Bitcoin reached an all-time high this year, bolstered by the approval of the U.S. spot ETF and Trump's election - however, some assets performed even better.

Bitcoin reached an all-time high this year, primarily due to the approval of the U.S. spot ETF and the subsequent boost from Donald Trump's election - although other assets performed even better.

Decrypt analyzed data from CoinGecko and Nasdaq to determine the best-performing cryptocurrencies. Eligible assets must have a starting market cap of at least $500 million during the period from January 1 to December 17.

Other digital asset-related investments, including investments from some major companies, also performed well. Here’s a list of the best-performing assets this year.

PEPE - The winning meme coin this year

PEPE is one of the newer meme tokens that has risen to prominence, launched last year. The token is based on Pepe the Frog, an internet cartoon character that was later labeled a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League due to its unusual adoption by far-right groups.

Pepe reached a new all-time high in December. The Ethereum-based token had a market cap of $590.8 million at the beginning of the year, and by December 17, its market cap had reached $9.4 billion, an increase of 1,492%.

Pepe made headlines - in typical meme style, due to its absurd rise in value and the fortunes made by a few traders. However, unlike many strange assets in the meme token space, Pepe has continued to rise and is now the 28th largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

Sui (SUI) - The king of altcoins

Not long ago, the little-known Sui (SUI) emerged: this blockchain launched in May 2023, developed by former Meta (formerly Facebook) engineers, and now has an active DeFi community utilizing its fast network.

The native token SUI of the fast blockchain Sui has surged significantly this year. In January, SUI's market cap was $925 million. After a 1,193% increase, by December, its market cap approached $12 billion. SUI is now the 18th largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

MicroStrategy (MSTR) - The winning Bitcoin stock

Michael Saylor's software company has fully bet on Bitcoin this year - the company’s stock shows it was below $70 per share at the beginning of the year.

By December, the stock price had nearly quintupled to $386. This represents a 464% increase, outperforming all other stocks on Nasdaq, including Nvidia.

MicroStrategy was once an obscure software company. Since 2020, the company began buying Bitcoin and rebranded itself as a 'Bitcoin treasury company.' This year, the Virginia-based company accelerated its Bitcoin purchases, promising to provide the best investment opportunities in Bitcoin for speculators.

Investors, including hedge funds seeking volatile returns, are flocking to the stock.

Dogecoin (Dogecoin)

The original meme coin. Dogecoin (DOGE) was originally created as a joke to mock the proliferation of altcoins, but it has now become the seventh largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

This year, its market cap grew by 342%, currently at $45.9 billion. The rise of Bitcoin has undoubtedly contributed to this.

This is largely thanks to Tesla CEO Elon Musk: the world's richest person frequently posted about Dogecoin during 2020 and 2021, and this year he mentioned Dogecoin again in speculation about the coin being used on his social platform X (formerly Twitter).

XRP - The comeback kid

XRP performed strongly this year. The token supports transactions on the Ripple network, which provides blockchain solutions for cross-border payments to institutions.

The token's market cap soared, becoming the fourth largest cryptocurrency, growing from $34 billion to $131.2 billion, an increase of 286%. Earlier this month, it briefly surpassed Tether to become the third largest cryptocurrency by market cap; at the beginning of the year, it was the sixth largest.

The coin made headlines due to its disputes with regulators. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a $1.3 billion lawsuit against Ripple in 2020, accusing the company of selling unregistered securities to raise funds from investors.

However, last year, in a lawsuit against regulators, Ripple achieved a partial victory when the judge ruled that the programmed sales of XRP to retail investors on cryptocurrency exchanges did not constitute securities.

Although the judge ruled that the $728 million tokens used for institutional sales constituted unregistered securities sales, this ruling is still interpreted as a victory by Ripple and the entire cryptocurrency industry.

BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT)

Given the title of this article, we can consider it an honorary mention. This year has been incredible for Bitcoin, and the largest asset management companies have contributed by launching ETFs, making Bitcoin, the largest and oldest cryptocurrency, accessible to everyone.

The iShares Bitcoin Trust is a traditional investment tool that allows investors to buy and sell shares tracking the price of Bitcoin. These shares trade on Nasdaq.

When it began trading in January, IBIT broke records with unprecedented trading volume and inflows: by December, its managed assets surpassed $50 billion, reaching this milestone in just 228 days, faster than any other ETF in history.

Other top asset management firms have also launched Bitcoin ETFs, but BlackRock's product is the most successful.