The CoinLedger report examined the five most-bought small/mid-cap cryptocurrencies and the most-sold digital assets this year.
2024 has brought hundreds of billions of dollars to the crypto markets. Data shows that the digital asset sector has grown by over 44% year-to-date (YTD) and has the potential to surpass the $3 trillion peak set in 2021.
A booming cryptocurrency market also means eager investors and traders chasing profits in a fast-paced market. Big names like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are always the talk of the town, especially with Wall Street moving under the ETF wrapper.
However, small and mid-cap assets have also attracted interest and demanded investor capital.
Based on data from over 500,000 crypto investors, CoinLedger researchers found that the top five most-bought cryptocurrencies so far this year are Render (RNDR), Fetch.ai (FET), Internet Computer (ICP), Injective (INJ), and Hedera (HBAR).
Render and Fetch.ai are up 48% and 113% YTD, respectively. The tokens are likely riding on the back of GPU giant Nvidia and the hype around AI as investors look for web3 alternatives to traditional stakeholders. As of this writing, RNDR has a market cap of $2.5 billion, while FET has a valuation of $3.6 billion.
The best-selling cryptocurrencies of 2024
In contrast, large-cap digital assets saw incredible sell-offs despite the noticeable growth seen with these tokens. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), and Ripple (XRP) were named as the top five virtual currencies to be sold in 2024.
“Unsurprisingly, this list includes some of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap. The cryptocurrency market rally in early 2024 likely led many investors to take profits and sell some of their significant holdings,” CoinLedger researchers wrote.
Notably, Bitcoin reached a new all-time high in March and Ethereum approached previous highs. It’s not uncommon for investors to take profits in these situations. For Solana, the SOL ecosystem has become the de facto memecoin chain, seeing billions of meme token traders. It’s possible that memecoin traders and meme swaps account for most of the SOL sales.