Moreover, even in a year that many stocks doubled and tripled their historical average yearly returns, leading cryptocurrencies delivered gains of over 100% for the year.

With several years of operation behind them, landmark wins against SEC regulators in US court, and even Wall Street ETFs for two of them, the crypto assets on this list are less risky for investors than ever before.

That doesn’t mean buying these digital assets is without risk any more than buying stocks like Apple or Amazon is without risk. But gone are the days when educated investors must scratch their heads looking at the staggering reports about these currencies’ price gains and wonder if it could be real.

They’re currently caught up in the bullish part of a multi-year boom and bust cycle. That means their exchange rates against the dollar have been rising for months and could continue to increase until all market demand has been exhausted. Then, prices are likely to correct again for the remainder of this market cycle.

Four Big Cryptos That Beat Wall Street

Below is each asset, with a note about how it beat returns from tech stocks in the Nasdaq Composite this year. For reference, the NASDAQ, a broad benchmark for the performance of US tech stocks, gained 33% for the year ending Thursday, Dec. 26.

Meanwhile, the four cryptocurrencies featured here gained accordingly:

• Bitcoin: 126%
• Ethereum: 49%
• Solana: 75%
• Ripple: 247%

Over its history, the Nasdaq has taken as long as ten years or more to return this kind of gains to the market value of its stocks. These crypto assets did it in just one year, and it’s by far not the first time they’ve performed this well in a year.

1. Bitcoin (BTC) Yearly Performance 2024: +126%

Bitcoin is the original and first-in-class cryptocurrency. It invented the entire segment with its 2009 debut. On Thursday, the Bitcoin economy’s total market capitalization exceeded $1.9 trillion.

For the year through Dec. 26, Bitcoin rose 126% over its average Jan. 1 price on crypto exchanges. It is the most traded and most liquid cryptocurrency, as well as the most established, with a hands-off approach by US regulators and several ETF (exchange-traded fund) products available on Wall Street for regulated