In the meantime, bitcoin and ether compete to see which will demonstrate a larger growth. The number of known cryptocurrencies increased from 6,000 in July 2021 to 10,400 in February 2022, but by August it had fallen to about 10,000.

However, only five cryptocurrencies currently account for more than 75% of the entire market capitalization of the crypto industry.

The study notes that about a thousand new cryptocurrencies and tokens are added every month to the total market capitalization. According to the Augusta Free Press, before exceeding the 10,000 mark, the number of cryptocurrencies grew from 60 in 2013 to more than 4,500 by 2020. But from 2021 to 2022, the number of cryptocurrencies doubled – this reflects the crypto industry's sharp development and investors' demand. The next major price movements of bitcoin and ether occurred around the same period, allowing new historical highs to be set.

In the first half of 2021 alone, 1,500 new digital coins entered the market, and in July, their number exceeded 6,000. At the end of last year, about 1,000 new cryptocurrencies were added to the market every month, and in January 2022, their total number reached 9,900.

As noted above, despite all this surge, only five cryptocurrencies account for more than 75% of the total market capitalization of the crypto industry. Bitcoin, which was close to the $70,000 mark in November 2021, is now trading above $20,000, and its market capitalization exceeded $377 billion. With such a market capitalization, bitcoin accounts for 40% of the entire market capitalization of cryptocurrencies.

Ethereum, the next highest-rated cryptocurrency, accounts for 20% of the total market capitalization.

Tether and USDC stablecoins, as well as BNB, complete the top five cryptocurrencies. This means that the remaining approximately 10,000 cryptocurrencies account for only 24% of the total market capitalization. This is not surprising since these kinds of coins are created to pump money out of investors and do not have any technology behind them. Even if digital tokens are created on well-known second-level blockchains, this does not give an impetus to the strong development of the crypto industry since these coins do not represent anything, as do the projects for which they were created.

The main cryptocurrency aggregator, coinmarketcap, has about 20,797 registered coins and tokens in its arsenal, and 12,892 are represented on the coingecko platform.As for today's technical picture of bitcoin, buyers managed to return to the $20,000 level yesterday and are now seriously aiming for further recovery to the $20,540 area. Moreover, considering what a bull market we are currently seeing, especially after the pleasant prices against the background of the recent correction, the demand will most likely increase. The bulls' focus is now on the near-term support of $20,540. In the case of a breakout in this area, you can see a spurt up to $21,140. To build a larger uptrend, you must break above the resistance levels of $21,840 and $22,520. If the pressure on bitcoin returns, it is obvious that the bulls will try to protect the support of $20,007. Its breakdown will quickly push the trading instrument back to $19,520 and pave the way for an update of the $19,100 level.

Ether also shot up very strongly after another attempt by bears to take over the market. The immediate target of buyers in the current conditions is the resistance of $ 1,605, which is impossible to get above for two days in a row. Its breakdown will lead to a change in the market direction to an upward one, which will open up the possibility of updating the longer-range target of $1,667 and $1,743. When the pressure on the trading instrument returns, buyers need to position themselves around $1,530 again since only this will allow them to keep the market under their control. A break in this area will push ether back to $1,476 and $1,418.