Decentraland the fastest growing cryptocurrency

Key points to remember

• Decentraland has added more holders than any token since last year, increasing 469% according to eToro.
• The top 3 most traded cryptocurrencies are MANA (metaverse), SHIBA (meme) and ENJ (games).
• Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency, displacing last year’s leader, Cardano, to second place.
• Shiba has risen the most, moving from 16th place in eToro’s most popular coins chart to 6th place among eToro investors.

Cryptocurrency market prices have only moved in one direction this year: down.

However, despite the bloodbath, once you step back and consider the number of investors who have flocked to the space in recent years, adoption has increased significantly.

Reviewing data from eToro, we assessed which coins have gained the most popularity among cryptocurrency investors this year.

Decentraland the fastest growing cryptocurrency.

Looking at the growth of investors compared to the same period last year, there is a wide range of coin types listed in the top 10.

The king of the hill is the Decentraland metaverse token, with a staggering 437% increase in holders on eToro compared to Q3 last year.

The metaverse token has had a roller coaster ride in the same time frame. Last year at this time it was trading at $0.78, but rose to $5.48 before trading back to $0.70, down from a year ago.

The headline growth will be good news as Decentraland looks to continue building its virtual reality blockchain world. It also participated in a story on the weakness of its users last month, but the report seemed misleading.

It still trades in the top 50 cryptocurrencies with a market cap of over $1 billion, but with more and more rivals in this space, it will be interesting to watch Decentraland in the future.

Unsurprisingly, SHIBA is in second place, with a strong 269% headline growth over the same period last year. The Dogecoin alternative has taken the cryptocurrency world by storm this year, posting absolutely outrageous gains.

After reaching a market capitalization of $41 billion at its peak, SHIBA is now at 87% of that mark. With 269% more users in possession of the dog token than last year, it’s tempting to wonder how many of these laggards are in the red.

Rounding out the top three is Enjin, the blockchain gaming token. Perhaps nothing sums up the broad reach of cryptocurrencies better than last year’s top 3 movers occupying the contrasting spaces of a metaverse token, a meme, and a gaming token.

Shiba, the biggest of them all

Looking at cryptocurrencies by total number of users, it’s no surprise that Bitcoin is at the top. In fact, the original cryptocurrency was second on eToro last year, behind Cardano, which has a notoriously fervent community.

Ethereum ranks third, but it’s really Shiba’s jump that is most shocking compared to last year. The meme token was sixteenth in Q3 2021, but now ranks sixth, just one spot behind the popular Dogecoin. Imagine predicting it last year.

Conclusion

Obviously, this has been a torrid year for cryptocurrencies. The macro environment is the worst it has ever been in the cryptocurrency’s short life – remember that Satoshi only launched Bitcoin in 2009.

The above figures help to show that, as we zoom out and look at the underlying fundamentals, the long-term trajectory of cryptocurrency remains upward. Sure, there are many tokens crashing to zero, but there are also projects with thousands of investors that barely existed last year.