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In 2017, JPMorgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon called bitcoin a “fraud.” Now his company is building its own blockchain and believes the current crypto downturn will be short-lived. Bitcoin’s price history helps explain why. According to StatMuse, BTC has increased by over 20,000% since 2016 and will reach 11 new highs in 2025.
But raw percentage growth only tells part of the story. To better understand when crypto goes into true price discovery mode, Finder.com tracked how often the top five cryptocurrencies by market cap hit new price records. Let’s explore the record crypto activity (ATH) by year.
How Often Crypto Hits New All-Time Highs
2021 reigns supreme as the year with the most highs ever, with a total of 147. Another record year was 2017, which hit just under 120 ATH. Together, they account for more than half of the decade’s all-time highs.
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In contrast, 2022 and 2023 collectively saw no new records set, at least not by these top five coins. If you’re familiar with crypto history, this lack of ATH corresponds to the crypto winter that followed a series of high-profile failures in the digital world – most notably the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.
The periods between these market peaks and deep downturns were characterized by moderate and record activity. 2016, 2020, and 2024 all had ATHs in the 20s, with 2018 and 2019 in the teens. These mid-cycle years typically represent growth momentum after a crash.
Which coins reached the highest records of all time?
It’s probably no surprise that the original crypto, Bitcoin (BTC), takes the top prize as the coin that has set the most records over the past decade. At 163, he holds the lead with almost double the ATHs of second place.
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The next three – ether (ETH), solana (SOL), and BNB – fall into a clear middle band, each seeing 70 to 84 all-time highs. Although all three coins saw strong growth, all launched years after Bitcoin, giving them less time to experience market cycles and growth.
While XRP lags behind with just 15 ATH, it has only just replaced Cardano (ADA) as the fifth largest coin by market cap (excluding stablecoins) in 2024.
What patterns emerge from the data?
It’s no secret that crypto operates on a four-year cycle. Consistent ATHs in 2017 and 2021 mark the typical upticks seen in crypto trends, while 2015, 2019, and 2022-2023 mark the lows.
However, 2025 – while still rising – has not reached the record number of all-time highs that we usually see at the height of a crypto cycle. Instead, 2025 saw just 36 ATHs, compared to 119 in 2017 and 143 in 2021.
So what happened last year and why might 2025 differ from previous cycles?
Why 2025 may have diverged from predictions
Several factors may explain why 2025 failed to produce an ATH peak similar to those of 2017 and 2021, despite crypto’s growing momentum over the past few years.
- Growing adoption and normalcy. Crypto is becoming an established asset class, as evidenced recently by spot Bitcoin ETFs and regulatory support. The volatility of the first years could give way to more stable price developments.
- Increase in market capitalization and scale effects. The value of small-cap investments can double or triple much more easily than companies worth trillions of dollars. Even though the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has grown exponentially in the past, it is only a matter of time before it cools down. We could see this effect right now.
- Macroeconomic difficulties have reduced investment risk. Rising interest rates, concerns about inflation and global economic and political uncertainty may have steered investors toward historically more stable assets, like gold.
- The cycle is just late. Four years is a model, not a guarantee. Although we saw some record action in the second half of this year, the real peak may be just around the corner in 2026.
Rather than signaling market weakness, 2025’s record tepid activity could instead indicate a transition for crypto. As he grows in size and acceptance, this explosive growth that generates a hundred or more HUDs in a single year may be a hallmark of his past.
Methodology
To analyze the frequency and trends of all-time highs during crypto market cycles, Finder.com tracked the top five cryptocurrencies by market cap and counted each instance where they hit new price records. This methodology is described below.
- Selected pieces. The researchers gathered information on the top five cryptocurrencies by total market capitalization based on data from CoinMarketCap.
- Exclusions. The study excluded stablecoins and wrapped assets from the top five coins.
- Definition of ATH. The research defined an all-time high as a new intraday price relative to all previous trading histories.
- Counting rules. Each new price record is counted as a separate “ATH event”.
- Data sources. Historical price is from Yahoo Finance and market cap data is from CoinMarketCap.
Conclusion
All-time highs in crypto tend to cluster in four-year cycles around a major market dynamic. However, lower-than-expected ATH activity in 2025 could represent increasing maturity for an asset once rejected by the traditional finance world.
Whether it’s a sharp rise in 2026 or more gradual growth, the market that emerges could be fundamentally different from its past. Understanding the changing trends in crypto can help investors navigate an asset class that is slowly gaining a place in people’s portfolios.
This story was produced by Finder.com and revised and distributed by Stacker.
