Bitcoin may have had a spectacular recovery in the past couple of months, but it isn’t even in the top five best performing cryptocurrencies for the year.
So without further ado, let’s have a look at 2019’s ten big winners.
1. Binance Coin (BNB) +475%
Back in April, Binance coin was the first crypto to surpass its Jan 2018 ATH. Impressive stuff, as it had only made it into the top ten currencies by market cap two months earlier. Even a $41 million hack on the Binance exchange couldn’t keep it down for long, as it posted a new ATH just three days ago. 475% gains are certainly nothing to be sniffed at in under five months.
2. Tezos (XTZ) +255%
Tezos had a rough 2018 for many reasons, with the eventual launch of its main-net in September pre-empting a $170 million drop in market cap. All that seems to be behind it now though, with a 70% gain in just three days back in March. Tezos has continued to capitalize and is now 255% up on the year.
3. Litecoin (LTC) +254%
For Litecoin this year, it seems the only way is up. Steady gains almost every month have seen LTC into the top three performers. There were healthy gains following the Mimblewimble announcement in February, and again in March… April… May. The halving is in just 70 days, so who knows how high it can climb by then?
4. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) +166%
The Bitcoin Cash hard fork in November 2018 led to a bitter hash war, the effects of which were felt much further afield. Bitmain ‘postponed’ its IPO and fired CEO Jihan Wu over the affair. This year, however, Bitcoin Cash has been quietly regaining lost ground, largely thanks to not being linked to (Dr) Craig Wright.
5. EOS (um… EOS) +158%
Fifth ranking cryptocurrency by market cap, EOS, has also made impressive gains so far this year. The decentralized applications and smart contracts platform hit the news this year when co-founder, Dan Larimer threatened that he could ‘take down’ the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks. Perhaps it’s true that there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
6. Bitcoin (BTC) +134%
So yeah. Bitcoin’s gains this year have made even the mainstream financial media sit up and take note. However, it still sits languishing just outside the top five in our table. Which just goes to show what an incredible time it’s been for the crypto-market. Although this is just the start. According to some, we may be in for a 2-3 year bull market.
7. Cardano (ADA) +106%
8. Dash (DASH) +100%
9. Monero (XMR) +93%
10. Ethereum (ETH) +91%
Posting returns in five months that over a year would make any stock market investor weep with joy. The four cryptocurrencies rounding out our top ten have all roughly doubled in value since the start of the year.
Each of these coins has performed incredibly well as crypto-winter has thawed and we have started to enjoy crypto-spring. While we shouldn’t take anything away from their achievement, the competition at the top has just been too much to surmount… this time.
Images via Shutterstock
