1. Bitcoin (BTC)
We can’t publish a list of the best cryptocurrencies without mentioning Bitcoin. As the OG cryptocurrency (having launched in 2009), it is leading the list by many measures, despite its scalability challenges.
Bitcoin has continuously maintained the largest market capitalization and the strongest liquidity of all cryptocurrencies, which we see as a sign of strong investor confidence. It is traded on virtually all crypto exchanges, making it an attractive option for both individuals and institutions.
Bitcoin's primary use case is as a digital alternative to traditional currencies, aiming to be a medium of exchange and a store of value. Even though it is already widely adopted for both use cases, we believe its volatility is still a challenge for regular transactions.
On the other hand, its fixed supply cap of 21 million coins (and the scarcity that comes with it), an incredibly strong and active community, and the expected performance boost triggered by April’s Bitcoin halving event make it the #1 on our best crypto ranking.
Bitcoin made history by breaking the 100,000$ threshold for the first time, marking a monumental moment in its trajectory. The surge follows the 2024 U.S. presidential election, with optimism fueled by President-elect Donald Trump's announcement of Paul Atkins, a known cryptocurrency advocate, as his SEC pick. This potential shift toward crypto-friendly regulations has ignited market confidence, driving Bitcoin to new heights.
The milestone reflects heightened investor enthusiasm, as institutional interest soars and the prospect of supportive regulatory frameworks energizes the market. With Bitcoin’s momentum continuing, many believe this rally could extend into new records by year-end, solidifying its role as a leading digital asset in a rapidly evolving financial landscape.
2. Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum has firmly established itself as a top platform for decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts, underpinned by widespread availability and high daily trading volumes. This robust accessibility positions Ethereum as a favored choice for users across diverse sectors, including finance, gaming, and digital art. While its performance has been mixed in the past due to network congestion and high transaction fees, Ethereum’s multi-phase upgrade roadmap, including the Ethereum Merge in September 2022 and the recent Dencun upgrade in March 2024, aims to address these challenges.
The tokenomics overhaul introduced by EIP-1559 in 2021 shifted Ethereum’s model from inflationary to deflationary, gradually reducing its supply—a change welcomed by the community. Layer 2 solutions such as Polygon, Optimism, and Arbitrum also enhance Ethereum's ecosystem by providing faster, cheaper transactions while leveraging Ethereum’s security.
On the regulatory front, Ethereum recently marked a significant milestone with the approval of BlackRock’s Ethereum ETF. This development opens doors for institutional investment, signaling a growing acceptance of Ethereum within traditional financial markets. We expect this to bolster Ethereum's appeal among institutions, potentially leading to higher demand and further adoption.
Overall, Ethereum remains a very strong #2 on our list, backed by ongoing upgrades and a dynamic community. With regulatory support advancing, it will be interesting to watch Ethereum’s competitive positioning as new blockchain platforms continue to emerge.
3. Solana (SOL)
Solana has already seen massive growth in the first quarter of 2024–but it still has some room to grow before exceeding its previous all-time-high at 260$. Nevertheless, its large market cap and high liquidity already demonstrate serious investor confidence to us.
Solana is designed for high-speed and high-volume transactions at lower costs, supporting tens of thousands of transactions per second and making it a serious contender to Ethereum for dApps, decentralized finance (DeFi), and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
This year, adoption has been propelled by demand for faster, cheaper transactions, with an ecosystem ready to scale as new use cases emerge. Key to Solana’s advancements is its highly skilled development team, led by Anatoly Yakovenko, who brings expertise from his background at Qualcomm, along with a technically adept community dedicated to rapidly building applications and network tools.
In September, Solana showcased significant updates at its Breakpoint 2024 event. A major highlight was the introduction of Firedancer, a new validator client developed in collaboration with Jump Crypto, aimed at enhancing transaction throughput and network resilience. Another anticipated feature, Runtime v2, will further optimize performance for developers and users alike.
Institutional interest in Solana is also growing, with notable interest from VanEck, which has filed for a Solana-based ETF in the U.S. This potential ETF could open doors for institutional investment, marking an important milestone for Solana’s regulatory acceptance and appeal among larger investors.
With its low transaction costs, massive community, and strong infrastructure, we consider Solana to be among the most attractive assets for new investors entering the crypto market. If the crypto market follows the typical four-year cycle, which is expected to peak in late 2024, Solana could be one of the major gainers."
4. Avalanche (AVAX)
Avalanche stands as a highly liquid player with a substantial market capitalization, offering a scalable, interoperable, and decentralized infrastructure for decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts. Unlike many 'layer two' solutions, Avalanche’s unique approach uses subnets—customizable child chains of the Avalanche C-Chain—which allow projects to launch dedicated blockchains tailored to specific use cases. Notable implementations include DeFi Kingdoms and Shrapnel, two large-scale gaming projects in the Web3 space.
Avalanche’s high throughput and low fees make it a compelling choice for developers and projects needing robust decentralized platforms. The project’s capped supply of 720 million AVAX tokens, combined with a burn mechanism that reduces circulating supply by burning transaction fees, positions it as a potentially deflationary asset, potentially increasing the token's value over time.
Led by computer scientist Emin Gün Sirer, Avalanche’s team brings strong academic and industry expertise to the project. Community engagement is also high, with active participation in governance proposals and community-led projects.
Avalanche is currently on the verge of a major upgrade called Avalanche9000, which will lower the economic barriers for launching Layer 1 chains, fostering faster innovation and a quicker go-to-market process. This upgrade package includes community proposals, a live testnet environment, and builder reward opportunities, all aimed at strengthening Avalanche’s ecosystem. The official launch event, held at the Avalanche Summit LATAM in Buenos Aires from October 16-18, 2024, underscored the network’s growth potential.
Adding to its appeal, institutional interest is gaining momentum. VanEck recently filed for a spot Avalanche ETF, signaling increasing institutional confidence in the blockchain. Although regulatory approval is pending, this development could make Avalanche more accessible to a broad range of investors.
With its technological advancements, deflationary tokenomics, and growing ecosystem, Avalanche remains a top contender for investors seeking exposure to innovative blockchain solutions.
5. Sui Network (SUI)
The Sui Network is a next-generation, high-performance layer-1 blockchain designed to enhance scalability, speed, and user experience. Developed by Mysten Labs, Sui focuses on supporting decentralized applications (dApps) and digital assets, utilizing the Move programming language—a language originally developed for Facebook's Diem project. Move’s design brings enhanced security and efficiency, allowing for rapid transaction processing and minimizing vulnerabilities, making Sui particularly appealing to developers.
Unlike traditional blockchains that process transactions sequentially, Sui uses parallel transaction processing, which enables horizontal scalability and allows it to handle a large number of transactions simultaneously. This results in lower latency, faster finality, and consistently low gas fees. By decoupling consensus from simple transactions, Sui offers predictable transaction costs and cost-effective operations, key advantages for a blockchain designed to support diverse applications.
The Sui ecosystem has been expanding quickly, with its high throughput and low fees making it an attractive platform for decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), gaming, and complex decentralized applications. In 2024, Sui has seen notable growth, particularly with the Grayscale Sui Trust launched in August, which has amplified institutional interest and boosted Total Value Locked (TVL) across native DeFi applications. Additionally, the rollout of the Mysticeti consensus engine has strengthened Sui’s scalability and performance.
With over 2.14 billion transactions processed in 2024, surpassing other networks like Tron, Polygon, and Ethereum, Sui’s ecosystem is becoming a vibrant hub for developers and users. This momentum highlights Sui's position as a strong competitor among layer-1 networks such as Ethereum, Solana, and Cardano, especially given its focus on delivering an efficient and secure platform for DeFi, NFTs, and decentralized applications.
In our view, Sui is well-positioned as a high-performance blockchain aimed at transforming scalability and user experience while capturing growing interest from both institutional and retail investors.
6. Binance Coin (BNB)
As the largest 'exchange coin,' BNB continues to evolve, offering a wide array of use cases across different chains, including Cosmos, EVM-compatible chains, and exclusive benefits for Binance CEX users, which has kept it firmly on our top 10 crypto list for 2024. BNB’s market cap has doubled since early 2024, nearing its 2021 all-time highs. With Binance as its primary exchange—one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide—BNB is highly liquid, trading on multiple platforms, which ensures substantial volume and accessibility.
BNB’s primary use cases revolve around the Binance ecosystem, including discounted trading fees, participation in Binance Launchpad token sales, and in-store payments. The Binance ecosystem continues to grow, introducing new services that drive adoption and increase BNB's utility. Periodic burns of BNB, with the latest in July 2024 removing over 1.7 million tokens from circulation, reinforce its deflationary structure, aiming to ultimately halve its total supply to 100 million BNB, potentially increasing its value over time.
The BNB ecosystem has expanded through the BNB Chain’s active development community, which collaborates closely with Binance Labs. Recent projects shortlisted in the Most Valuable Builder (MVB) Season 8 initiative highlight the growing number of dApps and partnerships on BNB Chain, adding further value to the ecosystem. In addition, partnerships like that with Flipster, providing fee-free crypto withdrawals, enhance accessibility and appeal for users and investors.
While BNB’s centrality to the Binance ecosystem brings value, it also creates risk. With its foundation highly tied to Binance, especially following the departure of Changpeng Zhao as CEO in 2023 amid legal challenges, any regulatory scrutiny on Binance could impact BNB. As a centralized token, BNB relies heavily on the integrity of Binance's operations.
BNB’s price has shown bullish signals, trading around crucial support levels near $555. With institutional interest, strong tokenomics, and an expanding use case ecosystem, BNB holds growth potential, yet investors should be mindful of possible volatility from regulatory actions or the emergence of competing platforms.
7. Chainlink (LINK)
LINK is a highly liquid cryptocurrency with a strong market cap and availability on all major cryptocurrency exchanges. While it has shown strong growth over the past 6 months, it is still only at about 25% of its all-time-high in 2021. However, as a backbone infrastructure for all of web3 we believe it is likely that an overall growth of the market will impact Chainlink immensely, as the demand for their services should increase.
The Chainlink protocol is designed to enhance the security and decentralization of smart contracts on various blockchain platforms. Its primary use case is as a decentralized oracle network that enables blockchains to securely interact with external data feeds, events, and payment methods. It functions as the foundation for many dApps, especially in the DeFi sector.
The demand for LINK is intrinsically tied to the usage of Chainlink’s services. There is no hard cap on the total supply of LINK, which is a point of discussion in the community concerning its long-term value.
Chainlink’s development is led by Sergey Nazarov, who is highly respected in the blockchain community, as well as a team of experienced individuals with backgrounds in computer science and software engineering. The community is very active and instrumental in driving the platform’s adoption, participating in various network activities like hackathons and educational events.
Security and transparency are central to Chainlink, given its role as a bridge between blockchains and external data sources. The network uses multiple oracles to mitigate the risk of any single point of failure.
8. Kaspa (KAS)
Kaspa (KAS) is a cryptocurrency designed to be a scalable, decentralized, and highly secure platform. It is unique because it uses a novel consensus mechanism called BlockDAG (Directed Acyclic Graph), which allows for multiple blocks to be created simultaneously. This parallel block creation increases throughput and scalability, setting Kaspa apart from traditional blockchains that operate in a linear sequence.
Kaspa's PoW system ensures network security through mining, similar to Bitcoin, but BlockDAG allows for faster confirmation times and high transaction speeds without compromising security. This makes Kaspa particularly suited for high-throughput applications where efficiency is key, while still maintaining the decentralized principles of blockchain technology.
Kaspa was co-founded by Yonatan Sompolinsky, who is well-known for his academic contributions to blockchain technology, including his work on GHOST (Greedy Heaviest Observed Subtree), a protocol used by Ethereum. The Kaspa project has attracted a team of experienced developers and blockchain enthusiasts, contributing to the ongoing evolution and development of its ecosystem. While the project started with a strong technical foundation, it remains a decentralized, community-driven effort.
Key recent updates include the Kaspa Industrial Initiative (KII), which aims to apply Kaspa’s BlockDAG technology to various industrial sectors, enhancing efficiency and security. Another highlight is the launch of KRC-20 tokens, which will enable users to create their own tokens on the Kaspa network, opening doors for decentralized finance (DeFi) projects and other innovations.
9. Bittensor (TAO)
Bittensor is a decentralized, blockchain-based machine learning network designed to enable the creation and sharing of artificial intelligence models. It operates by incentivizing participants to contribute their computing resources and AI models in exchange for TAO tokens, the native cryptocurrency of the Bittensor ecosystem.
In the age of AI, everything comes down to data and processing power. Bittensor is designed to scale with the growing demand for the latter. It provides a marketplace where models can be continuously trained and improved by leveraging the collective intelligence of the network's participants.
Bittensor allows developers and data scientists to train, share, and evaluate machine learning models on a decentralized network. This enables collaboration across a distributed network rather than relying on centralized platforms.
The unique consensus mechanism of Bittensor ensures that participants in the network are rewarded based on the quality of their AI contributions, rather than traditional proof-of-work or proof-of-stake models seen in other blockchains.
10. TreasureDAO (MAGIC)
Treasure DAO is a decentralized gaming and metaverse ecosystem which will launch its own L2 chain in December joining the Elastic Chain of ZKSync. So far the ecosystem has been built on Arbitrum, a Layer 2 solution for Ethereum and offers its own marketplace, profile- and achievement system linked to a variety of web3 games. The Treasure game console could be compared to a decentralized version of Steam or Epic Games.
Its main utility token, MAGIC, acts as the currency that powers the entire Treasure ecosystem. MAGIC is designed as a cross-game token, connecting various games, players, and communities, effectively creating an interconnected gaming network
The Treasure ecosystem revolves around several gaming titles, including TheBeacon, Synergyland, and Bridgeworld, its central metaverse.
MAGIC also serves a governance role within the DAO, allowing holders to vote on proposals and influence the development and management of the ecosystem. Its deflationary nature means it becomes increasingly scarce as more players join and engage with the platform, enhancing its value over time.
Treasure DAO’s broader vision includes developing the Treasure Infinity Chains, an infrastructure project aiming to create an interconnected network of games and metaverses, all utilizing MAGIC as the primary currency. This initiative further solidifies MAGIC's role as a central asset in the Web3 gaming and NFT space.
Many people expect gaming to really open the doors for mass adoption of blockchain powered applications. As core infrastructure around the topic, Treasure is well positioned to leverage such hype, independent of the success of single titles.
Coin of the Month: Fantom / Sonic (FTM / S)
In August 2024, the Fantom Foundation rebranded to Sonic Labs, introducing the Sonic blockchain—a new layer-1 platform with a layer-2 bridge connecting to Ethereum. This initiative aims to enhance transaction speed and scalability, addressing previous network congestion issues.
The Sonic Blockchain achieves over 2,000 transactions per second (TPS), compared to Fantom's slower throughput. In addition, transaction finality is reduced to around 1 second, enhancing the user experience for decentralized applications (dApps) and end-users.
Users can also look forward to reduced gas fees through protocol optimizations, making transactions and smart contract executions more affordable for developers and users. Sonic introduced a Gas Monetization Program, where dApps can earn 15% of the gas fees they generate. This incentivizes developers to create high-quality dApps and adds an additional revenue stream for projects.
The go-live plan of the Sonic mainnet is set for December 2024 and will enable a 1:1 swap of $FTM token to $S token.
What’s The Next Big Cryptocurrency in 2024?
We think it is very likely that blockchains with a solid foundation and significant traction prior to this year are going to maintain their dominance in 2024. This is largely attributed to the surge in attention and the proliferation of applications being developed on these platforms.
For the first time in history, crypto assets have been a hot topic in the US presidential debates, with Donald Trump being overly pro-crypto and Kamala Harris remaining on the skeptical side. The recent announcement from Trump to buy and hold Bitcoin in the US treasury has given a bullish signal for investors and led to a new Bitcoin ATH on the day following the election.
Besides Bitcoin, narratives like DeFi, AI, NFTs and Gaming seem to lead the current market upswing, hot candidates for 2024 include Solana, Avalanche and Ethereum Layer 2 Solutions.
However, there are some newer cryptocurrencies that have the potential to turn into the next big thing, such as SUI, SEI, Render, Berachain and Ronin.
These projects show great promise, but will still have to prove that they can attract enough developers to build on top of their technology.
How We Evaluate Cryptocurrencies
Market Capitalization
Market capitalization is the price per coin or token multiplied by the total amount of coins or tokens in circulation.
In crypto, we often need to differentiate between “Current Market Cap” and “Fully Diluted Market Cap”. The first includes all coins or tokens, which are available to date, while the second also includes all coins or tokens which are still locked, but will get released in the future through processes like crypto mining or crypto staking.
If there is a huge difference between those two values, it is very likely that the price will fall in the future, as more tokens (supply) meet the market (demand).
These numbers are probably THE most important factor in determining a viable crypto investment, and is often overlooked when comparing the price of a single unit of a token.
Just because the price of some tokens is 0.00001€, it could still have a very high market capitalization if there are 100,000,000,000,000 of tokens in existence.
Trading Volume
A high and consistent trading volume on an asset is generally a very good sign. It means more and/or larger parties are interested, suggesting that the asset is likely listed across multiple cryptocurrency exchanges.
High trading volume means higher accessibility, making it easier for investors to buy or sell without significantly affecting its price.
Liquidity
Liquidity shows how easy you can exit your position, which is often a problem with newer coins or tokens.
If the liquidity is very low, let’s say less than 10x your investment, it will be impossible to sell that asset at current market price. So you should only invest in low-liquidity assets if you plan to hold that asset for a longer period of time and expect liquidity increase in the future.
Use cases and real-world adoption
When looking at a coin or token, it is important to ask yourself what that use case could be and if it is realistic that, at some point in time, the product will get there.
You can go even deeper into the analysis; consider estimating the scale of adoption needed—how many users need to engage with and pay for this product—to cover the operational costs.
Comparing this and the current market capitalization of a project might often lead to an interesting revelation.
Tokenomics
One of the most crucial questions to ask is: How does the token actually work?
Tokenomics describe the economics of a token and can quickly reveal a bad investment even if the product and team are exceptional.
Supply and demand dedicate the token price, so the balance between the two and how it could develop show the potential of an investment. Ask yourself:
- What do I need the token for? Is there demand for the token if the product is successful?
- Are new tokens generated in the future and if, how and when does that happen?
- Are tokens locked for the team and early investors, and when will they unlock? (They probably bought at a lower price and might want to take profits once they can.)
- Can tokens be burned (destroyed) and if so, what triggers this reduction of supply?
Development team
The technological backbone is of high importance in the age of digitalization. Ask yourself:
- What do I know about the team behind a token-based project?
- What is their background? Their skillset?
- Do you think they can deliver on the promise?
- Are they working as hard on the project as they should?
Many crypto development teams share insights into their GitHub profile, which shows the actual work they are doing.
If you don’t have the know-how to evaluate this yourself, it might make sense to talk to someone who can, before investing in a project.
Community support
Today’s community might turn into tomorrow’s users and clients of a product. It is important to factor this in and take a closer look at the community. Ask yourself these questions:
- Is the community real? Or are the followers on Twitter/Discord etc. just empty accounts?
- Are the people actually interested in the product or just speculators?
If the community consists of mostly speculators and people farming for quick rewards, free crypto, airdrops, whitelists etc. it is very likely that there is huge sell pressure, once the asset will be tradable.
Security and transparency
As we have seen repeatedly in the past, security and transparency can break a project and its value within seconds, if not executed well.
Interestingly, security breaches often stem from human errors—such as poorly written code or inadequate governance—rather than inherent flaws in the blockchain technology itself.
While security issues are not intentional in most cases, actual crypto scams are. Having enough transparency gives a better opportunity to detect fraudulent behavior early on. Ask yourself:
- Who has critical access to the code? What is a worst case scenario?
- Is there a single point of failure (e.g. one person holding the private keys to alter a smart contract)?
- Is any information obscured, which should be transparent?
<div fs-richtext-component="info-box" class="info-box"><div class="flex-info-card"><img src="https://assets-global.website-files.com/65098a145ece52db42b9c274/650c6f4cef4c34160eab4440_Info.svg" loading="eager" width="64" height="64" alt="" class="icon-info-box"><div fs-richtext-component="info-box-text" class="info-box-content"><p class="color-neutral-800">Nothing in this article constitutes professional and/or financial advice, nor does any information in the article constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed or the law relating thereto.</p></div></div></div>