Four Major Cryptocurrencies That Have Beaten the Nasdaq
We’ll list each asset with a note on how it has outperformed the tech stocks in the Nasdaq Composite this year. The Nasdaq itself is up 33% for the year ending Thursday, December 26.
Meanwhile, the four cryptocurrencies featured here are up accordingly:
In its entire history, it has taken the Nasdaq a decade or more to grow its stock market value to this level. These cryptos have done it in just one year, and this is far from the first time they’ve done so well in a single year.
1. Bitcoin (BTC) Price Gain 2024: +126%
Bitcoin is the original and first-of-its-kind cryptocurrency. It created an entire segment when it debuted in 2009. On Thursday, the total market cap of the Bitcoin economy surpassed $1.9 trillion.
In the year to December 26, Bitcoin has gained 126% from its average price on January 1 on crypto exchanges. It is the most traded and most liquid cryptocurrency, and also the most established, with non-intervention from US regulators and several ETF (exchange-traded fund) products available on Wall Street for regulated investors to buy with less risk than using crypto exchanges or self-custody to buy and back
2. Ethereum (ETH) Price Gain 2024: +49%
Ethereum has become the first blockchain smart contract platform to scale to a mass market of users. Smart contracts are like the currency on the Bitcoin network, but they can do more than just bookkeeping.
The idea is powerful and the possibilities are endless: smart contracts, or decentralized finance (DeFi) networks like Ethereum, host programmable money.
The technology is still new, but it promises to revolutionize finance, law, accounting, insurance, and supply chain management in the same way the Internet revolutionized publishing and retail.
3. Solana (SOL) 2024 Annual Performance: +75%
Solana is another smart contract DeFi platform built with the second-mover advantage of faster network speeds and lower fees. While Ether remains the leading DeFi cryptocurrency by market cap, Solana has made huge strides to close the gap.
It still has a long way to go, with a market cap of about $90 billion on Thursday compared to Ethereum’s $400 billion market cap. But crypto market watchers are keeping a close eye on these two to gauge the future of the blockchain economy and cryptocurrency exchange markets.
Solana has lagged behind Bitcoin in terms of ROI growth this year compared to the average cryptocurrency exchange price on January 1, but it has outperformed Ethereum by a wide margin.
4. Ripple (XRP) 2024 Year-Over-Year Performance: +247%
One of the first altcoins inspired by Bitcoin, Ripple’s XRP is a decentralized, automated platform for large-scale cross-border payments between financial institutions.
Ripple’s XRP tokens lead this short list for the year due to pent-up demand as the market hopes for a resolution to the SEC lawsuit. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has sued Ripple over allegations that it sold unregistered securities (XRP tokens for its decentralized payment network).
Three US court rulings in favor of Ripple last year and another in November this year have set the stage for the XRP index to outperform the leading cryptocurrencies this year.
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