A graphic posted by crypto analyst Lark Davis on the top 15 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization as of Oct. 15, 2017, showed Cardano in the far 14th spot with a market capitalization of $779 million. XRP was ranked as the third largest cryptocurrency then, with a $10.17 billion market valuation.
Cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dash, NEM, Monero, Neo and Bitconnect ranked in 4th to 10th places, respectively. IOTA, Ethereum Classic and Omisego ranked ahead of Cardano in the 11th, 12th and 13th spots, respectively.
Exactly five years later, a great "reshuffle" has been seen. Cardano now ranks as the 8th largest cryptocurrency with a market valuation of $12.69 billion, a nearly 1,500% increase in its market cap from 2017.
Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dash, NEM, Monero, Neo and Bitconnect are nowhere near the top 10. Bitcoin Cash ranks as the 31st largest cryptocurrency.
Litecoin is currently the 20th largest crypto, NEO is the 65th largest, NEM is the 96th largest crypto asset and Bitconnect is nowhere to be found. Bitconnect was an open-source cryptocurrency that was connected to a high-yield investment program, a type of Ponzi scheme.
Due to the founders' exit scam and accompanying legal issues, Bitconnect (BCC) is no longer trading on any legitimate exchanges as Bitconnect collapsed in 2018. In terms of market value, IOTA is presently the 60th-largest cryptocurrency, whereas Ethereum Classic is the 23rd largest.
Cardano: five years down the line
Cardano started as a federated network with just a few nodes over five years ago. Currently, Cardano has worked across five development themes (Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho, and Voltaire) with over 3,000 nodes and 6.4 million native tokens. The Vasil upgrade, ushering in the Babbage Era, was triggered on Sept. 22.
Presently, Cardano ranks as the third largest proof-of-stake blockchain with a staking market cap of $9.89 billion. However, the ADA price remains undervalued at $0.39 per coin compared to other large blockchains and has often attracted criticism to the network.