Author: Nicholas Boey, Coingecko; Compiler: Songxue, Golden Finance
Bonk (BONK) is the top cryptocurrency gainer of 2023, rising from 1 It increased from $0.0000002 on December 1 to $0.0000146 on December 28, 2023, an increase of 7,302.9%. Bonk’s return is 2.5 times that of Injective, the second-biggest cryptocurrency gainer in 2023. Bonk’s airdrop marks Solana’s turnaround and has caught the attention of traders and investors.
Injective (INJ) became the second-largest cryptocurrency in 2023, growing from $1.27 to $39.07, a gain of 2976.4%. Injective’s rise began when its decentralized exchange (DEX) Helix launched pre-listed token futures. In addition, Injective established a US$150 million ecological fund at the beginning of the year aimed at accelerating the adoption of interoperable infrastructure and DeFi.
CorgiAI (CORGIAI) is the third-largest rising cryptocurrency in 2023, growing from $0.00014 to $0.00282 , an increase of 1959.7%. CorgiAI, as the main memecoin on the Cronos blockchain, has gained good momentum, in line with the trend of each blockchain having its own "memecoin".
The returns for the top 10 highest-rising cryptocurrencies ranged from 632.8% to 7302.9%. Holding any of these cryptocurrencies at the beginning of the year would have given investors at least 3.9 times more returns than Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Top Cryptocurrency Winners Have Popular Narratives
The Top 10 Rising Cryptocurrencies of 2023 are among the most popular narratives, namely memecoins, Layer1 protocols, artificial intelligence, and Layer2 solutions.
Bonk, the largest-growing cryptocurrency, has multiple narratives in 2023. The popularity of meme coins and the resurgence of the Solana ecosystem are among the most popular narratives of 2023, playing a significant role in its success.
8 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies fell in price in 2023
At the beginning of 2023 to 12 During March 28, 8 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies fell in price. This portfolio includes Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), Dai (DAI), Binance USD (BUSD), TrueUSD (TUSD), Toncoin (TON), Chiliz (CHZ), and Sui (SUI).
Five of these 8 are stablecoins, and their prices fell slightly below their fixed value of $1.00, resulting in price declines of up to 0.3%.
TON, CHZ, and SUI were the only non-stablecoin losers in 2023, with price declines ranging from 0.6% to 40.6%. Note, however, that Sui was only launched on May 3, 2023, and its price closed at a high of $1.40 before reaching $0.83 on December 28, 2023.
Bitcoin Performance in 2023
Bitcoin (BTC) has outperformed 65 coins in the top 100 cryptocurrencies, rising 162.5% from $16,540 to $43,418 since the beginning of the year through December 28, 2023 . This suggests that a randomly selected cryptocurrency from this group would beat Bitcoin’s growth rate by approximately one-third in 2023.
In 2023, Bitcoin has attracted attention due to spot ETF applications from giants such as BlackRock and Fidelity. Approval could significantly expand investor access and boost the value of Bitcoin.
Comparison of Bitcoin performance and Layer 1
In 2023, Bitcoin outperformed Ethereum (ETH) by 1.7x. Bitcoin’s price return is 162.5%, which is higher than Ethereum’s 2023 price return of 98.6%.
In 2023, Bitcoin also outperformed 18 of the 30 Layer 1s among the top 100 cryptocurrencies. However, Bitcoin lags behind the remaining 11 Layer 1s, four of which are among the top 10 cryptocurrency growers.
Holding INJ, KAS, SOL, or CFX will deliver at least 4.8x higher returns than holding Bitcoin and Ethereum at the beginning of the year. However, it’s worth noting that smaller Layer 1s carry higher risks as they compete to gain market share from the two more established cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Top 10 cryptocurrency gains in 2023
The price returns of the top 10 cryptocurrency gains in 2023 (Bitcoin and Ethereum) are: