Ethereum led May’s rebound with a 36 % rally, helping the portfolio recover US$45 that month, but the initial US$1,000 investment now sits at US$867; AVAX is the worst performer.
Long-term, the strategy has returned +265 % since 2018, far outpacing the S&P 500’s +63 % gain over the same period, despite recent volatility and underperformance in 2025.
Five months into 2025, the Top Ten Crypto Index Portfolio is still deep in the red, down 13 % year-to-date, despite back-to-back gains in April and May.
Ethereum was the standout in May, rallying 36 % and driving a modest rebound across the board. Bitcoin, Binance Coin, and Tron all logged gains near 10 %. The portfolio added US$45 (AU$69) in May, mirroring its April recovery. Still, the year’s starting US$1,000 (AU$1,542) investment now sits at just US$867 (AU$1,337).
Only two assets, Bitcoin (+12 %) and Tron (+5 %), are in positive territory for the year. AVAX remains the clear laggard, down 42 % year-to-date and now out of the Top Ten altogether.
The portfolio includes BTC, ETH, XRP, BNB, SOL, DOGE, USDC, ADA, TRX, and AVAX, allocated equally on January 1 with no rebalancing. BTC leads the pack with an individual value of USD 112. AVAX is the worst performer for both the month (-6 %) and the year.
Related: SEC Opens Public Comment on Franklin Templeton’s Proposed XRP and Solana ETFs
Coinbase’s COIN50 Index—tracking the top 50 crypto assets with quarterly rebalancing—has pulled ahead of the Top Ten in 2025. COIN50 posted a 12 % return in May, more than doubling the Top Ten’s monthly gain.
So far in 2025: Top Ten: 13 %, and COIN50: 10 %. This marks COIN50’s second month outperforming the Top Ten in head-to-head performance.
Long-Term Results Still Hold
Despite 2025’s losses, the long-term performance of the Top Ten experiment remains intact. Since 2018, investing USD 1.000 into the top ten cryptocurrencies each January has returned +265 %, turning USD 8.000 into USD 29.186.
Best year: 2020 (+890 %)
Worst year: 2022 (-15 %)
2025 so far: -13 %
The portfolio peaked in November 2021 with a combined return of +533 %.
Crypto vs. Traditional Markets
For context, the same passive strategy applied to the S&P 500 over the same eight-year window would have yielded US$13,000 (AU$20k), up 63%. In conclusion, despite the extreme volatility within certain sectors of the crypto market, the Top Ten strategy has dramatically outpaced traditional equity benchmarks.
Note that this is not an actual investment fund. It’s a long-running personal project tracking the performance of the ten largest cryptocurrencies by market cap. Every January 1, US$100 (AU$154) is allocated to each top-ten coin.
Moreover, there’s no trading, no rebalancing, and no selling. Basically, the strategy is designed to show what happens when you simply buy and hold the top names in crypto. Monthly updates track winners, losers, and the evolving total value, offering more of a slow and deliberate snapshot of the performance of several cryptocurrencies.
Related: Justin Sun’s Tron Strikes Reverse Merger Deal to Go Public via SRM Entertainment