Coingecko: Overview of the Top 20 Tokens Leading the Rise of the Crypto Market in 2024

Author: Lim Yu Qian, Coingecko; Translated by: Wu Zhu, Golden Finance

Which cryptocurrencies will have the largest increase in 2024?

Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) is the asset with the highest price increase in cryptocurrency for 2024, showing the highest price return among the largest market cap crypto assets, reaching 23,079.2%. The price of $VIRTUAL at the beginning of this year was $0.01311, mostly hovering below $0.20, then surged to $3.04 on December 25. As the AI agent launchpad of Virtuals Protocol begins to gain traction among cryptocurrency investors, the price has seen a strong increase.

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

The second highest cryptocurrency surge in 2024 is Brett (BRETT), whose token issuance price skyrocketed from $0.0009766 on February 29 to $0.145 on December 25, an increase of 14,784.6%. The peak on December 1 was $0.234. Brett's significant price gains make it the only Base chain meme token to date that has reached a market capitalization 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%. Although Popcat was launched at the end of last year and became one of the leading bets in the narrative around Solana meme coins, its price only began to reach new highs this March. Popcat was the first cat meme coin to achieve a market cap of $1 billion on September 27 and maintained it for several months before the market cap shrank again.

Overall, 7 of the top 10 crypto gainers this year are meme coins. In addition to Brett and Popcat, other top crypto gainers were: Mog Coin (MOG), which increased by 6,051.0%; AI-generated Frog Meme Coin Turbo (TURBO) returned 3,036.0%; THE MOST RECENT FARTCOIN AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY INVESTMENT FUND AI16Z (AI16Z), WHICH ARE UP 2,890.5% AND 1,409.9% RESPECTIVELY SO FAR; The price performance of Pepe (PEPE) outperformed the performance of the mid-2023 meme coin mania season, rising by 1,400.6%, cementing its position as one of the largest meme coins.

Meme Coin Mid-Year Record Gains of $OM and $AERO

MANTRA (OM) ranked fourth in the meme coin-dominated cryptocurrency growth list in 2024. The return rate of $OM was 6,418.3%, with its price rising from $0.0584 on January 1 to $3.81 on December 25. This made MANTRA the most profitable RWA investment of the year, nine 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 tokens with the highest increase in cryptocurrency in 2024, with a return rate of 3,139.4%, rising from a token price of $0.0511 on January 1 to $1.66 as narrated in the ecosystem in December, which has driven the development of the ecosystem.

The Stable Returns of Bitcoin and the Poor Performance of Ethereum

Bitcoin (BTC) recorded a 133.8% increase in 2024, with its price steadily rising from $42,208 on January 1 to $98,696 in December, continuing to set new historical highs. Bitcoin ranked 39th among the 123 large-cap cryptocurrencies analyzed, outperforming the remaining 84 cryptocurrencies. This means that, just like last year, the chance of randomly selecting a cryptocurrency from this list that will beat Bitcoin's growth in 2024 is about one in three.

On the other hand, Ethereum (ETH) has a lower return rate of 53.4% in 2024, with its price recovering from $2,280 on January 1 to $3,498 on December 25. This is nearly half of the 98.6% gain Ethereum achieved in 2023. The price remained within a range throughout the year, briefly testing the $4,000 level several times but unable to exceed the peak of 2021.

As of December 25, the top 10 cryptocurrencies by growth rate have returns ranging from 1,400.6% to 23,079.2%. Holding any of these cryptocurrencies this year would have outperformed Bitcoin by at least 10 times and Ethereum by 26 times.

Top Cryptocurrencies of 2024

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

Top Cryptocurrencies of 2023

The price increases of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the other top ten cryptocurrencies in 2023 are as follows: