I did an analysis for all the coins appearing in top 3-5 in 2017-2018. There are 13 coins appearing on these three positions. Excluding the stablecoin Tether, which reached top 5 in late 2018. Only 3 managed to return to previous ATH.

TOP 3

XRP, all time high $3.40 on 07/01/2018. Second best attempt $1.84 on 15/04/2021. Today $1.16

XRP even reached top 2 briefly on the week of 14/05/2017, flipping ETH market cap slightly ($8.4B vs $8.3B), and then again on the last week of 2017 ($89B vs $73B) and early 2018. It also got into top 2 in late 2018.

Sadly for XRP, the lawsuit with the SEC and other controversies have seen this coin going down hill. Still have a large cap today, but it is down 67% from its ATH.

DASH, Top 3, on 05/03/2017

All time high: $1,493.59 on 20/12/2017

Second best attempt: $441.96 on 07/05/2017

DASH is still very far away from its ATH, trading at just $202 today, down 86.5% from the peak. DASH is ranked 75th today.

BCH, Top 3, on 20/08/2017

All time high: $3,785.82 on 20/12/2017

Second best attempt: $1,547.08 on 12/05/2021

Bitcoin Cash is also very far away from its ATH. Still on top 19 now, but it is just at $634.29, down 83.21% from the peak.

TOP 4

XMR, Top 4, on 12/03/2017

All time high: $542.33 on 09/01/2018

Today: $272.54 (-49.74%)

Rank: 40th

XEM, Top 4, on 21/05/2017

All time high: $1.87 on 07/01/2018

Today: $0.1789 (-90.43%)

Rank: 85th

XLM, Top 4, on 02/12/2018

All time high: $0.875563 on 03/01/2018

Second best attempt: $0.727540 on 12/05/2021

Today: $0.379196 rank 23rd.

IOTA, Top 4, on 10/12/2017

All time high: $5.25 on 19/12/2017

Second best attempt: $2.52 on 17/04/2021

Today: $1.34 rank 51st

TOP 5

BTG, Top 5, on 26/11/2017

Today rank: 97th. Today price: $69.46 - down 84.73% from ATH of $456.25

EOS, Top 5, on 22/04/2017

Today rank: 44th. Today price: $4.75 - down 79.03% from ATH of $22.71

Managed to return

LTC

New all time high $410.26 on 10/05/2021, surpassing Dec-2017 ATH of $375.29.

Top 4, on 01/01/2017. Litecoin is one of the earliest cryptos and it used to be on top 2 for a long time before ETH’s era.

However, today it is just trading around $199, down 51% from the most recent all time high.

ADA

ADA first appeared on top 5 on 31/12/2017. It reached the first all time high of $1.18 on 04/01/2018.

The 2021 bull cycle has seen Cardano return with more energy. First it reached $2.29 in May 2021. Second, it reached $3.09 on 02/09/2021.

ETC

This coin first appeared on top 4 in 2017, reaching $44.34 in Jan 2018. The bull run in 2021 has seen a new ATH at $167.09 in May. However it is now severely down from that peak, trading around $56 today (-66.12%).

Even being a top 3-5 at a point is no guarantee that it would retain that position in the future. Crypto verse is evolving at fast speed and if the project doesn’t deliver, many investors will lose interest.