Original article: Coingecko

Compiled by: Yuliya, PANews

This study analyzes the price performance of the 150 largest crypto assets by market capitalization on the Coingecko platform as of December 25, 2024, and comprehensively examines the annual cryptocurrency market investment returns by comparing price changes on January 1, 2024 or the earliest available data date. To ensure the accuracy and reference value of the data, the study specifically excludes derivative assets such as stablecoins, wrapped tokens, anchored assets, pledged assets, and re-pledged assets.

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

Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) has become the best performing large-cap cryptocurrency in 2024 with an astonishing increase of 23,079.2%. The price of $VIRTUAL started at $0.01311 at the beginning of the year and remained below $0.20 for most of the time, but suddenly soared in the fourth quarter and reached a high of $3.04 on December 25. This strong rise was due to the viral spread of Virtuals Protocol's AI agent platform, which attracted a large number of cryptocurrency investors seeking dual investment opportunities in AI and Meme coins.

To put this into context, if an investor had invested $100 in $VIRTUAL on January 1 and held on to it until Christmas, they 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.

The third-largest meme coin project is Popcat (POPCAT), which has risen from $0.007640 on January 1 to $0.8067 on December 25, a 10,459.0% increase. Although Popcat was launched at the end of last year and became one of the leading meme coins in the Solana ecosystem, its price did not break new highs until March of this year. Popcat became the first cat-themed meme coin to break $1 billion in market value on September 27 and maintained it for several months before falling back.

It is worth noting that 7 of the top 10 cryptocurrencies with the highest growth this year are meme coins. In addition to Brett and Popcat, other meme coins with outstanding performance include:

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

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

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

  • and Pepe (PEPE) rose 1,400.6%.

Surpassing its performance during the meme coin frenzy in mid-2023, it has solidified its position as one of the leading meme coins.

In addition to Memecoins, $OM and $AERO

In a 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 an annual increase of 3,139.4%, from $0.0511 on January 1 to $1.66 on December 25, thanks to the popularity of Meme coins and the Base ecosystem driving the growth of on-chain transaction volume.

Bitcoin grew steadily, while Ethereum performed below 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. It ranks 39th among the 123 large-cap crypto assets analyzed, outperforming the remaining 84 cryptocurrencies. This means that, like last year, the probability of randomly selecting a cryptocurrency and outperforming Bitcoin's growth in 2024 is about one in three.

On the other hand, Ethereum (ETH) has a lower increase of 53.4% ​​in 2024, with the price recovering from $2,280 on January 1 to $3,498 on December 25, which is only half of the 98.6% increase 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 have seen returns ranging from 1,400.6% to 23,079.2%. Holding any of these cryptocurrencies would have outperformed Bitcoin by at least 10 times and Ethereum by 26 times.

Top Crypto 2024

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

Top Cryptocurrencies of 2023

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