Top 10 Crypto Performers of 2024

As the crypto market continues to evolve in 2024, certain digital assets have stood out for their exceptional performance. The top 10 crypto performers of the year showcase the diverse range of projects and technologies making waves in the industry.

Bitcoin, the pioneer cryptocurrency, maintains its position as a dominant force, while newer projects like Ethereum 2.0 and Cardano demonstrate the potential for innovation and growth in the space. Other top crypto performers include Binance Coin, Solana, and Avalanche, each offering unique features and capabilities that appeal to investors and developers alike.

Leading the pack in 2024 is BONK, boasting an impressive 7,059.4% gain. Following closely behind are Injective, with a 2,851.9% increase, and Kaspa, showing growth at 2080.5%. Render Network’s RNDR and Solana’s SOL complete the top 5 with gains of 1,032.9% and 923.8% respectively. Notable gainers also include Conflux’s CFX, Fetch.ai’s FET, WEMIX, Stacks’s STX, and Immutable’s IMX.

The crypto market kicked off the new year (January 1, 2024) with a total capitalization slightly above $850 billion, with Bitcoin trading below $17,000. By December 31, 2023, the crypto market cap had surged to over $1.7 trillion, more than doubling in size, while Bitcoin closed the year with a 150% gain.

Overall, the top 10 crypto performers of 2024 highlight the ongoing maturation and diversification of the cryptocurrency market, promising continued excitement and opportunity in the years to come.

Top 10 Crypto Performers

Bonk (BONK)

BONK had been having a relatively uneventful year until the final quarter. This dog-themed memecoin, built on the Solana blockchain, suddenly surged in the last weeks of October. Over the next two months, it soared to remarkable heights, emerging as one of the top memecoins by market capitalization, trailing only Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogecoin (DOGE).

BONK also achieved the significant milestone of being the first memecoin in the Solana ecosystem to reach a market cap of $1 billion, establishing itself as the flagship memecoin on Solana. By December 15, 2023, it had reached an all-time high of $0.000034, marking a staggering 15,680% increase from its lowest price just a year prior. Trading volume surged as well, peaking at over $1.7 billion on December 16.

This surge in BONK’s value was driven by the growing interest in Solana and its ecosystem, which witnessed Solana’s price skyrocketing by over fivefold. Other projects within the Solana ecosystem also experienced significant appreciation during this period. Additionally, BONK’s announcement of a proposed 30 million BONK token airdrop to users of Saga, a Solana-based smartphone, further heightened interest in the memecoin.

Injective (INJ)

In 2024, Injective (INJ) delivered remarkable growth of 2,851.9%, making it one of the highest-gaining assets in the crypto space among the top 100. Starting the year at $1.27, it surged to over $7.40 by the end of the third quarter. Positive developments surrounding the project further boosted its value, leading to an annual high of $44.57 on December 24, with a closing price of $37.49 per token on December 31. Trading activity saw a significant increase, with daily volume surpassing $590 million on December 16, 2023.

Injective is a Layer 1 blockchain designed for decentralized finance (DeFi). In January 2024, the Injective team raised $150 million to enhance developments on the network and projects within its ecosystem. Injective aims to build a DeFi ecosystem on Cosmos. The ecosystem experienced growth in 2024, attracting users and increasing financial activities, partly due to projects like Helix and DojoSwap. A partnership with Google Cloud was formed on October 24, 2023, for a data management project. The team also hinted at technological upgrades, with the Volan upgrade expected to be deployed on the testnet in early January 2024.

The Injective community played a significant role in the project’s growth through community-led marketing initiatives. The Injective Ambassador program, which integrated over 200,000 community members, was one such initiative. As of the end of 2023, Injective ranks in the top 35, with its price growing over 20 times during the year.

Kaspa

Kaspa closed out 2023 at $0.106 per coin, marking a substantial 2080.5% increase from its value at the beginning of the year. Its all-time high of $0.15 was reached on November 19, 2023. Trading activity surged during this period, particularly in the last quarter of the year, with daily volume peaking at over $170 million on November 18, 2023. Kaspa ascended to the top 100 ranks and briefly entered the top 30, claiming the title of the third-largest gainer among the top 100 crypto assets.

Kaspa is a Layer 1 Proof-of-Work BlockDAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) network that focuses on cryptocurrency payment settlement. It touts fast transaction settlement and low fees compared to traditional blockchain architecture. The BlockDAG narrative championed by Kaspa’s breakthrough persisted, with other projects in this sector, such as the Proof-of-Stake smart contract BlockDAG project Taraxa, also experiencing significant value growth during this period. The Kaspa community played a crucial role in this growth, with Kaspa emphasizing its economic structure, which is similar to Bitcoin’s, featuring a fair launch in 2021 and no vesting for the project team, ensuring that the community retains full control of the project.

Throughout this period, Kaspa was listed on several prominent exchanges, including a listing for Perpetuals contracts on Binance, which significantly increased its value as investors anticipated a potential spot listing. On December 31, 2023, a Kenyan store became the first merchant to integrate Kaspa as a payment option.

Render Network

RNDR emerged as the fourth-largest gainer among the top 100 crypto assets in 2023, experiencing a remarkable 1,032.9% increase in value. The GPU rendering project began the year at $0.40 per coin and closed at $4.55 on December 31, 2023, hitting an annual high of $5.17 on December 27, 2023.

Render Network operates by renting out excess GPU power to creators who require additional GPU resources. Artists and other content creators can rent GPUs from miners with idle GPUs. On the Render network, artists can trade Render token (RNDR) for GPU power from node operators. The network utilizes the Proof of Render algorithm (PoR), a variant of the Proof of Work algorithm. Artists have the ability to confirm that payment for their work has been made before uploading their art or content.

Running on the Ethereum blockchain, the Render network uses the blockchain to generate hash codes for artworks and sends them to nodes for rendering in segments. Once confirmed, the fee paid by artists to rent GPU power is released from escrow to the node operators. In the second quarter, Render expanded its application by releasing Request for Compute (RFC) on June 16, 2023.

The release of RFC in June, along with related events, contributed to the price performance of RNDR in 2024. The project’s development continued with an expansion to the Solana network in December 2023. Other notable developments during this period included the launch of BME (Burn and Mint Emission) on Solana and various projects involving creators.

Solana

Solana ranked among the top 5 gainers among the top 100 crypto assets in 2024. It began the year trading above $9.96 following the crash in 2022 and closed at $102 on December 31, 2023, hitting an annual high of over $112 in December. Solana’s price experienced exponential growth throughout the year, driven by renewed interest in the Layer 1 blockchain.

Projects within the Solana ecosystem also experienced significant growth, contributing to Solana’s overall success. Airdrops from projects like Bonk, Pyth Network, and Jito gained traction throughout the year. Additionally, projects such as Jupiter and Mad Lads NFTs saw growth in terms of users and holders, respectively. The memecoin frenzy on Solana, sparked by Bonk’s success, also played a significant role in Solana’s growth. On December 22, 2023, Paxos expanded its USDP stablecoin issuance to the Solana blockchain.

The launch of the Solana-based smartphone SAGA in 2024 generated further interest in the blockchain network. In terms of adoption, the Solana network experienced a surge in metrics throughout the year, with numerous new dApps and smart contract tokens launching on the network. The introduction of the new Token-2022 standard also contributed to this growth, as many existing projects expanded to the network to enhance user experience.

Conflux

Conflux had a strong start to 2024, with its token value soaring to a 20x gain within the first quarter. It rose from $0.02 on the opening day of the year to $0.46 on March 20, its annual high. Trading volume also peaked during this period, reaching as high as $1.2 billion per day. Although its price consolidated for the remainder of the year, it still managed to close above $0.19. Conflux ranked as the sixth-highest gainer among the top 100 cryptocurrencies in 2024, with a growth rate of 735.5% over the year.

The price movement of Conflux in the first quarter was partly influenced by a general recovery from the 2023 crash. However, Conflux also had a highly eventful first quarter, marked by partnerships with projects outside the crypto space and high activity in the Chinese market. In January, Conflux surged following its integration with Little Red Book, a Chinese social media platform, allowing users to display their Conflux NFTs on their social media profiles. Another surge came after its partnership with Chinese Telecom for the development of blockchain-based SIM cards.

Throughout the year, Conflux continued to build on its early success with a series of partnerships and expansions in the Chinese market. The Layer 1 blockchain network also continued to develop, offering users cheaper fees and higher transaction throughput. The Conflux community played a significant role in the price growth, contributing to marketing and educational efforts as ambassadors and community members.

Fetch.ai

Fetch.ai closed the year 2023 at $0.69 per token, marking an impressive 647.8% growth from its opening price of just over $0.10 per token. It achieved an annual high of $0.76 on December 22, 2023. The AI project had a successful year, driven by the AI narrative and various developments throughout the period.

Fetch.ai is focused on developing technology that automates routine activities, such as booking rides or holiday spaces, using AI algorithms. Its agents are designed using AI principles to gather information from the internet and are trained to understand personal preferences, allowing them to perform these activities on behalf of users. At an exhibition event, a participant showcased a personal shopping assistant developed using Fetch.ai’s DeltaV agent.

The project claims that its recognition and execution algorithms can be applied to various other cases and sectors, including DeFi. For example, Fetch.ai’s agents can identify arbitrage opportunities and trade these pairs on behalf of users to generate profits.

Fetch.ai’s growth in value is mainly attributed to its development and marketing of these tools, along with partnerships such as the one with Bosch. In 2024, Fetch.ai’s agents saw significant adoption. The project also announced a partnership with Singularity, a decentralized AI project, aimed at improving the accuracy and intelligence of AI protocols. The value of Fetch.ai’s token responded positively to this partnership, contributing to its ranking as the seventh-highest gainer among the top 100 crypto assets in 2024.

WEMIX

In 2024, WEMIX experienced a significant surge of over 600%, with its highest recorded price reaching $3.87 on December 8, 2023. The year began with WEMIX opening at just above $0.35 and closing above $3, making it the eighth-highest gainer among the top 100 crypto assets.

WEMIX is a Layer 1 blockchain network that boasts a diverse ecosystem of decentralized applications spanning various sectors. Some of the applications within the WEMIX ecosystem include WEMIX PLAY, 40 Wonders, Nile, and WEMIX FI. WEMIX PLAY serves as the flagship gamefi dApp of the ecosystem. According to the project, WEMIX PLAY supports the transformation of games into web3 by enabling game developers to create decentralized games and define all aspects of their games on the network. WEMIX FI is the decentralized finance application of the network, with over $300 million worth of crypto assets locked on the platform. Nile is the NFT dApp of the network, with WEMIX claiming that Nile is creating ‘a new civilization on the blockchain’.

Additionally, WEMIX introduced fan token utility to the platform, allowing creators to identify their loyalists and create an interactive platform for their holders through Papyrus, a communication application built on the WEMIX network.

Stacks

Stacks had a productive first quarter in 2024, reflecting a 5x growth from the $0.22 token value on the opening day of the year. The token breached the $1 price level in March and continued its uptrend in the last quarter, reaching an annual high of $1.6 on December 27, 2023, and closing the year at $1.56, marking a 632% growth. Stacks ranked as the ninth top gainer among crypto assets in the top 100 for 2024.

Stacks aims to scale the Bitcoin blockchain by utilizing it as a settlement layer for its higher throughput execution layer. It operates as a Layer 2 network for smart contracts and peer-to-peer transactions. Stacks runs an autonomous state machine and consensus mechanism, publishing proof of transactions on the Bitcoin network. It engages miners on the Bitcoin network to validate transactions executed on its layers through its Proof of Transfer (PoX) consensus algorithm. Stacks teased the Nakamoto release early in 2024 and has been working on its delivery throughout the year. The Nakamoto release is expected to bring significant changes to the network and the Bitcoin blockchain, allowing the Stacks network to ‘write’ to the Bitcoin blockchain and opening doors to many possibilities.

Immutable X

Immutable X started the year below $0.40 and showed consistent growth throughout 2024, closing on December 31st at $2.23 per coin. The project experienced spikes in price at both the beginning and end of the year, with an annual high of $2.49 per token reached on December 28, 2023. Immutable X’s price performance ranks as the tenth highest among crypto assets in the top 100 for 2024. Trading activities for the asset also surged during this period, with daily trading volume surpassing $1 billion in December 2023.

Immutable X is a zero-knowledge Layer 2 network designed for gamers. It aims to enhance the gaming experience by enabling developers to deploy games on the Immutable X network, benefiting from higher throughput and lower transaction costs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the top 10 crypto performers of 2024 represent a dynamic and rapidly evolving ecosystem that continues to push the boundaries of innovation and adoption. These projects have not only demonstrated impressive growth in terms of market capitalization and user base but have also contributed to the broader acceptance and understanding of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

As we look ahead, it is clear that the crypto market will continue to be shaped by technological advancements, regulatory developments, and changing market dynamics. Projects that can adapt to these changes and continue to deliver value to users are likely to thrive in the long term.

Overall, the top 10 crypto performers of 2024 serve as a testament to the resilience and potential of the cryptocurrency market, highlighting the transformative impact that these technologies can have on the global economy and society as a whole.