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Review of 2024 Cryptocurrency Performance: What are the Top Ten Gainers?
Original Source: Coingecko
Original Translation: Yuliya, PANews
This research analyzed the price performance of the top 150 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization listed on the CoinGecko platform as of December 25, 2024. By comparing the price change from January 1, 2024, or the earliest available date, a comprehensive overview of the annual cryptocurrency market investment returns was conducted. To ensure data accuracy and reference value, the study specifically excluded asset classes such as stablecoins, wrapped tokens, pegged assets, staking assets, and re-staking assets.
Which Were the Top Performing Cryptocurrency Projects in 2024?
Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) emerged as the best-performing large-cap cryptocurrency of 2024 with a staggering 23,079.2% increase. The price of $VIRTUAL started at 0.01311 US dollars at the beginning of the year, mostly staying below 0.20 US dollars, but experienced a sudden surge in the fourth quarter, reaching a high of 3.04 US dollars on December 25. This strong uptrend was driven by the viral adoption of Virtuals Protocol's AI agent platform, attracting a significant number of cryptocurrency investors seeking AI and Meme coin dual investment opportunities.
From an investment perspective, if an investor had bought $100 worth of $VIRTUAL on January 1 and held until Christmas, they would have gained $23,079 in profit.
Following closely is Brett (BRETT), which has risen by 14,784.6% to 0.145 US dollars as of December 25 from its issuance at 0.0009766 US dollars on February 29, despite retreating from its historical high of 0.234 US dollars set on December 1. Brett's significant gain has made it the only Base Chain Meme coin to achieve a market capitalization of one billion US dollars to date.
Ranked third is another Meme coin project, Popcat (POPCAT), whose price surged from 0.007640 US dollars on January 1 to 0.8067 US dollars on December 25, marking a 10,459.0% increase. While 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 start breaking previous highs until March this year. Popcat became the first cat-themed Meme coin with a market capitalization exceeding one billion US dollars on September 27 and maintained this position for several months before experiencing a slight decline in market cap.
It is worth noting that 7 out of the top ten performing cryptocurrencies this year are Meme coins. Apart from Brett and Popcat, other standout Meme coins this year include:
· Another cat-themed token, Mog Coin (MOG), rose by 6,051.0%;
· An AI-generated frog Meme coin, Turbo (TURBO), rose by 3,036.0%;
· The recently launched Pump.fun project, Fartcoin, and the AI-managed investment fund ai16z saw gains of 2,890.5% and 1,409.9%, respectively;
· And Pepe (PEPE) recorded a 1,400.6% increase.
Surpassing the performance during the mid-2023 Meme coin frenzy, they have solidified their position as key Meme coins.
Beyond Meme Coins, $OM and $AERO
In this Meme coin-dominated year, $OM and $AERO also saw significant gains. MANTRA (OM) ranked fourth, with a yearly increase of 6,418.3%, rising from $0.0584 on January 1 to $3.81 on December 25, becoming the best-performing Real World Asset (RWA) investment project of the year, outperforming the second-best RWA project, Ondo Finance (ONDO), by a factor of 9.
Additionally, the Base chain decentralized exchange Aerodrome Finance (AERO) ranked sixth, with a yearly increase of 3,139.4%, rising from $0.0511 on January 1 to $1.66 on December 25, benefiting from the popularity of Meme coins and the Base ecosystem driving on-chain transaction volume growth.
Bitcoin Shows Steady Growth, Ethereum Underperforms
Bitcoin (BTC) recorded a 133.8% increase in 2024, with the price steadily climbing from $42,208 on January 1 to $98,696 on December 25, equivalent to the 162.5% increase in 2023. It ranked 39th among the 123 analyzed large-cap crypto assets, outperforming 84 other cryptocurrencies. This means that, similar to last year, the probability of randomly selecting a cryptocurrency and surpassing Bitcoin's growth in 2024 is approximately one in three.
On the other hand, Ethereum (ETH) had a lower increase in 2024, at 53.4%, bouncing back from $2,280 on January 1 to $3,498 on December 25, only half of the 98.6% gain in 2023. Ethereum's price fluctuated throughout the year, testing the $4,000 mark several times but failing to surpass its 2021 peak.
As of December 25, the top ten performing cryptocurrencies had gains ranging from 1,400.6% to 23,079.2%. Holding any of these cryptocurrencies resulted in returns at least 10 times that of Bitcoin and 26 times that of Ethereum.
Top Crypto 2024
In 2024, based on price increase ranking, the top 20 most profitable cryptocurrencies along with Bitcoin and Ethereum are as follows:
2023 Popular Cryptocurrencies
In 2023, the top 10 performing cryptocurrencies and their price returns compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum were as follows:
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Mixin has launched USTD-margined perpetual contracts, bringing derivative trading into the chat scene.
The privacy-focused crypto wallet Mixin announced today the launch of its U-based perpetual contract (a derivative priced in USDT). Unlike traditional exchanges, Mixin has taken a new approach by "liberating" derivative trading from isolated matching engines and embedding it into the instant messaging environment.
Users can directly open positions within the app with leverage of up to 200x, while sharing positions, discussing strategies, and copy trading within private communities. Trading, social interaction, and asset management are integrated into the same interface.
Based on its non-custodial architecture, Mixin has eliminated friction from the traditional onboarding process, allowing users to participate in perpetual contract trading without identity verification.
The trading process has been streamlined into five steps:
· Choose the trading asset
· Select long or short
· Input position size and leverage
· Confirm order details
· Confirm and open the position
The interface provides real-time visualization of price, position, and profit and loss (PnL), allowing users to complete trades without switching between multiple modules.
Mixin has directly integrated social features into the derivative trading environment. Users can create private trading communities and interact around real-time positions:
· End-to-end encrypted private groups supporting up to 1024 members
· End-to-end encrypted voice communication
· One-click position sharing
· One-click trade copying
On the execution side, Mixin aggregates liquidity from multiple sources and accesses decentralized protocol and external market liquidity through a unified trading interface.
By combining social interaction with trade execution, Mixin enables users to collaborate, share, and execute trading strategies instantly within the same environment.
Mixin has also introduced a referral incentive system based on trading behavior:
· Users can join with an invite code
· Up to 60% of trading fees as referral rewards
· Incentive mechanism designed for long-term, sustainable earnings
This model aims to drive user-driven network expansion and organic growth.
Mixin's derivative transactions are built on top of its existing self-custody wallet infrastructure, with core features including:
· Separation of transaction account and asset storage
· User full control over assets
· Platform does not custody user funds
· Built-in privacy mechanisms to reduce data exposure
The system aims to strike a balance between transaction efficiency, asset security, and privacy protection.
Against the background of perpetual contracts becoming a mainstream trading tool, Mixin is exploring a different development direction by lowering barriers, enhancing social and privacy attributes.
The platform does not only view transactions as execution actions but positions them as a networked activity: transactions have social attributes, strategies can be shared, and relationships between individuals also become part of the financial system.
Mixin's design is based on a user-initiated, user-controlled model. The platform neither custodies assets nor executes transactions on behalf of users.
This model aligns with a statement issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 13, 2026, titled "Staff Statement on Whether Partial User Interface Used in Preparing Cryptocurrency Securities Transactions May Require Broker-Dealer Registration."
The statement indicates that, under the premise where transactions are entirely initiated and controlled by users, non-custodial service providers that offer neutral interfaces may not need to register as broker-dealers or exchanges.
Mixin is a decentralized, self-custodial privacy wallet designed to provide secure and efficient digital asset management services.
Its core capabilities include:
· Aggregation: integrating multi-chain assets and routing between different transaction paths to simplify user operations
· High liquidity access: connecting to various liquidity sources, including decentralized protocols and external markets
· Decentralization: achieving full user control over assets without relying on custodial intermediaries
· Privacy protection: safeguarding assets and data through MPC, CryptoNote, and end-to-end encrypted communication
Mixin has been in operation for over 8 years, supporting over 40 blockchains and more than 10,000 assets, with a global user base exceeding 10 million and an on-chain self-custodied asset scale of over $1 billion.
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