Top Cryptos of 2024: VIRTUAL Leads Gains as AI and Meme Coins Dominate

Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) recorded the highest gains among digital assets in 2024, soaring 23,079% since the year began. The cryptocurrency outperformed Bitcoin (BTC) by 172x and currently ranks 44th on CoinMarketCap.

According to CoinGecko’s yearly report, VIRTUAL started the year at $0.01311. It then hovered around $0.2 before skyrocketing to its all-time high of $3.29 eleven days ago. CoinMarketCap data shows Virtuals Protocol has a market cap of $3.1 billion and trades at $3.11 at the time of writing, up 284.60% in the last 30 days.

One reason for Virtuals Protocol’s success is the popularity of its AI agents launchpad. The launchpad gives users exposure to both the AI and meme coin sectors. Another top performer is the meme coin Brett (BRETT), which rose by 14,784.6%, from $0.145 at the start of the year to its all-time high of $0.234 a few weeks ago.

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Other notable gainers include Popcat (POPCAT), up 10,458%; Mantra (OM), up 6,418%; and Mog Coin (MOG), up 6,050%. 2024 was clearly the year of AI tokens, RWA projects, and meme coin ecosystems. Bitcoin (BTC) reached a new all-time high of $108K this year, and traditional altcoins like Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), and XRP also dominated the top 10.

Ethereum’s Underperformance

Bitcoin benefited from several bullish narratives this year, including the halving and the approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). However, Ethereum (ETH) did not achieve similar gains despite the approval of spot Ethereum ETFs in May. ETH is up only 53.41% this year. Furthermore, ETH has struggled to maintain price action above $4,000 on multiple occasions, currently trading at $3,359.24.

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