the meaning of "surpass" and being "no. 1" has changed a lot ever since ethereum was created. it was bent to satisfy the needs of their advertising team.
look at the ranking system for example it is purely based on market capitalization. and surprise surprise ETH has a huge supply to increase that number (mc=supply*price) and keep it that way.
ranking should be based on: usability, adoption, security, innovation, technology, ... instead and in such ranking system ETH falls down out of at least top 10 coins!