• Bitcoin is the most watched top ten crypto coin in 2022, with over 4.84 million watchlists between coinmarketcap.com and coingecko.com.
• Ethereum, Cardano, and Binance Coin are the next most watched crypto assets with a combined total of 3.2 million watchlists.
• Other top ten crypto assets that have more than 1 million watchlists include Polkadot, Tether, XRP, and Litecoin.

Today, the crypto economy is worth $797.95 billion and the top ten crypto assets make up a large portion of this value. Crypto investors have the ability to keep an eye on their favorite coins or maybe the coins held in their portfolio by using watchlists on coin market capitalization aggregation sites such as coingecko.com (CG) and coinmarketcap.com (CMC). A watchlist is simply a specific set of crypto assets that a person selects in order to monitor and it can be viewed without monitoring all the other crypto assets the individual doesn’t care about.

Looking at the top ten crypto assets on Dec. 29, 2022, each crypto coin has a number of how many users selected a specific coin to add to their watchlist. Bitcoin (BTC) is the most watched, with a total of 4,848,865 watchlists on CG and CMC combined. Ethereum (ETH) is the second most watched crypto asset with 1,393,637 watchlists on CG and 1,785,428 watchlists on CMC. Following ETH is Cardano (ADA) with 518,415 watchlists on CG and 645,863 watchlists on CMC, and Binance Coin (BNB) with 585,941 watchlists on CG and 689,831 watchlists on CMC.

Other top ten crypto assets that have more than 1 million watchlists include Polkadot (DOT) with 1,076,587 watchlists on CG and 1,256,318 watchlists on CMC, Tether (USDT) with 1,039,030 watchlists on CG and 1,197,030 watchlists on CMC, XRP (XRP) with 1,077,162 watchlists on CG and 1,233,205 watchlists on CMC, and Litecoin (LTC) with 1,176,813 watchlists on CG and 1,296,455 watchlists on CMC.

It’s clear that the top ten crypto assets make up a large portion of the crypto economy’s current value and that bitcoin is by far the most watched crypto asset on the market today. As investors continue to watch their favorite coins, the crypto market is sure to remain at the forefront of innovation and the evolution of digital currencies.

• Bitcoin’s hashrate jumped from the low 170 exahash per second (EH/s) to above the 300 exahash range after a number of bitcoin mining operations from Texas temporarily went offline.
• Two mining pools, Foundry USA and Antpool, currently command more than 50% of the global hashrate.
• Bitcoin mining difficulty is expected to decline significantly in 5 days.

On the evening of December 28th, the computational processing power behind the Bitcoin (BTC) network skyrocketed to 300 Exahash per second (EH/s). This increase was a result of a number of bitcoin mining operations from Texas temporarily going offline due to excess load on the grid. While this had caused the hashrate to drop to a low of 170 EH/s on December 25th, by 12:00 PM ET on December 28th, it had already climbed back to 240 EH/s.

By the following day, the total network hashrate had coasted along to 250.57 EH/s. During the past three days, two mining pools have captured more than 50% of the network’s total hashrate. According to Bitcoin Pool Distribution records on December 29th, Foundry USA controls 31.45% of the total hashrate, and Antpool commands 21.87% of the current 250.57 EH/s. Combined, these two entities control a whopping 53.32% of the global hashrate.

This concentration of power has been met with criticism and accusations of centralization. However, the hashrate is expected to decline significantly in the next five days due to a decrease in mining difficulty. This decrease is due to a combination of the recent drop in hashrate, as well as the fact that the next difficulty adjustment is projected to be less than 10% of the current level.

The implications of this are yet to be seen, and only time will tell how the Bitcoin network will respond to the sudden and drastic changes in the hashrate. Nevertheless, with two mining pools currently producing more than 50% of the global hashrate, it is clear that the blockchain is far from being as decentralized as many would have hoped.