Top ten leading projects in 2024: the highest increase exceeded 230 times, and 7 Meme coins entered the list

Original text:Coingecko

Compiled by: Yuliya, PANews

This study analyzes the price performance of the 150 largest cryptoassets by market capitalization on the CoinGecko platform as of December 25, 2024, providing a comprehensive examination of the annual cryptocurrency market by comparing price changes to January 1, 2024, or the earliest available data date. Return on investment. To ensure the accuracy and reference value of the data, the study specifically excluded derivative assets such as stablecoins, wrapped tokens, anchored assets, pledged assets and re-pledged assets.

What are the projects with the biggest cryptocurrency gains in 2024?

Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) became the best-performing large-cap cryptocurrency in 2024 with a staggering gain of 23,079.2%. The price of $VIRTUAL started at $0.01311 at the beginning of the year and stayed below $0.20 for most of the time, but suddenly surged in the fourth quarter, reaching a high of $3.04 on December 25. This strong rally stems from the viral spread of Virtuals Protocol’s AI agent platform, attracting a large number of cryptocurrency investors looking for dual investment opportunities in AI and meme coins.

From an investment return perspective, if an investor invested $100 to buy $VIRTUAL on January 1 and held it until Christmas, he would have made a profit of $23,079.

Following closely behind is Brett (BRETT) , which has risen 14,784.6% to $0.145 as of December 25 since its launch on February 29 at $0.0009766, although down from the $0.234 hit on December 1 All-time highs have fallen. Brett’s significant gains make it the only Base chain meme coin to date to reach a market cap of $1 billion.

Ranked third is also a Meme coin project Popcat (POPCAT) , whose price rose from US$0.007640 on January 1 to US$0.8067 on December 25, an increase of 10,459.0%. Although Popcat launched late last year and became one of the leading meme coins in the Solana ecosystem, its price did not start breaking new highs until March of this year. Popcat became the first cat-themed Meme coin with a market value exceeding US$1 billion on September 27 and remained so for several months before its market value fell back.

It is worth noting that 7 of the top ten cryptocurrencies this year are meme coins . In addition to Brett and Popcat, other meme coins that performed well include:

• Mog Coin (MOG), another cat-themed token, rose 6,051.0%;

• The AI-generated frog meme coin Turbo (TURBO) rose 3,036.0%;

• The recently launched Pump.fun project Fartcoin and AI agency investment fund ai16z rose 2,890.5% and 1,409.9% respectively;

• and Pepe (PEPE) rose 1,400.6%.

It surpassed its performance during the meme coin craze in mid-2023 and solidified its position as one of the major meme coins.

Outside of Meme coins, $OM and $AERO

In this meme-dominated year, $OM and $AERO also posted significant gains. MANTRA (OM) ranked fourth, with a full-year increase of 6,418.3%. The price rose from US$0.0584 on January 1 to US$3.81 on December 25, becoming the best-performing RWA investment project this year, with a return rate of second 9 times the premium RWA project Ondo Finance (ONDO).

At the same time, Base chain decentralized exchange Aerodrome Finance (AERO) ranked sixth, with a full-year increase of 3,139.4%, rising from US$0.0511 on January 1 to US$1.66 on December 25, thanks to Meme coins and Base The popularity of the ecosystem drives the growth of on-chain transaction volume.

Bitcoin grows steadily, Ethereum underperforms expectations

Bitcoin (BTC) recorded a 133.8% gain in 2024, with the price steadily climbing from $42,208 on January 1 to $98,696 on December 25, matching the 162.5% gain in 2023. Ranked 39th out of 123 large-cap crypto assets analyzed, outperforming the remaining 84 cryptocurrencies. This means that, like last year, the probability of picking a cryptocurrency at random and surpassing Bitcoin’s growth in 2024 is about one in three.

Ethereum (ETH), on the other hand, had a lower 53.4% ​​gain in 2024, with the price recovering from $2,280 on January 1 to $3,498 on December 25, just half of the 98.6% gain in 2023. Ethereum prices fluctuated in a range throughout the year, and although it tested the $4,000 mark several times, it failed to break through the 2021 peak.

As of December 25, the top ten cryptocurrencies’ yields ranged from 1,400.6% to 23,079.2%. Holding any of these cryptocurrencies will outperform Bitcoin by at least 10 times and Ethereum by 26 times.

Top Crypto 2024

In 2024, the 20 most profitable cryptocurrencies, ranked by price increase, along with Bitcoin and Ethereum, are as follows:

Top Cryptocurrencies in 2023

In 2023, the price returns of the top 10 cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum are as follows: