Bitcoin has become synonymous with cryptocurrency. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, of course, considering Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to be invented back in 2009.
Bitcoin’s development and eventual launch, although not met with much fanfare, was a direct response to the Global Financial Crisis that threw the world into turmoil in 2008. As a result, it was felt that a new system of finance was required which would take power away from traditional institutions, like banks and government agencies, and give power exclusively back to the the common man.
And so, a decentralised, peer-to-peer system of finance was born with the inaugural Bitcoin blockchain. Since then, Bitcoin has gone from strength to strength, rising from relative obscurity to its recent adoption as legal tender by El Salvador. While its initial and intended purpose was as a way to pay for goods and services online anonymously, it also emerged as an investment whose value has seen unprecedented and explosive growth in the decade or so since its inception.
2021 is no exception for Bitcoin, and while there’s undoubtedly been some volatile peaks and valleys, the overall value has almost doubled in the year-to-date.
But along with Bitcoin, a host of other cryptocurrencies known as ‘altcoins’ have made waves this year – many of them outshining Bitcoin many, many times over. Here are five examples of altcoins that have given greater returns than Bitcoin this year.
For those wondering what year-to-date (YTD) growth is, it’s the growth from January 1 to today (November 29).
Just as an example – and for some context -Bitcoin’s YTD growth is 76%.
The leading YTD Performers
The following five altcoins are taken from the top 100 cryptos by market cap, as on 24 December 2021. In truth, there’s over four thousand different cryptos but it’s hard to decipher which ones are legitimate projects and which are outright scams. Remember, due to the lack of regulation, the crypto space attracts more than its share of scammers looking to fleece unsuspecting investors. So here we go. From lowest growth to highest growth.
The data is taken from coincodex.com
5) Solana (SOL) YTD +12,397%
Solana has emerged as one of the go-to-permissionless blockchains for decentralised finance (DeFi).
One of the revolutionary innovations of Solana’s blockchain is its proof-of-history consensus, making it considerably more environmentally friendly.
4) The Sandbox (SAND) YTD + 17,557%
The explosive growth of SAND has occurred in the past 60 days, where it’s shot up an astonishing 723%.
SAND is just one altcoin that’s benefited from the hoopla surrounding the metaverse, which has become somewhat of a household work since Meta (formally Facebook) CEO gave an 11-minute presentation on it earlier in the month.
Image Source: © Sunplus60 | Megapixl.com
3) Axie Infinity (AXS) YTD +19,854%
Yet another gaming blockchain, Axie Infinity gained traction this year when millennials from developing countries began playing the NFT-inspired game full-time in an effort to replace income lost as a result of the COVID-19 lockdowns.
In this game players collect an NFTs in the form of tiny digital creatures called Axies. Players can then swap or sell their Axies, often for hundreds of dollars, although rare Axies have sold for as much as US$1 million.
2) Gala Games (GALA) YTD +34,962%
Gala is a gaming company plans to reintroduce creative thinking into games by giving players control of the games and in-game assets with the help of blockchain technology.
Like SAND, GALA’s value has exploded in the past 60 days by 499%, with much of the traction seen post Zuckerberg’s metaverse announcement earlier in November.
1) Shiba Inu (SHIB) YTD +3,90,700%
SHIB is an outlier in this group in that it has no affiliation to blockchain gaming. Rather, it’s known as memecoin – an altcoin inspired on an internet meme, in this case a meme of a smiling dog of the Japanese dog breed, Shiba Inu.
Furthermore it’s not even the original crypto based on this meme. That title belongs to Dogecoin (DOGE) which was launched in 2014 as a joke to satirise the speculative nature of crypto currency.
Created in August 2020, it’s become known as the “Dogecoin killer”, and has skyrocketed around 443% since October this year.
Bottom Line
These are just five of the top performers that have outgrown Bitcoin in 2021. There are many more that have achieved high returns this year, which begs the question: Why aren’t you dedicating a small part of your portfolio to some of these high performers?
These won’t be the last altcoins to offer massive growth in the future, so keep an eye out for these lesser-known coins because it could potentially turn a light sum into an amount many times greater.