#Gate广场四月发帖挑战 How many of the once-mainstream coins are left? Bitcoin has maintained its position as the top market cap in crypto for eight consecutive years, while only half of the top ten mainstream coins from 2018 remain on the list today. A chart comparing market caps over eight years ruthlessly reveals the survival rule of the crypto market: true value is anchored in long-term consensus, and hype narratives will eventually zero out. After the big waves wash away the sand, which assets have survived the cycle? How many of the once-mainstream coins are still around? Looking back at the top ten tokens by market cap in 2018, only BTC, ETH, XRP, TRX, and ADA remain, accounting for half. Bitcoin has ranked first for eight consecutive years, holding the top spot in market cap from 2018 to 2026. As of early April 2026, Bitcoin’s price has risen back above $70k, with a total market cap of about $1.34 trillion, accounting for over 55% of the total crypto market cap. Despite multiple bear markets and regulatory pressures from major global economies, the industry ranking has remained unchanged. Ethereum remains firmly in second place, maintaining its dominance as the smart contract platform. Even with numerous new competitors chasing, none have surpassed it, with a current market cap of approximately $250–260 billion. XRP’s market cap is about $70 billion, having fallen from its peak in 2025. ADA and TRX currently have market caps of about $9.13 billion and $30.1 billion, respectively. The former relies on academic-driven ecosystem development, while the latter has built a strong fundamental support through its USDT stablecoin settlement network. 【The Yesterday’s Stars That Have Fallen Out of the Mainstream】 BCH, EOS, LTC, XLM, MIOTA have all exited the scene. Of the top 15 by market cap in 2018, half have completely fallen out of the top 20 by 2026. This includes EOS, which once raised $4 billion, as well as Dash, NEO, Qtum, Bitcoin Gold, Nano, and other projects that have now disappeared. 【Emerging New Forces】 USDT and USDC, the two major stablecoins, have entered the top ten. As of early April, their market caps reached $184.07 billion and $77.5 billion, respectively, accounting for nearly 85% of the total stablecoin market cap, driven by ongoing institutional capital inflows. SOL and BNB have upgraded to core infrastructure roles. SOL’s market cap is about $47.9 billion, and BNB’s is around $84 billion. Both are positioned as high-performance public chains, holding advantageous positions in the mid- to long-term ecosystem competition. DOGE, with a market cap of about $14.2 billion, is the only Meme coin in the top ten, validating the community consensus as a unique survival value in the crypto market. 【Why Has Bitcoin Remained the Top for 8 Years?】 First, the decentralized underlying value consensus. As the original cryptocurrency, Bitcoin has no project team or unlock pressure, serving as the industry’s pricing benchmark and safe haven asset. Second, the ongoing deepening institutional trend. After the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs, traditional capital channels opened. A large amount of long-term investment capital has flowed in, and by early April 2026, the total net assets of US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs exceeded $90 billion, about 6.46% of Bitcoin’s total market cap. The cumulative net inflow since inception is approximately $56.4 billion. Among them, BlackRock’s IBIT fund manages about $52 billion, holding approximately 782k BTC, nearly 45% of all spot Bitcoin ETF assets. We believe institutional capital is reshaping Bitcoin’s pricing system and market structure through regulated ETF channels. The stable 55.27% market cap share of Bitcoin is one of the reasons it has remained at the top for eight years. Third, narrative iteration continues. From “digital gold” to “on-chain government bonds,” Bitcoin is occupying a central position in the global asset allocation framework. 【Summary】 Whether it’s Bitcoin’s eight-year reign at the top, Solana’s rise from obscurity to the top five, or the fall of star projects like EOS, all point to the same conclusion: the淘汰 in the crypto market is more brutal than imagined. When choosing long-term investment tokens, it is recommended to focus on three dimensions: first, the project’s technical foundation and practical application; second, the sustainability of the token economic model; third, the team’s execution ability and governance transparency. Bitcoin’s eight-year dominance provides an important reference framework: when the tide recedes, only true value can stand firm.

Been seeing a lot of chatter lately about some wild historical connections to Ripple and XRP. Analyst Edo Farina dropped a thread on X that's got the community talking, and honestly, some of the dots he's connecting are pretty interesting. So here's the thing most people don't realize: Ripple didn't just pop up in 2012 out of nowhere. According to Farina's research, the actual roots go back to 2004 when Ryan Fugger, a Canadian programmer, created something called RipplePay. But it gets weirder. Farina claims the trademark for "Ripple Communications" was filed way back in 1991 – that's literally before Bitcoin even existed. Over two decades before. Now this is where it gets really interesting. Ryan Fugger apparently has connections to the Fugger family – yeah, the same banking dynasty that basically ran European finance in the 1500s and 1600s. We're talking about Jakob Fugger here, the guy historians called the richest person who ever lived. This family didn't just move money around; they financed kings, controlled massive mining operations, and had influence over the Papacy itself. Some people argue they basically invented modern banking as we know it. Here's the part that has the XRP community buzzing: The Fugger family used specific symbols on their coins – phoenix and fleur-de-lis imagery. Those exact same symbols showed up on The Economist magazine cover in 1988, the one depicting a phoenix rising above a world currency dated 2018. For people who follow these historical patterns, the coincidences start feeling less like accidents. What Farina is essentially arguing is that XRP isn't just some random altcoin. He's suggesting it might be part of a much longer-term vision, maybe even centuries in the making, to reshape how global currency actually works. Whether you buy into that or not, you can't deny that XRP has a deeper historical narrative than most crypto assets out there. That said, let's keep it real. These historical connections are fascinating, but the actual future of XRP depends on the boring stuff: can the technology scale, will regulators approve it, can Ripple keep building partnerships with actual financial institutions. The SEC battles are ongoing, the use cases are still developing. History is interesting, but markets care about execution. The point is, whether you believe Farina's full thesis or not, Ripple and XRP are clearly not just another copycat project. From a peer-to-peer credit system in 2004 to a digital asset with serious global ambitions, there's definitely more layers to this story than most people realize. Pretty wild when you start connecting the pieces.