Crypto Market Cap Ranking Guide: How to Mine Gold from Mainstream Coins?

In the current environment of increased asset volatility, cryptocurrencies are becoming an increasingly popular choice among investors due to their high liquidity and convenient trading features. However, faced with thousands of different coins, beginners often find it difficult to get started. This article will provide an in-depth analysis of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap and offer 8 potential projects worth关注, helping you develop your investment strategy.

Market Cycles Determine Investment Strategies

“Buy new coins in a bull market, hold mainstream assets in a bear market”—this saying has been circulating in the crypto community for a long time, and its underlying logic is worth understanding:

Why focus on lower market cap projects during a bull market? Because these projects have larger price potential, making rapid increases easier, with potential returns far exceeding those of top-tier coins.

Why stick to mainstream assets during a bear market? Mainly because coins with higher market caps tend to be more resilient to declines, with lower risk of delisting, while small-cap coins often face the risk of zeroing out in a bear market.

Therefore, the overall trend of the market is the primary criterion. Only after that should one evaluate factors such as project reputation, trading activity, liquidity depth, volatility, and real-world application scenarios.

Top Eleven Cryptocurrencies by Market Cap

Based on market cap as the core reference, the current rankings are as follows:

Important Reminder: Market cap rankings are not fixed. Projects like Filecoin, Luna, Polkadot, which once entered the top ten, eventually fell out due to market narrative changes. This warns us that all-in investing in a single project is risky; diversification is essential.

8 Cryptocurrencies Worth关注

1. Bitcoin (BTC)— The representative of digital gold

As the pioneer of cryptocurrencies, BTC is known for its scarcity. With a fixed supply of 21 million coins and a halving mechanism every four years, it has strong deflationary characteristics, with current inflation below 0.80%. Since the approval of spot ETFs in 2024, institutional funds have continued to flow in, further boosting its market position.

Core advantages: Scarcity, anti-inflation features, highest market recognition

2. Ethereum (ETH)— The flagship of smart contracts

Ethereum’s true value lies in its smart contract functionality, attracting tens of thousands of developers building applications on its ecosystem. Currently, the total value locked (TVL) on Ethereum reaches $93.1 billion, leading all blockchains. Trading volume often reaches 60-70% of Bitcoin’s, making it one of the most liquid projects. With the advancement of spot ETFs and staking features, institutional capital continues to flow in.

Core advantages: Most complete application ecosystem, second largest market cap, ample liquidity

3. TAO Token (TAO)— A潮儿 in the AI era

With explosive growth in AI technology, the integration of AI and blockchain has become a new trend. TAO is backed by the Bittensor network, which creates a decentralized machine learning service marketplace where users can purchase AI model services on nodes using TAO. TAO’s design references Bitcoin’s scarcity model, with a fixed supply of 21 million and gradual deflation.

Core advantages: Closely aligned with AI development, scarce supply, innovative model

4. XRP— Institutional-grade payment tool

XRP is supported by Ripple and has partnerships with hundreds of government agencies and financial institutions worldwide. Its transaction processing capacity reaches 1,500-3,400 transactions/sec (actual TPS of 500-700), far surpassing Bitcoin’s 7 TPS, making it the preferred tool for enterprise cross-border payments.

Core advantages: Institutional backing, ultra-high throughput, strong compliance

5. Solana (SOL)— The high-performance representative

SOL is renowned for its extreme performance, with theoretical throughput up to 65,000 transactions/sec, and actual operation maintaining 3,000-4,000 TPS, far exceeding Ethereum’s 15-30 TPS. Most importantly, the average transaction fee is only $0.00025, offering unmatched cost-effectiveness and attracting many DeFi applications to migrate.

Core advantages: Fastest transaction speed in the industry, low fees, best cost-performance ratio

6. Other mainstream projects

Chainlink (LINK): Connects on-chain and off-chain data via Oracle, providing real-world data support for smart contracts, a key infrastructure project.

The Open Network (TON): Backed by the Telegram ecosystem, with a large user base.

Dogecoin (DOGE): Strong community culture, ongoing attention from industry leaders.

Mainstream Coins vs Altcoins: How to Choose

Classification standards

Based on market cap, the top ten projects are generally classified as “mainstream coins,” while others are considered “altcoins.”

Based on price stability, projects are divided into “stablecoins” (e.g., USDT, USDC, pegged 1:1 to USD) and “volatile coins.”

Investment characteristics comparison

Limitations of stablecoins: Although safe, their price fluctuations are usually less than 1%, making it nearly impossible to generate significant returns. They are best used as cash reserves.

Opportunities with non-stablecoins: Mainstream projects like BTC, ETH, SOL, DOGE have shown significant gains in each bull cycle. For example, in the last cycle, BTC increased by 1,800%, while XRP’s gains were more moderate at 800% due to regulatory pressures, but still offered substantial returns.

Safety considerations

From a safety perspective, mainstream coins are more suitable for long-term holding over 4 years (covering a full bull-bear cycle). Larger market cap makes them harder to manipulate, and retail investors’ funds are relatively safer. Conversely, newly created altcoins are often controlled by project teams or platforms, making it easier for prices to be manipulated and leading to retail liquidation.

Long-term Holding vs Short-term Trading

Long-term investment is more suitable for beginners

Beginners often lack systematic trading strategies, position management skills, and healthy psychological resilience, making short-term trading, especially intraday trading, unsuitable. Long-term investing is relatively simple—just grasp basic buy/sell operations and understand market cap concepts.

Long-term investment can yield higher returns

While short-term trading may theoretically bring higher gains, in practice, most investors miss opportunities or buy high and sell low due to misjudgments, resulting in losses. In contrast, long-term holding can effectively lock in profits from upward trends without frequent operations.

A personal example: buying BTC near the bottom (~$5,000) in 2018 and selling at $7,000, then BTC surged to $12,000. The 312 event provided a second chance to build a position, ultimately resulting in profit. Such experiences are common among long-term investors.

Asset security is crucial

After enduring the bear market and reaching the bull market, asset theft would be a huge blow. Therefore, proper custody of account passwords and wallet private keys is essential. It is recommended to transfer long-term holdings to cold wallets and isolate physically to prevent impulsive actions.

How to Start Trading Cryptocurrencies

Spot trading process

The most common way is on centralized exchanges:

1. Register and complete identity verification
2. Link payment methods
3. Buy stablecoins (USDT, USDC, etc.) via fiat trading zones
4. Exchange for target coins in the crypto trading zone
5. Choose long-term holding or short-term trading as needed

BTC and ETH support direct fiat purchases, suitable for beginners.

Diverse trading tools

Besides spot trading, platforms also offer futures, leveraged tokens, staking, and mining derivatives. Among these, leveraged trading carries the highest risk and requires strong risk management; it is not recommended for beginners.

OTC options

If you are tired of online platform operations, OTC trading is an alternative. The simplest method is to buy from acquaintances, but ensure the counterparty is reliable, preferably face-to-face to avoid risks.

Investment Tips and Recommendations

Avoid self-deception

A common fatal mistake for beginners is being attracted by low-priced coins. Seeing projects with huge supplies (hundreds of millions or billions) and low prices, they imagine that just a small increase could make them rich. The reality is that most such projects either go to zero or are on the way there. Using mainstream coins to swap for altcoins often results in losses on both ends.

Clarify trading goals

Long-term holding seems simple (just hold and do nothing), but executing it is extremely difficult. Rising prices tempt you to lock in profits; falling prices tempt you to cut losses. As long as you watch the K-line, you’ll want to sell. Therefore, it’s necessary to set clear goals in advance, adopt a combination of long and short strategies, and keep funds in separate accounts, physically isolated, to curb impulsive trading.

Recommended investor types

Conservative investors: Focus on the most well-known projects, i.e., BTC and ETH, balancing risk and reward.

Growth-oriented investors: Besides mainstream coins, consider allocating some funds to DOGE, ADA, SOL, and other top ten projects, but with some market judgment ability.

Aggressive investors: Explore high-volatility tokens like MEME coins, but always monitor the market closely and have strong risk management skills.

Summary

The top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap feature high liquidity and relatively manageable risks, making them the first choice for newcomers. Stablecoins mainly serve as value storage, while non-stablecoins like BTC, ETH, and SOL have clear appreciation potential.

The market is ever-changing, and rankings will shift. Investors should choose projects and strategies flexibly based on their risk tolerance and trading goals. Above all, avoid unclear objectives, lack of stop-loss knowledge, and blindly chasing gains, as these will only lead to ongoing losses.

In the long run, mastering basic market knowledge and establishing disciplined investment plans are the keys to steady profits in the crypto market.