Making sense of market moves
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Bitcoin’s staggering rally is dominating the headlines (and the hearts and minds of loyalists).
But the best-performing cryptocurrency in 2024 isn’t bitcoin. Ethereum, the second largest coin by market cap, isn’t even in the top three performers, either.
There are thousands of cryptocurrencies out there in the digital stratosphere, most of which have dubious investment prospects. But when blue-chip cryptocurrencies rise, so does the rest of the pack, sometimes even outperforming bitcoin, ethereum, and solana.
So, what are the under-the-radar overperformers of the crypto industry?
- Sui: As the 18th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, it's understandable that you may not have heard of this specific token. But this crypto is packing a punch: It has jumped over 370% in the last 12 months, and 22% in the last month alone. Why? Like many smaller cryptos, the project has ascended as bitcoin has stepped into the spotlight this year. But another reason that Sui has performed so well is a September announcement that Circle will be launching its USDC stablecoin on the Sui’s Layer 1 blockchain network. If you’re confused by that sentence, it’s probably because you have a normal social life and appropriate levels of interaction with other human beings. Basically, this move means that more developers could build on Sui, growing the network’s reach.
- Dogecoin: It’s more likely you’ve heard of DOGE, the notorious meme coin that has surged over 240% this year and now has a $46 billion market cap. The election of digital asset-friendly Donald Trump buoyed all cryptos, but DOGE got an especially big boost from being the chosen acronym for Elon Musk’s newly proposed government efficiency agency.
- Shiba Inu: Shiba Inu has ridden DOGE’s coattails to the top in 2024, rising 107% in the last 12 months to a market cap of $12.7 billion. Its meme status was cemented since its inception in 2020 by posts from Elon Musk and Vitalik Buterin, the founder of ethereum, over the years.
Despite their staggering returns, keep in mind that these obscure cryptos are even more volatile than their bigger peers like bitcoin and ethereum. Financial advisors are wary of the asset class in general (as the pros at BlackRock pointed out above), and investors who see huge gains in headlines and feel the pangs of FOMO probably shouldn’t bet it all on currencies inspired by memes.—LB