Coingecko: A Look at the Top 20 Tokens Leading the Rise in the Crypto Market in 2024

Author: Lim Yu Qian, Coingecko; Translated by: Wu Zhu, Jinse Caijing

Which cryptocurrencies will have the highest price increase in 2024?

Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) is the asset with the highest price increase in cryptocurrency in 2024, achieving the highest price return rate among the largest market capitalization crypto assets, reaching 23,079.2%. The price of $VIRTUAL at the beginning of this year was $0.01311, mostly hovering below $0.20, before surging to $3.04 on December 25. With the launch of the Virtuals Protocol's AI agent launchpad being driven by cryptocurrency investors, the price saw a strong increase.

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

The second largest increase in cryptocurrency in 2024 is Brett (BRETT), whose token issuance price skyrocketed from $0.0009766 on February 29 to $0.145 on December 25, a rise of 14,784.6%. The highest point on December 1 was $0.234. Brett's significant price gains have made it the only meme token on the Base chain to reach a market cap of $1 billion so far.

The third most profitable cryptocurrency is also a meme coin called Popcat (POPCAT), which rose in price 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 on the Solana meme coin narrative, its price only started hitting new highs this March. Popcat was the first cat meme coin to reach a market cap of $1 billion on September 27, maintaining that for several months before its market cap shrank again.

Overall, this year, among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by growth, 7 are Meme coins. Besides Brett and Popcat, other Meme coins with significant growth include: Mog Coin (MOG), which increased by 6,051.0%; AI-generated Frog Meme Coin Turbo (TURBO) with a return of 3,036.0%; the recent FARTCOIN and AI investment fund AI16Z (AI16Z), which have risen by 2,890.5% and 1,409.9% respectively so far; and Pepe (PEPE), whose price performance surpassed that of the mid-2023 Meme coin frenzy season, rising by 1,400.6%, solidifying its position as one of the largest Meme coins.

Meme Coin Mid-Year Record Increases for $OM and $AERO

MANTRA (OM) ranks fourth in the meme coin-based cryptocurrency growth list in 2024. The return rate of $OM is 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, still 9 times that of Ondo Finance (ONDO), which is the second most profitable RWA game with a return rate of 682.8%.

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

Bitcoin's stable returns and Ethereum's poor performance

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 major cryptocurrency assets analyzed, outperforming the remaining 84 cryptocurrencies. This means that, just like last year, the chance of randomly selecting 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 rate of 53.4% in 2024, with its price rising from $2,280 on January 1 to $3,498 on December 25. This is almost half of the 98.6% return achieved by Ethereum in 2023. The price remained within a range throughout the year, briefly testing the level of $4,000 several times but unable to surpass the peak of 2021.

As of December 25, the top 10 cryptocurrencies by increase 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 increase in 2023 for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the other top ten cryptocurrencies is as follows: