YTD performance report: Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash

While bitcoin broke through the $5,000 mark, the world's largest cryptocurrency wasn't the biggest gainer on the market, as ETH, LTC, and BCH all showed significant growth.

Despite Bitcoin being seen as the primary indicator of the market's health, it wasn't the best performer of the quarter.

According to Messari, a cryptocurrency analytics company, 118 cryptos saw larger percentage increases in price, on a year-to-date basis, than bitcoin.

Despite the significant growth altcoins have seen, most of the market's capitalization stems from coins in the top 5 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.Top 5 Cryptocurrencies Show Mixed YTD Growth RatesBitcoin YTD. While the world's five largest cryptocurrencies are all showing significant weekly gains, more salient growth is visible when looking at the year-to-date change in prices.

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency with $91.15 billion in market capitalization, has grown over 30 percent since the beginning of 2019.Ethereum YTD. Ethereum also showed significant year-to-date change, increasing in price by 23.5 percent at press time.

XRP YTD. Ripple's XRP, while being the third largest coin by market cap, has shown the least year-to-date gains.

Bitcoin Cash YTD. Surprisingly, the biggest gainer among the top five isn't Bitcoin Cash, despite gaining just under 99.5 percent since last year.

Litecoin YTD. Litecoin emerged a clear winner in the top five category in the first quarter of 2019, with a 300 percent year-to-date gain.

Since the beginning of the year, Litecoin has moved from $22 up to $93 It's also worth noting that both Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash now have roughly the same market capitalization.

Various theories are floating around, ranging from market manipulation and unexpected fallout from an April Fool's Day joke, to a whale's massive buy order, all the way to general sell-side exhaustion of the market.