Sam Cooling
Last updated: | 7 min read
The rise of altcoins in 2023 has been fuelled by huge resurgence across the crypto market from the lows of 2023, but what are the top 10 performers and crypto growth stories of the year? Lets dig in.
Illustrating the crypto growth across 2023, the total global market cap for all crypto assets (11,849) across all exchanges (959) has exploded from a low of $822,907,957,030 to a present $1,740,273,666,995.
This monumental +71% growth in total market cap highlights a remarkable return to digital assets, and with major events on the horizon such as the first Bitcoin spot ETF approval (tipped for January 10) and the next Bitcoin halving event (expected late-April) – the stage is set for a skyrocketing 2024.
Top Crypto 2023: Breaking Down the 10 Top Performing Altcoins of 2023
As 2023 comes to an end, traders are taking stock of the most dramatic rises in altcoins over the past year, without further adjure – lets dig in.
Altcoin 10: Cardano (ADA)
The passion project of former Ethereum founder Charles Hoskinson has enjoyed a strong resurgence with the crypto market in 2023.
Posting a +153% year-to-date (YTD) gain, ADA price has pushed back from the pits of despair at $0.23 – as markets have rushed into the low-cost, high-speed layer-1 blockchain.
This was fuelled further by a successful Cardano Summit in Dubai at the start of November, an event attended by more than 30,000+ crypto enthusiasts.
Now stood at $0.62, ADA price still remains -80% below its all-time high, however, a strong performance over the course of December (+60%) has seen ADA price hammer-up to test longstanding upper trendline resistance.
As holders look into 2024, the question on everyone’s minds is whether ADA can breakout of the descendant trading channel that has dominated price action for the past 2-years.
Check Out: Latest Cardano Price Prediction
Altcoin 9: Binance Coin (BNB)
Shifting attention to Binance Coin (BNB) this leading cryptocurrency has endured a tumultuous 2023, with the parent company Binance plagued by global actions from national financial regulators.
From a multi-million dollar fine for Binance.US to the resignation of now former CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) – the onset of crypto regulatory regimes has dominated the world’s largest exchange and BNB price action has been impacted by consequence.
Despite these tough fundamental headwinds, BNB price has continued to push-up – with the layer-1 now stood atop +29.52% YTD gains – courtesy of a late December rally (fuelled by Sleepless AI).
Check Out: Latest BNB Price Prediction
Altcoin 7: Solana (SOL)
Next up on the list is community favourite layer-1 Solana (SOL) – which has undertaken explosive growth throughout 2023 that has left SOL price stood high at +969% YTD.
Aggressive growth over the past 2-months has fuelled seismic price moves, leaving SOL price trading at levels last seen in April 2022.
The move can be partly explained by the drop in widespread support for Ethereum; which has become slow and costly – despite the introduction of Ethereum 2.0.
A rise in popularity for ‘Solana beta plays‘ and meme coins that can be traded cheaply on Solana’s low-cost network have fuelled increased attention from investors, with Solana recently overtaking Ethereum in number of Google searches.
This bodes well for Solana in 2024, with the rising star overtaking both BNB and XRP market caps in recent months.
Check Out: Latest Solana Price Prediction
Altcoin 6: Fantom (FTM)
Despite weathering a multi-chain bridge heist that resulted in the loss of $126m in crypto assets, Fantom (FTM) has continued to push high in 2023, with FTM price currently trading at +148% YTD.
This marks a strong recovery after FTM price crashes -80% in 2022, leaving the majority of Fantom holders deeply underwater to this day (with price still sat -85% below the ATH).
With Fantom now intent on rallying into 2024, the recent launch of the FTM Sonic Labs Grants program could become the source of major growth on the ecosystem, as holders brace for the launch of Fantom Sonic in Q1 next year.
The Sonic Labs program is open to developers creating new applications using Fantom’s technology, covering various blockchain sectors including GameFi, DeFi, NFTs, as well as NFRWAs.
Check Out: Latest FTM Price Prediction
Altcoin 6: Ripple (XRP)
2023 has been a major year for Ripple, with the culmination of a years long fight against regulatory action by the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC).
The XRP price chart was dominated by a massive +99% pump on July 13, after Ripple Labs emerged partially victorious against the SEC’s allegations of operating an unregistered securities product.
Despite serial retracement moves since the highly anticipated ruling, which has left Ripple falling in the crypto rankings, XRP price has began to mount a more structured technically rally move alongside the rest of the crypto market.
This has been bolstered by re-listings on major exchanges such as Coinbase and Binance.
Check Out: Latest XRP Price Prediction
Altcoin 5: PepeCoin (PEPE)
Perhaps the biggest memecoin launch of 2023 has been the breakout success of now-iconic memecoin Pepecoin (PEPE), which swept into crypto markets in April in a move that reinvigorated price action.
The stunning launch, rapidly followed by a Binance listing, saw Pepecoin surge to a whopping $1.8bn market cap, leaving PEPE ranked in the top 50 crypto assets in less than a week.
Fuelled by community love for the classic Pepe meme, Pepecoin went on to inspire an entire wave of new meme coin entrants into the market such as Evil Pepe – cementing its status as a legend in the meme coin vertical.
Yet, with price action now stood at -28.4% YTD, PEPE appears to be bottoming out – potentially highlighting the opportunity for another skyrocket rally in 2o24.
Check Out: Latest Pepecoin Price Prediction
Altcoin 4: Telcoin (TEL)
Telcoin has endured a tumultuous performance in recent weeks, especially following a major security incident on the Telcoin dApp – which saw wallets drained upwards of $1.3m.
However, ever resilient, there has been significant growth and progress in the Telcoin ecosystem across 2023, with the recent unanimous approval of the first ever TGIP (Telcoin Governance Improvement Proposal).
This is important, marking the first time the Telcoin community have steered the direction of the ecosystem.
#TGIP1 has been approved, marking a significant milestone in #Telcoin’s journey toward a more decentralized and community-driven future. The unanimous vote reflects the collective strength of our community and its alignment around a shared vision for governance.
In the wake of… pic.twitter.com/M7HBbzCktO
— Telcoin (@telcoin) December 29, 2023
Indeed, with TGIP1’s promise of decentralizing the platform into the hands of the Telcoin association – this could emerge as a promising ecosystem to watch in the year ahead.
Altcoin 3: Bitcoin Minetrix (BTCMTX)
Amongst the fastest growing new-comers in the space, the Bitcoin Minetrix presale has exploded over the past few months, with almost $7m raised as traders flock to the promise of increasing Bitcoin Mining decentralization.
BTCMTX has made it big by delivering a new form of Bitcoin Cloud Mining, that could enable retail investors to participate in greater network security – while earning Bitcoin passively for their portfolios.
This comes as the industry is increasingly dominated by major mining pools, with the two largest mining pools Antpool and Foundry USA representing more than 50% of the current SHA256 hash.
With such explosive growth, the Bitcoin Minetrix presale – due to end in 2024 could become one of the biggest Bitcoin beta plays ahead of the next halving event.
Buy Bitcoin Minetrix Here
Altcoin 2: Meme Kombat (MK)
Another explosive crypto presale, quickly gaining traction into 2024 is the Meme Kombat launch.
Currently standing at an impressive $5.2m raised, this presale has gained viral traction by targeting the heart of crypto Twitter – moonboys and loyal hodlers – with the project poised to gain ground through creative high-octane community battles.
The native MK token will form the backbone of the battles between these rivalries, galvanising tokenomics with a potent demand-side pressure, as communities fight to decide age old questions like DOGE vs SHIB.
This has got traders excited, leaving Meme Kombat as a must watch meme coin heading into 2024.
Buy Meme Kombat Here
Altcoin 1: Bitcoin ETF (BTCETF)
Finally, as markets brace for the anticipated approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs on January 10, the Bitcoin ETF presale has exploded as a well-marketed beta play.
Now finished, the presale saw a whopping $5m raised from early investors, with coins redeemable on the Bitcoin ETF website.
Traders are betting big on the namesakes ability to explode alongside the launch of Bitcoin spot ETFs, and with favourable tokenomic burns set to kick-in at varying ETF milestones – price action seems set to fly.
The milestones for the burn mechanism are as follows:
- Milestone 1 –$BTCETF Trading Volume hits $100m– burn tax on transactions reduced from5% to 4%, and 5% of total supply is burned.
- Milestone 2 –First Bitcoin ETF is approved by SEC– burn tax on transactions is reduced from4% to 3%, and a further 5% of total supply is burned.
- Milestone 3-First Bitcoin ETF launch date– burn tax on transactions is reduced from3% to 2%, and a further 5% of total supply is burned.
- Milestone 4 –Bitcoin ETF assets under management (AUM) hits $1bn– burn tax on transactions is reduced from2% to 1%, and a further 5% of total supply is burned.
- Milestone 5 –Bitcoin price hits $100k– burn tax on transactions is reduced from1% to 0%, and a further 5% of total supply is burned.
Check Out BTC ETF Here
Disclaimer: Crypto is a high-risk asset class. This article is provided for informational purposes and does not constitute investment advice. You could lose all of your capital.
