Coingecko: A look at the top 20 tokens that will lead the crypto market in 2024

Author: Lim Yu Qian, Coingecko; Compiler: Wuzhu, Golden Finance

What are the biggest cryptocurrency gains in 2024?

Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) is the biggest cryptocurrency gainer in 2024, with the highest price return of 23,079.2% among the largest crypto assets by market cap. $VIRTUAL started the year at $0.01311, hovering mostly below $0.20 before surging last quarter to $3.04 on December 25. The strong price gains come as Virtuals Protocol’s AI agent launchpad begins to gain momentum among cryptocurrency investors.

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

The second highest cryptocurrency gainer in 2024 is Brett (BRETT), whose token issuance price soared from $0.0009766 on February 29 to $0.145 on December 25, an increase of 14,784.6%.  The highest point was $0.234 on December 1st. Brett’s significant price gains make it the only Base chain meme coin to reach a market cap of $1 billion to date.

The third most profitable cryptocurrency is also a meme coin called Popcat (POPCAT), which saw its price increase by 10,459.0% from $0.007640 on January 1st to $0.8067 on December 25th.While Popcat launched late last year and became one of the leading bets on the Solana meme coin narrative, its price only just began to hit new highs in March of this year. Popcat was the first cat meme coin to hit a market cap of $1 billion on September 27th and maintained it for several months before its market cap shrank again.

Overall, 7 of the top 10 cryptocurrencies gainers this year are meme coins. In addition to Brett and Popcat, other meme coins with top cryptocurrencies gainers include: Mog Coin (MOG), up 6,051.0%; AI-generated Frog Meme Coin Turbo (TURBO), with a return of 3,036.0%; recent FARTCOIN and AI Agent Investment Fund AI16Z (AI16Z), up 2,890.5% and 1,409.9% year to date, respectively; Pepe (PEPE) price performance surpassed the performance of the mid-2023 meme coin frenzy season, rising 1,400.6%, consolidating its position as one of the largest meme coins.

Meme Coins Mid-Year Record Gains for $OM and $AERO

MANTRA (OM) ranks fourth in the list of cryptocurrencies gaining in 2024, which are dominated by meme coins. $OM has a return of 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 investment of the year, and 9 times more than Ondo Finance (ONDO), the second most profitable RWA play with a return of 682.8%.

Meanwhile, Aerodrome Finance (AERO) ranks sixth among the tokens with the largest cryptocurrency gains in 2024, with a return of 3,139.4%, from a token price of $0.0511 on January 1 to $1.66 in December, which has driven the development of the ecosystem narrative.

Bitcoin’s Steady Returns and Ethereum’s Underperformance

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

On the other hand, Ethereum (ETH) 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 that Ethereum achieved in 2023. Prices remained in a range throughout the year, briefly testing the $4,000 level a few times but unable to surpass the 2021 peak.

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

Top Cryptocurrencies in 2024

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

Top Cryptocurrencies in 2023

In 2023, Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as the other top ten cryptocurrencies, have increased as follows: