CoinMarketCap is a popular service for tracking the dynamics of the exchange rate, capitalization and rating of cryptocurrencies. Created by a small development team from New York in 2013. Today is the most visited web resource of this orientation.
Coinmarketcap offers visitors detailed information about a huge number of cryptocurrencies and tokens (4890 at the time of writing), which is updated online by processing the data provided by exchanges. In addition, the Coinmarketcap service specializes in a variety of rating lists and comparative charts, collecting historical market data and other functionality useful for the crypto community, which stands out from the competition.
CoinMarketCap features are described in more detail in the following overview article.
- What is CoinMarketCap?
- Coinmarketcap Website Interface
- CoinMarketCap Functional Overview
- CoinMarketCap Competitors
- CoinCap
- Advantages and Disadvantages of CoinMarketCap
What is CoinMarketCap?
CoinMarketCap is the largest statistical information portal about cryptocurrencies traded on exchanges. Most traders and investors know the address of his site by heart, since on it they first go, when they need to quickly find out the rate, number of coins, position in the rating and other detailed data about any cryptocurrency project.
According to him, the idea to create such a service developed from the understanding that at that moment there was not a single ready-made tool on the cryptocurrency market for comparing trading volumes, not to mention any global ratings. Chaz decided to fill this gap by enlisting the support of a small group of like-minded people.
Over the 6 years of its existence, CoinMarketCap has “grown” with a host of additional tools for studying and analyzing the cryptocurrency market (charts of market capitalization and dominance, currency converter, blockchain explorer, etc.). Also, this service is now available as an application for mobile gadgets on iOS and Android, which is a slightly simplified version of the site.
Coinmarketcap developers call it their mission to provide users with the most accurate and up-to-date information on cryptocurrencies, to ensure the reliability of which they have to adhere to the position of anti-censorship and neutrality.
They also claim that they do not charge for adding new coins to CoinMarketCap, and transfers to wallets indicated at the bottom of the service’s website is regarded only as donations, which in no way can affect the cryptocurrency ranking results.
Coinmarketcap Website Interface
CoinMarketCap service is presented in the form of a fairly simple website with a convenient interface, you can figure it out in a few minutes (provided that the user is familiar with the basics of the cryptocurrency market).
When you first visit the site, the English version is loaded by default, and all exchange rates, trading volumes, capitalization, etc. are displayed in US dollars. Users have the opportunity at any time to change the language of the service to one of 15 available variants.
In addition, CoinMarketCap users have the opportunity to influence the website’s visualization — by applying the “Night mode” option, a button which is available next to the drop-down menus for changing the language and currency, as well as in the footer (block at the bottom of the site). On repeated visits, the service will be displayed taking into account the last settings defined by the user (if the same device and browser in which cookies were not cleared are used).
CoinMarketCap Functional Overview
The first thing that a user who visits the main page of the Coinmarketcap website sees is an information line that displays summary data on the cryptocurrency market:
CoinMarketCap main feature is located a little lower - TOP-100 rating, the leadership in which Bitcoin invariably holds, and the remaining positions are distributed on the basis of constantly changing cryptocurrency market capitalization data.
In this list, organized in a table, the current price is displayed for each cryptocurrency, 24-hour trading volume, supply circulating on the market, percentage rate change per day and weekly schedule in miniature.
Ranking List Interaction
With the help of simple manipulations, the table with the Coinmarketcap ranking list can be modified, giving users access to various options for organizing statistical data.
For example, you can sort rows not by capitalization, but by trading volume, price and other displayed parameters — for this, you just need to click on the header of the desired column.
In addition, you can see information on the next hundred positions in the ranking or the entire list, by clicking the appropriate buttons —"Next 100" and "View All". Next to them is a menu for choosing the currency in which the price, capitalization and volumes are displayed (except for the dollar, BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH and LTC are available).
It is also worth paying attention to the Cryptocurrencies menu, which opens up access to the choice of CoinMarketCap rating list variations — TOP 100, Full List, Market Capitalization (based on the general and circulating offer).
Ranking by the last parameter can be performed only for tokens and coins separately. Also, for the latter, a special item “Filter non-mining” is available, which removes cryptocurrencies that cannot be mined from the rating (indicated by a “*” in the general list).
Exclusion of non-mining coins from the rating through the Cryptocurrencies menu
If you click on the icon with three dots at the end of any line of the list, a menu will open through which you can add a coin to your personal watchlist, as well as see its detailed chart, trading pairs and historical data present on exchanges.
View Cryptocurrency Summary Information
A click on the name of any cryptocurrency in the Coinmarketcap rating lists opens access to detailed data about it. The same thing happens if you find the desired cryptocurrency through the search bar in the header of the site. In the general heading of the page dedicated to a specific cryptocurrency, you can see:
Next is the interactive zone of the page, in which the cryptocurrency rate graph is displayed by default.
There are also buttons that allow you to switch to the following information blocks:
Below are sections with general information about the project in question and the features of its technology (in English only), as well as a variety of statistical information on the coin.
Coinmarketcap Navigation Menu
In addition to rating lists and pages devoted to cryptocurrencies, the viewing of which is most often limited to the majority of visitors to the service, CoinMarketCap offers a number of other equally useful tools, links to which are located in the main menu in the header of the site.
Ratings
This menu contains all the rating tools available at the Coinmarketcap service, combined into the following categories:
- Market capitalization — a section offering to view the already mentioned TOP-100 cryptocurrency rating displayed on the CoinMarketCap main page, as well as its variations for coins and tokens separately.
- Cryptocurrencies — a chart with a ranking indicator in which trading volumes (daily or monthly) act.
- Trends — here you can find several interesting lists at once. The Gainers and Losers page contains two opposite ratings, containing data on cryptocurrencies, which are most added and lost in price (per hour, day or week). “Recently Added” is a list of coins and tokens that have appeared on the Coinmarketcap over the past month.
- Exchanges — cryptocurrency trading site ratings are available in this section based on three key parameters — according to the reporting and adjusted volume, as well as liquidity. The last metric takes into account the statistics of orders in stock glasses (order books), thereby eliminating the problem of manipulating trading volumes. So far, this solution has been launched in beta test mode and is supported by a very small number of cryptocurrency exchanges, but in the future it should become the main Coinmarketcap ranking tool. By the way, access to the same functionality is also possible through the “Exchange” drop-down menu located above any rating list available in CoinMarketCap.
By the way, if you click on the name of any exchange in these charts, a page opens containing detailed data about it:
Tools
Contents of the Tools Menu on CoinMarketCap
This section contains links to all additional CoinMarketCap tools:
- Global charts — here are charts of market capitalization (with and without bitcoin) and the percentage dominance of cryptocurrencies on the market. These and all the other graphs presented on the CoinMarketCap pages are interactive — the user can change the size of the considered time period and timeframe, as well as switch between the logarithmic and linear scales. In addition, you can find out the value of the parameters displayed on the graph at any time in the past by moving the cursor on the timeline.
- Widgets for sites — with this tool you can generate code to insert a widget on the website with a ticker exchange rate, rating, capitalization and other data on any cryptocurrency present on the CoinmarketCap.
- Currency calculator is a simple and convenient functional for converting any fiat and cryptocurrencies.
- Watchlist — rating formed from user-selected coins. In addition to the link in the main menu, it is available through the button of the same name, which is present next to the Cryptocurrencies and Exchanges menus at the top of any chart. You can add new positions to it either through the “Add to Watchlist” field or through the button with three dots at the end of the rows of rating tables.
- Historical snapshot — this section provides an opportunity to look into the past and view the details of the cryptocurrency rating (rate, capitalization, circulating offer and price change) for any day from the moment of launching the Coinmarketcap service, that is, from May 2013.
- Blockchain Explorer is Coinmarketcap's own block explorer. Nothing special stands out, but it copes quite well with its obligations to display the contents of blocks, wallets and transactions. So far, it only works with Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin networks.
Resources
This menu contains tools for developers and information resources that the Marketmarket offers to use for its visitors:
- API for cryptocurrency trading is a functionality that allows you to create your own trading strategies based on historical data about exchanges and cryptocurrencies collected by the service. In addition, the CoinMarketCap API is useful to developers of wallets, exchanges, exchangers and other cryptocurrency projects. This tool is free for personal exploratory use, but in other cases it will cost from $ 30 to $ 700;
- CoinMarketCap Index — a set of investment-grade reference indices created based on the analysis of the capitalization of the TOP-200 cryptocurrencies traded on the market;
- Information leaflet — the section contains articles, cryptocurrency news and interviews for traders, investors, developers and other participants of the crypto community;
- Crypto Glossary — an alphabetical dictionary of terms related to the topic of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies (in English only);
- Calendar of events — a schedule of events significant for the world of cryptocurrencies with an indication of their brief description, date and venue, as well as links to an official source;
- Introduction to cryptocurrencies is a FAQ section containing introductory information for beginners both on working directly with the Coinmarketcap service and on general questions about cryptocurrency investing.
We also recommend that you look at the detailed CoinMarketCap review:
CoinMarketCap Competitors
On the Internet there are many services that, by the nature of their activities, are direct competitors to the Coinmarketcap.
But some decent options for sites with statistics, analytics and infographics on the topic of cryptocurrencies still exist.
CoinCap
The project of ShapeShift founder Eric Voorhees. In general, it offers online crypto market data similar to CoinMarketCap, however, its usability is slightly better, in particular due to the minimalistic design, the lack of advertising and such chips as viewing cryptocurrency charts right within the rating list (in the expandable window). In addition, if you wish, you can go to more detailed interactive charts, pulling up from the TradingView website.
At the same time, CoinCap loses to the Coinmarketcap service in the range of additional functions — there are almost none, it all boils down to building a rating of cryptocurrencies and exchanges, which, by the way, are not so much supported (1500 and 70, respectively).
CoinCodex
The arsenal of this service has a nice easy interface, up-to-date crypto market statistics, detailed data on coins, global charts, a currency calculator and a watch list.
In addition, CoinCodex has functionality that Coinmarketkap does not have - tools for managing a portfolio and creating course-tracking alarms, as well as sections with the latest news and data on ICO, IEO and other token sales.
CoinGecko
Another excellent cryptocurrency statistics service, which, like Coinmarketcap, offers visitors a cryptocurrency rating (by market capitalization) and trading floors, a calendar of events, as well as a list of the most expensive and cheaper coins.
In addition, there are:
- Tools for comparing several cryptocurrencies according to a variety of parameters, as well as on price and capitalization graphs by superimposing them on each other;
- A list with the number of subscribers of cryptocurrency projects on social networks (Reddit, Twitter, Telegram, Facebook), allowing you to judge their popularity in the community;
- A table with the data of cryptocurrency networks about the mining algorithm, transaction speed, the number of blocks, nodes and coins in circulation;
- Statistics of cryptocurrency price declines since they reached ATH (absolute price maximum);
- Several indices calculated based on a set of 50+ cryptocurrencies.
CryptoCompare
A fairly convenient and informative service that has existed since 2015 and, in addition to standard ratings, offers a wide range of useful tools, which CoinMarketCap has no alternative to. The main advantages of CryptoCompare are:
- Mining calculator;
- List of ICOs, crypto-wallets and cards;
- Reports on own research of exchanges and ratings based on them;
- Guides on trading, mining and other types of earnings on cryptocurrencies;
- Forum for thematic user communication.
Coinlib
Visually, the site of this service resembles a slightly modified Coinmarketcap with night mode turned on — on the main page there is a similar rating list and data on market capitalization and bitcoin dominance.
However, studying the Coinlib main menu makes it clear that its functionality is much wider and more interesting. What are only statistics on trading volumes and the flow of funds between trading pairs on exchanges, presented in the form of diagrams. And on the pages with information on individual cryptocurrencies there are metrics for their assessment on social indicators and developer activity, as well as buying / selling recommendations based on an analysis of technical indicators.
In addition, Coinlib boasts a price tracking service with alarms to alert users, as well as tools for maintaining a portfolio and comparing cryptocurrencies for a variety of parameters.
Advantages and Disadvantages of CoinMarketCap
All the strengths of CoinMarketCap were mentioned throughout the article, but in general they can be arranged as follows:
As for the disadvantages, CoinMarketCap has no obvious minuses. Yes, you can mention the software “glitches” in the work of rating lists of the service, for example, in the form of a short-term disappearance of bitcoin from 1st place or a sharp change in the rank of individual tokens by 500+ positions. However, almost no one has time to notice such errors, since they are quite rare and are quickly fixed by developers.
You can also recall the absence of a paid version of the service with ads disabled, what a lot of users complain about. Coinmarketcap developers haven’t yet provided such an opportunity, but the problem is easily solved by installing anti-advertising extensions like AdBlock in the browser, and somehow the language does not turn out to call it a problem.
However, so far these are only rumors that quite possibly are spread by competitors who want to move CoinMarketCap off the pedestal.