From Steem to Solana: what happened to the cryptocurrencies that dominated the market 10 years ago

Although Bitcoin has spent the past decade as the world's largest cryptocurrency, the rest of the market has changed almost completely. Ethereum has established itself as the sector's second major force, but many of the names that ranked among the largest altcoins ten years ago have today lost relevance or nearly disappeared from investors' radar.

In 2016, projects such as Steem, Dash, NEM and MaidSafeCoin were among the most important in the market. Now, in 2026, that space is occupied by assets such as BNB, Solana, Chainlink and Dogecoin.

A survey by Portal do Bitcoin shows how the altcoin market was practically rebuilt between 2016 and 2026. The analysis tracks the largest cryptocurrencies of that era and indicates that few managed to remain relevant a decade on. Most of the stars of earlier cycles were replaced by projects tied to newer theses, such as smart contracts, on-chain infrastructure, stablecoins, DeFi, memecoins and high-performance networks.

The main gauge of this shift is market capitalisation, which measures each coin's price multiplied by the number of tokens in circulation. The metric helps show not just how much an asset has gained, but how much weight it carries within a market that has grown and changed profoundly over the past ten years.

The conclusion is clear: in the altcoin market, leadership is not permanent. Projects can reach tens of billions of dollars in market capitalisation during one cycle and lose much of that ground just a few years later. It is also possible to grow over the years and still fall behind when compared with rival assets.

Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin and Monero survive the shift between cycles

Among the oldest altcoins, the most striking case is Ethereum. In 2016, its average market capitalisation was around US$803 million. In 2026, that figure is close to US$263 billion, after having reached US$370 billion in 2024.

The gap helps explain why Ethereum managed to survive successive cycles while so many rivals lost ground. The network established itself as the leading platform for smart contracts, the base on which decentralised finance markets, stablecoins, NFTs and other applications were built. In price terms, ETH went from around US$13.22 in September 2016 to US$2,467 at the end of August this year, a cumulative gain of roughly 18,560%.

XRP also managed to remain among the leading assets over the decade. Its average market capitalisation jumped from US$241 million in 2016 to US$81.8 billion in 2026, reaching a peak of US$145 billion in 2025. The project's thesis was always more closely tied to the financial sector and payments, with a blockchain aimed at financial transactions and liquidity between currencies. Even through long stretches of reduced interest, XRP has gained more than 15,500% since September 2016.

Litecoin followed a different path. Created in 2011 as a digital currency for fast, low-cost payments, LTC saw its average market capitalisation grow from US$176 million in 2016 to US$4.1 billion in 2026. Even so, it lost relative relevance as the market came to favour networks with smart contracts, DeFi and other applications. Its peak came in 2021, with a market capitalisation of US$12.6 billion.

Monero, meanwhile, preserved a specific thesis: privacy. The network hides sender, recipient and transaction amount by default, keeping its focus on private, censorship-resistant payments. XMR's average market capitalisation rose from US$47 million in 2016 to around US$7 billion in 2026, the highest level in the entire series analysed. Even facing restrictions and delistings on some platforms, the asset managed to preserve a niche of its own.

Former stars lost ground

If some projects survived the shift between cycles, others show how leadership in the crypto market can be temporary.

Steem is one of the most emblematic examples. Launched in 2016, the blockchain was created with the idea of building a social network in which users would be rewarded in cryptocurrency for publishing and curating content. The idea seemed promising at the time, and Steemit became the first major application built on the network.

Steem's market capitalisation reached US$524 million in 2018, up from around US$72 million in 2016. After that, the trajectory turned. In 2026, its value stands at just US$27 million. One of the episodes that marked this decline occurred in 2020, when a dispute involving the community and the acquisition of Steemit led part of the participants to create the Hive blockchain through a hard fork.

Dash tells a different story. Created as a digital currency aimed at payments, it initially gained notoriety for its privacy features before shifting its focus to speed, ease of use and instant payments. Its market capitalisation rose from US$53 million in 2016 to US$2.7 billion in 2018. Today, it stands at around US$487 million. In other words, Dash is still worth more than it was ten years ago in absolute terms, but it has lost enormous relative relevance because the rest of the market grew far more.

NEM suffered an even sharper decline. Its XEM token had an average market capitalisation of around US$30 million in 2016 and reached US$2.7 billion in 2018. In 2026, only about US$6 million remains, a drop of more than 99% from its peak.

Part of the ecosystem's story involved the creation of Symbol, a new blockchain launched in 2021. XEM holders could receive the new XYM token, while the old network continued to exist. The change, however, was not enough to restore the prominence the project had during the 2017-2018 cycle.

MaidSafeCoin rounds out the group of former giants. The project was linked to the SAFE Network, a proposal for a decentralised network for storage, data and communication. Its average market capitalisation was US$32 million in 2016 and reached around US$254 million in 2021. From there, it lost ground quickly. The last year in the survey with a usable market capitalisation figure is 2023, at around US$71 million.

BNB, Solana and Chainlink: the new generation

While former leaders shrank, projects that did not even exist at the start of the series went on to occupy central positions in the market.

The most extreme case is BNB. The first year with data in the survey is 2017, when the token had an average market capitalisation of just US$191 million. In 2026, the figure reaches approximately US$90.8 billion, making it the third-largest cryptocurrency in the world.

The asset was born linked to Binance, but its utility grew alongside the expansion of the BNB Chain. Today, BNB is used to pay fees, stake and access DeFi applications and other services built on the ecosystem. In price terms, the token has multiplied its value more than 6,600 times since the first available closing price in the survey.

Solana represents another generational shift. Its record begins in 2021, when the network already had an average market capitalisation of US$25.7 billion. The figure reached US$86.9 billion in 2025 and stands at approximately US$47.9 billion this year. The blockchain gained ground with a proposal of high performance and low costs, especially for trading, financial applications, payments and other crypto products.

Chainlink shows the strength of specialisation. Rather than compete directly in the general-purpose blockchain market, the project built an oracle network, infrastructure used to bring external data onto on-chain applications. That function grew in importance with DeFi and, more recently, with tokenisation. LINK's average market capitalisation rose from around US$99 million in 2017 to US$6.4 billion in 2026.

Not every rise, however, depended on a new technological solution. Dogecoin is the clearest example. Originally created as a joke based on the Shiba Inu meme, DOGE established itself as a digital currency sustained by a strong community. In 2016, its average market capitalisation was just US$24.7 million. In 2026, it reaches US$15.8 billion, after having peaked at US$31.4 billion last year.

Dogecoin's growth sums up one of the decade's biggest shifts: memecoins stopped being a peripheral curiosity and became a category in their own right, capable of moving billions of dollars.

Reaching the top does not guarantee staying there

The generational turnover did not happen only between old and new coins. Even projects that emerged partway through already face the challenge of preserving relevance.

Cardano is a good example. The blockchain uses proof-of-stake consensus and was built with an emphasis on academic research and evidence-based development. Its average market capitalisation was US$3.1 billion in 2017 and surged to US$44.5 billion in 2021, ADA's peak in the survey. By 2026, it had fallen to around US$8.6 billion.

Polkadot experienced an even steeper drop. The network was designed around interoperability, allowing communication and the transfer of assets and data between different blockchains. Its average market capitalisation reached US$26.1 billion in 2021, but fell back to approximately US$1.9 billion in 2026, a decline of more than 90% from its peak.

Both cases reinforce one of the survey's main conclusions: a cryptocurrency can amass tens of billions of dollars in market capitalisation during one cycle and still lose much of that ground just a few years later.

This is also why looking only at price does not tell the whole story. BNB, Dogecoin, Ethereum, XRP and Monero all posted gains of thousands of percent over the period analysed. Litecoin, too, is worth more than it was ten years ago. But the trajectory of market capitalisation shows something different: which projects grew alongside the whole sector and which fell behind even as their prices remained above the levels of a decade ago.

After ten years, the main conclusion is not simply that some altcoins rose and others fell. It is that leadership in this market is far less permanent than each cycle's rankings make it appear.

Ethereum and XRP remained among the leading names throughout the decade; Litecoin and Monero preserved relevant niches; Dogecoin went from a minor position to becoming a multi-billion-dollar asset. At the same time, BNB, Solana and Chainlink emerged and occupied spaces that did not exist in 2016, while Steem, Dash, NEM and MaidSafeCoin lost the prominence they once had.

The analysis considers historical data between September 2016 and August 2026. To compare relevance, the survey prioritises market capitalisation. The annual figures cited correspond to the yearly averages available in the dataset used, with 2026 covering the period elapsed so far. Price quotes use monthly closing prices.

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