Investors who are still focused on the fact that the cryptocurrency market has not yet recovered to its December 2017 level might be missing the big picture. Led by BTC, Ether, and XRP, digital currency is actually the best asset class for 2019, beating other classes such as equities, bonds, and commodities.

Cryptocurrency outperformed U.S. equities, bond markets, and commodities this year, Coindesk reported. This was revealed by Digital Assets Data president and co-founder Ryan Alfred who said that compared to traditional markets, large-cap cryptos posted higher returns so far in 2019.

“Looking back at the performance of the top ten large-caps (Bitwise 10) in comparison to other major asset classes, we can see their special signature,” Alfred noted.

Digital Assets Data created a chart showing how the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap outperformed traditional asset classes which include equities, oil, and gold.

But that wasn’t always the case when the year started. Back in February, the return on investment figures of the top 10 cryptocurrencies were below those posted by traditional asset classes.

But crypto-asset performance started picking up by March. Halfway through the year, cryptocurrency was already well ahead of its traditional peers.

However, commodities, bonds, and stocks started to pick up lately resulting in a narrower gap between cryptos and other assets. However, digital currencies remain the winner this year performance-wise.

Most of this lead is due to the outstanding performance of some of the top cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, for instance, is up 100 percent since 2019 started. Meanwhile, Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, is 35 percent while XRP posted a 25 percent gain year-to-date.

This outcome was actually predicted a year ago. A December 2018 article by CNN predicted that cryptocurrency is on its way to outperforming other assets this year.

The prediction was made by Travis Kling, a former equities portfolio manager who turned to crypto. “Crypto has never existed during a bear market in traditional assets,” Kling tweeted back in December 2018.

“BTC was birthed at the very beginning of the largest monetary experiment ever- globally coordinated QE. Ending QE is causing pain,” he added. “There is a significant chance Crypto is the best performing asset class in 2019.”