Top 6 Performers of the Top 100 Crypto Assets in 2024

Altcoins include all other Internet currencies protected by cryptographic blockchains, in addition to Bitcoin, which is a seminal and premier cryptocurrency. Their forex exchange rates can vary as much volatility as BTC and tend to track along with the price of Bitcoin.

In fact, large concentrations of BTC also tend to cause large spikes in altcoin markets. Experienced crypto day and swing traders refer to these moves as the “alternative season”.

While Bitcoin posted a 121% price gain from New Year’s Day to Christmas Eve this year, the following six altcoins saw increases ranging from 1,249% to a staggering 1.84 million percent for a newcomer to the altcoin markets this year that only launched in October.

At the bottom of this article is the complete list of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap ranked in order of the gains they made from January 1st to December 24th of this year. The author calculated these gains by taking the average cryptocurrency exchange price on December 24th and dividing it by the average price on January 1st.

Accordingly, some coins may be more or less profitable to day trade or flip trade than those listed in this list due to market movements between the start and end dates of this calculation.

Several of these coins would show much higher percentage gains if the end date was calculated from the price peaks that occurred earlier in the year. But here are the six that did best for dollar-cost averaging or long-term investors.

1. Fartcoin blew investors away this year

Fartcoin now valued at $1.2 billion – what a blast! pic.twitter.com/q53MnDbJwh

— Barchart (@Barchart) December 24, 2024

Fartcoin’s silent but violent rally sent crypto markets flying this year. This hot meme coin is a new one. It started gathering at the gate after its launch in mid-October.

After the November election, however, this library meme currency of the Solana program really took off. Trump’s re-election saw most crypto markets recover, but Fartcoin posted a 300% gain in a matter of days from November 5-18. Then in December, Fartcoin took another stage above $1 on December 19th.

Now, Fartcoin is about to rise to $2 per token on popular Solana decentralized exchanges (DEX) like Radium and Meteroa VD. What could be behind such a hilarious meme economy? Maybe it has something to do with Trump’s name being a traditional slang term for a Bronx cheerleader.

Also, this meme coin is the latest demonstration of the ease of use, low fees and high liquidity for issuing new coin on the Solana network. The smart contract layer 1 blockchain continues neck and neck with Ethereum in the race to dominate decentralized finance.

From its debut to December 24, Fartcoin’s price recorded a percentage gain of 1,847,357%, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Who would have thought that a coin called Fartcoin would have the highest percentage gains of any cryptocurrency in 2024?

Anyone who has been paying attention to the meme coin industry – these drag upstarts are definitely the shock games of the digital financial industry.

2. Mantra Bags Win for RWA tokenization

Several meme coins have climbed the price charts in 2024, but so have altcoins with specific use cases and direct utility. This demonstrates the market demand for coins that power useful applications and artificial intelligence (AI).

Mantra continued to hit new ATHs throughout the year, in June, July and October, and then surged to a major high in November, which eclipsed all previous records. From January to December, this crypto earned the second highest ROI of the top 100 coins.

Mantra’s Crypto Token (OM) is the currency that powers its security-focused Layer 1 blockchain optimized for real-world tokenization of assets (RWA). The platform is built from the ground up to meet and enforce real-world regulatory requirements in accounting for real-world assets.

Why Mantra price increased in 2024

Launched in the fourth quarter of 2020, Mantra has come a long way in the meantime. A big part of Mantra OM’s rise this year is its success in obtaining licenses from financial authorities to remain compliant with regulators as it expands to a global user base.

Mantra was licensed by the UAE authorities in addition to its license to operate and provide regulated financial services in Hong Kong. This will help it become a key player in building a truly global “Internet of Things”.

In June, Mantra (OM) tokens hit an all-time high of $1.09. Also, this was a notable milestone because the rest of the cryptocurrency market was in a slump at the time.

This milestone came as a result of a partnership between Mantra and the Zand Bank of the United Arab Emirates. Both collaborate to define clear frameworks for RWA tokenization that are compliant with the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority.

After that, OM hit another all-time record in October. This came after Mantra’s price surged more than 60% in less than 30 days to nearly $1.50 with a total market capitalization of $1.2 billion.

Overall, the price of Mantra (OM) gained 8,776% in the crypto markets from January to December this year.

3. Virtual Protocol Wins Crypto AI Meta

Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) is a new decentralized layer 2 protocol that works across L1 blockchain and Web 1.0 and 2.0 layers. But its main feature is the decentralized and tokenized creation and management of “AI agents”.

These artificially intelligent agents can be deployed from the blockchain to social networking applications like Telegram and to online games and metaverses, hence the name Virtuals.

As a result of its huge increases, the token for Virtuals Protocol was the third biggest gainer of 2024. From January 1 to December 24, VIRTUAL grew in price by 6,068%.

4. Ondo, another sweep for RWA tokenization

Markets highly rewarded the tokenization of real-world assets in 2024. They also liked currency platforms with other specific, unique, and valuable use cases (think the Render token and the AIOZ network).

The emergence, however, of not one but two different RWA tokens in the top six cryptocurrencies by ROI in 2024 underscores the promise of this segment. Ondo is another RWA witness that recorded huge gains.

Ondo tokens allow users to participate in their decentralized autonomous organization and have special benefits for users of Flux Finance, which is governed by Ondo DAO.

Altcoin traders know that winners tend to win again. Ondo hit new record high exchange rates in April, March and May before doing so again in December. This supported its class-leading earnings this year.

The price of Ondo increased from January 1 to December 24 by 1,758%.

5. Aerodome Chalks Boon for Decentralized Exchanges

Utility and memes earned the most annual ROI in 2024. Utility strikes again with Aerodome, an Automated Market Maker (AMM) for Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer-2 platform, Base.

Aerodrome operates by serving the central liquidity center of Base with a smart liquidity incentive engine governed by a decentralized consensus model. Exchange rates for their AERO tokens soared this year.

As of August 2023, Aerodome (AERO) appeared on crypto exchanges on the rise of ATHs in March and April of this year. Altcoin AMM did it again in December. From January 1 to December 24, AERO achieved 1,672%.

6. Pepe Memes are still a hot coin in 2024

The original and leading economy Pepe takes the back of this list of this year’s top winners.

What can you really say about Pepe? Memeing Web3 feels good, man.

Pepe gained 1,249% from January 1 to December 24 this year.

Top 100 Cryptos by Market Cap Ranked by ROI 2024

CURRENCY: (December 24 Price)/(January 1 Price) = ROI %

top 50

Fartcoin: 1.09/0.000059 = +1,847,357%
MANTRA: 3.71/0.0418 = +8.776%
Virtual protocols: 3.07/0.04977 = +6.068%
Ondo: 1.67/0.08986 = +1.758%
Aerodome financing: 1.63/0.092 = +1,672%
Pepe: 0.00001895/0.000001404 = +1.249%
Pudgy Penguins: 0.03548/0.003375 = +951%
dogwifhat: 2.01/0.197 = +920%
Hyperliquid: 29.22/3.3178 = +781%
Bitget Token: 4.93/0.5966 = +726%
AIOZ network: 0.9484/0.1356 = +599%
Sui: 4.56/0.8425 = +441%
JasmyCoin: 0.0382/0.00727 = +425%
FLOKI: 0.0001782/0.00003738 = +377%
Ethereum Name Service: 37/9.82 = +277%
Brett (based): 0.1413/0.0385 = +267%
XRP: 2.30/0.63 = +265%
Ivy: 0.33/0.09161 = +260%
Dogecoin: 0.33/0.092 = +258%
Average: 374/116.05 = +222%
Stellar: 0.396/0.1319 = +200%
Radi: 4.94/1.8073 = +173%
GateToken: 13.58/5.20 = +161%
Toncoin: 5.73/2.34 = +145%
TRON: 0.26/0.1078 = +141%
UNUS SED LEO: 9.47/3.97 = +139%
Bitcoin: 97,866/44,187 = +121%
Zcash: 68.02/31.27 = +118%
Shiba Inu: 0.00002291/0.00001068 = +114%
BNB: 692/314 = +120%
Core: 1.14/0.5521 = +106%
Uniswap: 14.47/7.60 = +90%
Mantel: 1.22/0.6446 = +89%
AI Alliance: 1.36/0.7316 = +86%
Bittensor: 490/270.74 = +81%
Solana: 194/109.54 = +77%
Bonk: 0.000033/0.00001873 = +76%
Bitcoin Cash: 467.50/266.67 = +75%
Phantom: 0.976/0.5563 = +75%
XDC Network: 0.08182/0.0482 = +70%
Algorand: 0.393/0.2389 = +65%
Network Theta: 2.34/1.4181 = +65%
Arweave: 17.44/10.57 = +65%
Render: 7.72/4.7462 = +63%
Link: 25.25/15.53 = +62%
DAO Token curve: 1.04/0.6449 = +61%
Chronos: 0.1624/0.1005 = +61%
Flare: 0.02729/0.01712 = +59%
Ethene: 1.03/0.6522 = +58%
Cardano: 0.92/0.6231 = +47%

Next 50

ETH: 3,455/2,352 = +46%
NEAR protocol: 5.49/3.80 = +44%
VeChain: 0.05251/0.03656 = +43%
Litecoin: 107.47/74.72 = +43%
Beam: 0.0297/0.02095 = +42%
theses: 1.42/1.0419 = +36%
Ethereum Classic: 27.74/22.50 = +23%
Movement: 0.8675/0.714 = +22%
Jupiter: 0.8842/0.73 = +21%
IOTA: 0.3388/0.2903 = +17%
Sei: 0.4613/0.3948 = +17%
Creator: 1,636/1,408 = +16%
Stacks: 1.73/1.52 = +14%
The chart: 0.2248/0.1969 = +14%
Bitcoin SV: 56.46/50.98 = +11%
Monero: 186.27/169.63 = +10%
Pyth Network: 0.40/0.3694 = +8%
Gala: 0.03851/0.03571 = +8%
Kaspa: 0.1175/0.1088 = +8%
Neo: 15.31/14.57 = +5%
KuCoin Token: 11.36/10.91 = +4%
Helium: 7.58/7.42 = +2%
The Sandbox: 0.6134/0.6065 = +1%
EOS: 0.8627/0.88 = -2%
Avalanche: 40.66/41.86 = -3%
BitTorrent: 0.000001167/0.000001224 = -5%
Decentralized: 0.5338/0.561 = -5%
Kaia: 0.2287/0.2429 = -6%
Filecoin: 5.39/5.7993 = -7%
THORChain: 5.33/5.8671 = -9%
FTX token: 3.30/3.65 = -10%
Polkadot: 7.44/8.60 = -13.5%
Quantity: 118/137.29 = -14%
OKB: 46.88/54.27 = -14%
Internet PC: 11.06/12.95 = -14%
Flow: 0.7878/0.9959 = -21%
Lido DAO: 1.93/2.5543 = -24%
Axie Infinity: 6.81/10.20 = -33%
Unchanged: 1.46/2.4068 = -39%
Worldcoin: 2.30/3.755 = -39%
Cosmos: 6.96/11.93 = -42%
Optimism: 1.92/3.3855 = -43%
Injective: 22.77/43.2967 = -47%
dYdX (native): 1.56/3.01 = -48%
MultiverseX: 36.93/72.84 = -49%
POL MATIC: 0.5174/1.0334 = -50%
Arbitrum: 0.80/1.7352 = -54%
Celestia: 5.27/13.7347 = -62%
Starknet: 0.5008/2.70 = -81%
Aptos: 9.61/116 = -92%

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