The cryptocurrency market on October 1, 2016, presented a fascinating snapshot of an ecosystem in rapid transformation. While Bitcoin continued its steady recovery above $613 following the devastating Bitfinex hack just two months prior, the real story was playing out in the altcoin rankings, where privacy-focused currencies and a controversial hard fork spin-off were reshaping the top ten.
TL;DR
- Ethereum Classic (ETC) surged to the 5th position by market cap at $1.19, benefiting from post-DAO hard fork interest
- Privacy coins Monero (XMR) and Dash (DASH) occupied the 6th and 7th spots, signaling growing demand for anonymous transactions
- Ethereum (ETH) held strong at #2 with a $1.1 billion market cap, trading at $13.17 as the network recovered from summer DoS attacks
- The total cryptocurrency market cap stood at approximately $11.4 billion, with Bitcoin commanding over 85% dominance
- Steem, a blockchain-based social media token, cracked the top 10 at #8 with a $71 million market cap
Ethereum Classic Defies Skeptics With Fifth-Place Ranking
Just three months after the controversial DAO hard fork that split the Ethereum blockchain in two, Ethereum Classic was quietly building momentum. On October 1, 2016, ETC traded at $1.19 with a market capitalization of $100.7 million, placing it firmly in the fifth spot among all cryptocurrencies. This was a remarkable achievement for a chain that many had dismissed as a temporary protest movement.
The DAO hack in June 2016, which saw over $50 million siphoned from the decentralized venture fund, triggered Ethereum’s hard fork in July. Those who opposed the fork on philosophical grounds — arguing that blockchain immutability should remain sacrosanct regardless of circumstances — continued mining the original chain. What started as a principled stand was becoming a legitimate market force.
Poloniex, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges at the time, had already listed ETC, providing critical liquidity. The token’s 24-hour trading volume of $2.4 million on this date demonstrated genuine market interest, though it was down 4.83% over the past 24 hours as the broader market digested recent volatility.
Privacy Coins Make Their Move
Monero (XMR) and Dash (DASH) sitting at positions 6 and 7 respectively represented perhaps the most significant trend in the altcoin market on this date. Monero, trading at $7.36 with a $95.8 million market cap, had experienced significant volatility — down nearly 11% in 24 hours and a striking 30.77% over the past week. Despite the sharp pullback, its presence in the top 10 underscored the market’s growing appetite for privacy-centric cryptocurrencies.
Dash, meanwhile, traded at $11.71 with a $79.3 million market cap. Its Darksend mixing technology and InstantSend features were attracting users who valued transaction privacy and speed. The coin was down 3.16% over 24 hours but remained relatively stable on the week with just a 1.62% gain, suggesting consolidation after earlier momentum.
The combined market capitalization of these two privacy coins alone exceeded $175 million — a testament to the growing recognition that financial privacy was becoming a significant use case in the cryptocurrency space.
Steem: The Social Media Token Nobody Expected
Perhaps the most surprising entrant in the top 10 was Steem at #8, with a market capitalization of $71.2 million and a token price of $0.4456. The Steemit platform, which rewarded content creators and curators with cryptocurrency, had launched just months earlier and was already generating significant buzz. The concept of earning cryptocurrency for social media participation was novel, and investors were clearly paying attention.
However, Steem’s 24-hour drop of 9.04% and weekly decline of 26.10% suggested that early enthusiasm was cooling. The token’s long-term viability remained an open question, but its presence in the top 10 marked the first time a social media-focused cryptocurrency had achieved such prominence.
Market Structure and Bitcoin Dominance
Bitcoin’s market cap of $9.76 billion represented approximately 85% of the total cryptocurrency market on this date. The top five coins — BTC, ETH, XRP, LTC, and ETC — collectively accounted for roughly 93% of the total market cap, highlighting the concentrated nature of the crypto ecosystem at this stage. Ethereum at $1.1 billion was the only other coin to surpass the billion-dollar mark.
XRP held the third position at $0.008205 with a $291 million market cap, while Litecoin maintained its position as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency at $3.85 with a $184 million market cap. Both established coins were experiencing modest declines, with XRP down 6.86% and LTC relatively flat at +0.19% over 24 hours.
Ethereum’s Ongoing Recovery
Ethereum’s price of $13.17 and $1.1 billion market cap reflected a network still finding its footing after the tumultuous summer. The DAO hack and subsequent hard fork had shaken confidence, and the network was facing ongoing distributed denial-of-service attacks that would eventually lead to the Tangerine Whistle hard fork later in October. Despite these challenges, the fact that ETH maintained its #2 position demonstrated remarkable resilience.
The Ethereum ecosystem was also attracting serious institutional attention. Fortune 500 companies including Microsoft, IBM, Samsung, and a consortium of major banks including Wells Fargo, Barclays, UBS, Credit Suisse, and HSBC had all begun experimenting with Ethereum-based solutions. Microsoft Azure had integrated Ethereum into its cloud platform, signaling that enterprise adoption was moving beyond proof-of-concept stages.
Why This Matters
The cryptocurrency market snapshot from October 1, 2016, captures a pivotal moment in the industry’s evolution. The emergence of privacy coins as top-10 assets, the surprising resilience of Ethereum Classic, and the appearance of social media tokens like Steem all pointed to an ecosystem that was rapidly diversifying beyond Bitcoin. Total market capitalization of $11.4 billion seems almost quaint by later standards, but the trends visible on this date — privacy, decentralization debates, institutional blockchain adoption, and new use cases — would define the cryptocurrency landscape for years to come. The post-DAO period forced the community to confront fundamental questions about governance, immutability, and the balance between ideology and pragmatism that continue to shape the industry today.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risk. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.