Coingecko: A look at the top twenty tokens that will lead the crypto market in 2024

Author: Lim Yu Qian, Coingecko; Compiler: Wu Baht, Golden Finance

Which cryptocurrencies will see the biggest gains in 2024?

Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) was the cryptocurrency’s biggest gainer in 2024, posting the highest price return of 23,079.2% among the largest crypto assets by market capitalization. $VIRTUAL started the year at $0.01311 and mostly hovered below $0.20 before surging last quarter to hit $3.04 on December 25. The price surge comes as Virtuals Protocol’s AI-powered agent launchpad begins to gain momentum from cryptocurrency investors.

In other words, if a cryptocurrency investor purchased $100 worth of $VIRTUAL on January 1 and held it for the entire year, they would be able to sell it on Christmas Day for a profit of $23,079.

The next largest cryptocurrency gainer in 2024 is Brett (BRETT), whose token launch price surged from $0.0009766 on February 29 to $0.145 on December 25, a rise of 14,784.6%. The highest point was $0.234 on December 1. Brett's significant price gain makes it the only Base chain meme token to date to reach a market cap of $1 billion.

The third most profitable cryptocurrency is also a meme coin called Popcat (POPCAT), which saw its price rise from $0.007640 on January 1 to $0.8067 on December 25, an increase of 10,459.0%. While Popcat launched late last year and became one of the leading bettors on the Solana meme coin narrative, its price just started hitting new highs in March of this year. Popcat was the first cat meme coin to hit a $1 billion market cap on September 27, and stayed there for a few months before shrinking again.

Overall, 7 of the top 10 cryptocurrencies this year are Meme coins. In addition to Brett and Popcat, other meme coins with the highest cryptocurrency gains include: Mog Coin (MOG), which increased by 6,051.0%; AI-generated Frog Meme Coin Turbo (TURBO) with a return of 3,036.0%; the recent FARTCOIN and Artificial Intelligence Agency Investment Fund AI16Z (AI16Z), up 2,890.5% and 1,409.9% respectively so far; Pepe (PEPE)’s price performance surpassed its performance during the mid-2023 meme coin mania season, rising by 1,400.6%, cementing its position as one of the largest meme coins.

Meme coins see record gains for $OM and $AERO in mid-year

MANTRA (OM) ranks fourth on the list of meme-dominated cryptocurrency gains in 2024. $OM has returned 6,418.3%, with its price rising from $0.0584 on January 1 to $3.81 on December 25. This makes MANTRA the most profitable RWA. The amount invested that year was 9 times that of Ondo Finance (ONDO), which was the second most profitable RWA game with a return rate of 682.8%.

Meanwhile, Aerodrome Finance (AERO) ranks sixth among the crypto’s biggest gainers of 2024, with a return of 3,139.4%, from the token price of $0.0511 on January 1 to the ecosystem narrative in December. $1.66, which drives the growth of the ecosystem.

Bitcoin’s solid returns and Ethereum’s underperformance

Bitcoin (BTC) recorded a 133.8% gain in 2024, with its price steadily climbing from $42,208 on January 1 to $98,696 in December, continuing to hit all-time highs. Bitcoin ranks 39th out of 123 large-cap crypto assets analyzed, outperforming the remaining 84 cryptocurrencies. This means that, just like last year, the chance of picking a cryptocurrency at random from this list and beating Bitcoin’s growth in 2024 is about one in three.

Ethereum (ETH), on the other hand, has a lower return of 53.4% ​​in 2024 , with its price recovering from $2,280 on January 1 to $3,498 on December 25. This is almost half of the 98.6% gain Ethereum will achieve in 2023. Prices remained range-bound throughout the year, briefly testing the $4,000 level a few times but unable to move beyond the 2021 peak.

As of December 25, returns for the top 10 cryptocurrencies ranged from 1,400.6% to 23,079.2%. Holding any of these cryptocurrencies this year will perform at least 10 times better than Bitcoin and 26 times better than Ethereum.

Top Cryptocurrencies of 2024

The top 20 most profitable cryptocurrencies by price growth in 2024, along with Bitcoin and Ethereum, are:

Top Cryptocurrencies of 2023

The growth rates of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other top ten cryptocurrencies in 2023 are as follows: