New CoinDesk 20 List: MATIC Is In. XTZ, YFI and NU Are Out

The CoinDesk 20 ranks the most heavily traded assets in crypto, as measured by dollar volume on trusted exchanges. As such, it defines a core group of 20 digital assets that matter most to the crypto markets. The reconstituted list, which went live on Tuesday on the CoinDesk website, incorporates one new asset not seen before in the list: MATIC.

MATIC is the native currency of a layer-2 network built on top of the Ethereum blockchain known as Polygon. Polygon’s end goal is to provide an improved user experience for Ethereum decentralized applications that are impaired by high gas fees and transaction processing times. Polygon aims to improve network speed and lower the cost of using the Ethereum blockchain by using sidechains, which are separate blockchains anchored to Ethereum’s main chain. It is one of Ethereum’s most popular layer 2 scaling products, expanding to more than 26 million unique addresses so far in the third quarter.

Recent surges in transaction activity on Polygon have boosted the price of MATIC. Year to date, MATIC is up about 4,800%, making it one of the top 20 digital assets by market capitalization. Its dollar volume over the first half of 2021 makes it the 11th most traded by dollar volume in the CoinDesk 20. Volume data for quarterly CoinDesk 20 reconstitution is provided by Nomics.

Beyond the addition of MATIC, dogecoin and ethereum classic have returned to the ranks of the CoinDesk 20 after being outperformed last quarter by a slew of decentralized finance (DeFi) assets. Only half of the DeFi assets from the second quarter remain in the catchment of the CoinDesk 20 this quarter.

The three assets that were removed from the CoinDesk 20 in the third quarter were yearn.finance YFI, nucypher and XTZ. Apart from XTZ, which is the native cryptocurrency of the smart contract blockchain Tezos, yearn and nucypher are ERC-20 tokens, running on the Ethereum blockchain. Half of the assets on the CoinDesk 20 in the third quarter are ERC-20 tokens.

Here is how every asset on the new CoinDesk 20, plus MATIC, performed in July.

For more information about the CoinDesk 20, which is reconstituted every quarter, and the methodology behind it, read the CoinDesk 20 methodology paper. If you have questions or comments on the method, please email them to research@coindesk.com. We invite you to share your perspectives and feedback on the CoinDesk 20 list.