The situation among the top 100 most popular cryptocurrencies looks interesting when you examine the year-over-year results. It turns out that despite the overall market growth, many tokens with large market caps didn't fare well at all. Out of the forty-something largest cryptocurrencies, 37 experienced losses. The worst performers were Layer 2 solutions for Ethereum — Optimism fell over 84%, Arbitrum by 70%, and Starknet lost as much as 75%. MultiversX and Ordinals also had a tough time, both losing over 65%.

On the other hand, Bitcoin and Ethereum showed significantly better performance. Ethereum gained 12.87%, and Bitcoin still remains in positive territory. Chainlink and Internet Computer didn't collapse like other L2s — their losses were below 60%. Polygon performed the best among the second layer solutions, with a loss of less than 30%.

The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies increased by 40% in 2024, mainly thanks to the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs. This pushed the valuation from $1.77 trillion to $2.47 trillion. Bitcoin's dominance continues to grow — its share of the total market capitalization reached 57% in mid-April. It's clear that major players are still consolidating, while altcoins face much greater challenges.