Cryptos First Act: How 2013 Set the Stage for a Financial Revolution

The rise of the cryptocurrency market, with bitcoin leading the charge, from early November through December 2013 marked a defining chapter that thrust digital currencies into the global spotlight. A confluence of pivotal elements fueled this extraordinary growth, though many of the leading digital assets from that era have since faded into obscurity. Here, we examine the premier cryptocurrencies during the first week of November 2013 and contrast them with their current standings.

From Dominance to Obscurity

On Nov. 3, 2013, bitcoin (BTC) was priced at approximately $215.05, with a circulating supply of about 11,944,725 BTC. Fast forward to the present, and BTC is now valued at more than $93,000 per coin, with 19,830,794 BTC in circulation. Back then, litecoin (LTC) held the title of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, trading at $2.88 per coin, with 22,672,692 LTC in existence. Today, LTC occupies the 14th spot, priced at $126 per coin, and boasts a circulating supply of roughly 75,586,133 LTC.

On Nov. 3, 2013, the market cap of the top ten cryptocurrencies was $2.71 billion.

During the first week of Nov. 2013, XRP held the third spot among cryptocurrencies, trading at a modest $0.00716 per coin with a market capitalization of $55.97 million. Today, XRP is priced at $2.85 per coin as of the first week of March, boasting a market valuation of $167 billion and securing the third position, in front of tether (USDT). Peercoin (PPC), which occupied the fourth position in 2013, was trading at $0.40 per coin. Intriguingly, PPC now trades at nearly the same price, $0.424, but its market cap has plummeted to the 989th spot.

Nostalgia Meets Reality

Next in line was namecoin (NMC), the fifth-largest cryptocurrency at the time, priced at $0.58 per NMC. Currently, it holds slightly more value at $0.914 per coin but ranks 969th in market cap. Notably, bitcoin miners continue to extract NMC, with the network achieving an impressive 518 exahash per second (EH/s) of hashrate at press time. Novacoin (NVC), the sixth-largest in 2013, traded at $4.25 per coin. Today, NVC is valued at a mere $0.02835 and has fallen to the 9,065th position.

Primecoin (XPM), which held the seventh spot in 2013 at $0.6774 per coin, now trades at a modest $0.03523 and ranks 1,730th by market cap. Feathercoin (FTC), the eighth-largest on Nov. 3, 2013, was priced at $0.08387 per coin. As of March 2025, FTC trades at $0.005160 and sits in the 1,872th position. Worldcoin (WDC), the ninth-largest in 2013, exchanged hands at $0.02709 per WDC. By March 2025, WDC has dropped to the 7,480th spot, trading at $0.003198 per coin.

Finally, mincoin (MNC), which rounded out the top ten on Nov. 3, 2013, at $0.5376 per coin, has since vanished from the scene, no longer listed on major coin market cap aggregation platforms. Besides BTC, LTC, and XRP, the rest of the coins have very little trading activity and are scarcely found on popular exchanges these days.

The early days of November 2013 serve as a nostalgic reminder of a time when the crypto world was just beginning to capture the publics imagination. Today, the market continues to evolve, driven by technological advancements and shifting investor sentiment, ensuring that the story of cryptocurrencies remains as compelling as ever.