFLX, we took advantage of the over 40% recent drop in the company’s shares over the last several months to initiate a small position.”

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