Ethereum rules crypto tokens: 91% of all tokens are Ethereum ERC20 tokens 😎

I found another really interesting article on Medium. It is known that many of the top crypto's are actually Ethereum-based ERC20 tokens, but an Ethereum enthusiast has actually collected data to support these claims. It turns out that 91% of the entire market cap of all cryptocurrency tokens combined belongs to the Ethereum-based ERC20 tokens.

THE DATA

The data was collected over a six month period by looking at the total market cap of all cryptocurrency tokens and comparing that to the total market cap of all Ethereum based tokens. The results are in the graph below:

The graph shows an increase from 73.8% to 91.2%, with the market cap of Ethereum based tokens now at over $62 billion (up from $2.9 billion). Ethereum has clearly established itself as the go-to platform for tokens and ICO's in 2017.

I also found this image which shows similar data, but from earlier in 2017 (up to about the first 'explosion' in March):

TOKEN IS CRYPTO, BUT NOT ALL CRYPTO IS A TOKEN

One should not misunderstand the difference between tokens and cryptocurrencies themselves. Tokens are slightly different, in the fact that they are not their own blockchain but rather built on top of another blockchain. Ethereum as a platform allows many other cryptocurrencies to use it as a base.

A non-token cryptocurrency, on the other hand, has it's own blockchain architecture on which it relies. As such, when indexing all the crypto tokens many popular blockchains are not counted as these are not tokens on another blockchain. Bitcoin, Litecoin, IOTA, NEO, NEM, are some examples of non-token crypto's, and these are not weighed in this comparison.

It does, however, include many well known cryptocurrencies like: EOS, BAT, OMG, BNB, 0x, WTC, and many more which are all ERC20 tokens.

COMPARISON SLIGHTLY SLANTED

The comparison is accurate and the numbers are probably correct, but it's a somewhat unfair comparison to make as Ethereum has had first mover advantage for the better part of a year. Now, NEO is making leaps and catching up at a rapid pace, both in the amount of ICO's being released but also with some of them making it into the top 100 cryptocurrency list (such as DeepBrainChain and Red Pulse). Stratis is also close to having the first two ICO's on it's platform. Komodo is launching dICO's (decentralized ICO's) and many more platforms are joining the race. 2018 is looking to be the first year where Ethereum gets some actual competition. Still, despite the potential of the upcomers, one cannot ignore the massive head start and adoption that Ethereum has.

Click here to read the article on Medium

(Art by Roy Lichtenstein)