Altcoins include all the other Internet currencies secured by cryptographic blockchains, in addition to Bitcoin, which is a seminal and first-in-class cryptocurrency. Their currency market exchange rates can vary with as much volatility as BTC and tend to track along with Bitcoin’s price.

In fact, big rallies for BTC tend to lead to major bull runs in altcoin markets as well. Seasoned crypto day and swing traders refer to these movements as “alt season.”

While Bitcoin posted a price gain of 121% from New Year’s Day to Christmas Eve this year, the following six altcoins saw increases ranging from 1,249% to a staggering 1.84 million percent for a latecomer to altcoin markets this year that only launched in October.

Lower down in this article is the entire list of top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap ranked in order of gains they delivered from Jan. 1 through Dec. 24 this year. The author calculated these gains by taking the average crypto exchange price on Dec. 24 and dividing it by the average price on Jan. 1.

Accordingly, some coins may be more or less profitable to day trade or swing trade than they appear on this list due to their market movements between the beginning and end dates for this calculation.

Several of these coins would show much higher percentage gains if the end date were calculated from price peaks that happened earlier in the year. But here are the six that did best for investors who dollar cost average or hold long term.

1. Fartcoin Blew Investors Away This Year

Fartcoin now valued at $1.2 Billion – what an explosion! pic.twitter.com/q53MnDbJwh

— Barchart (@Barchart) December 24, 2024

The silent but violent creeper rally for Fartcoin blew away crypto markets this year. This hot meme coin is a fresh one. It began to rally right out the gate following its launch in mid-October.

Following the November election, however, this Solana Program Library meme coin really ripped. Trump’s reelection saw most crypto markets rally, but Fartcoin posted a 300% gain