Top 5 Cryptos that Gave 100x Return in the Past 10 Years

• If you want to enjoy volatility to the upside, you have to stomach the volatility to the downside.

You know the best thing we like about great investors? They understand that asset prices don't go up in a straight line.

You simply buy them and hold on for years.

This has been a great strategy for stocks over the years.

But with narratives shifting, what about cryptos? Or Bitcoin to be precise?

Well, pessimists argue that the challenge with crypto markets is its relative youth compared to traditional stocks.

To put it into perspective, the crypto space is so early in its journey that it was only in November 2024 when Coinbase introduced a benchmark index - akin to the Dow or S&P 500 but tailored for cryptocurrencies.

But times are changing...

Bitcoin recently hit US$ 100,000 per coin. There's no denying that people like round numbers. The largest crypto hitting that feat dominated headlines and the word has spread.

With the recent gains, Bitcoin has now gone up by 100x in 10 years.

So, are there any such more cryptos that have gone up by 100x?

To be clear, we did a little digging and found out that there are only a few coins that have been able to achieve this feat.

After keeping a minimum marketcap of US$ 10 million (m) and the particular crypto being in the top 100 based on marketcap, here are the ones that have 100x'd in the past 10 years.

#1 Bitcoin (up 114x)

Trading at a little over US$ 800 per coin in January 2014, the largest cryptocurrency peaked at US$ 106,000 in December 2024.

And do you know what the funny thing is? Bitcoin still looks undervalued...

If you multiply the current gold price with the world's gold reserves (above ground), Gold's estimated marketcap comes to US$ 17.7 trillion. (as of 24 December 2024)

Bitcoin's marketcap as on 24 December 2024 stands at less than US$ 2 trillion (tn).

To all investors who held the crypto all these years - congrats! You ignored the noise, criticism from friends and family, and now you've been proven correct.

#2 Ethereum (290x)

Next is Ethereum.

Trading at US$ 12 per unit in October 2016, this crypto has shot up 290x in less than 10 years.

Ethereum is the second most valuable cryptocurrency in the world. Bitcoin and Ether are often referred to as gold and silver of the crypto world.

Ethereum tokens are simply digital assets that are being built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. The Ethereum blockchain serves as a basis for innovation and development in the cryptocurrency space - from digital art sales using NFTs to decentralised peer-to-peer lending.

Crypto enthusiasts overlooked Ether and placed bullish bets on Solana, which gave over 100% returns in 2024 so far compared to 60% for Ether. With Bitcoin also having an astonishing 2024, market observers are touting 2025 could be the year of Ethereum.

Bitwise recently published a 2025 predictions report which said tokenised assets will grow in 2025.

Don't get afraid by the term... tokenisation basically means the process of digitising traditional financial assets like government bonds, real estate or treasury bills, as tokens that can be exchanged on a blockchain.

And Ethereum lies at the heart of tokenisation. Since its launch in 2015, Ethereum has become a trailblazer in decentralized applications, smart contracts, and tokenization. It has an impressive 81% share of the tokenized assets market.

It will be interesting to see how things pan out for the second largest crypto in 2025.

#3 Dogecoin (110x)

Next is Dogecoin.

Trading at US$ 0.0032 in June 2017, the crypto peaked at US$ 0.4 per unit a few days ago.

It hit an all-time high of US$ 0.7 in May 2021.

Tesla CEO Elon Muskis arguably the most influential person in the Dogecoin ecosystem. Even small comments or tweets by him can impact the Dogecoin price as much as 50%. This would sound like a joke, but Dogecoin specifically moves higher or lower based on a few tweets.

US-based movie theatre chain AMC Theatres officially allowed payments in Dogecoin at one point of time. Earlier, AMC also accepted Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin.

As of 24 December 2024, Dogecoin is the 7th largest cryptocurrency in the world, with a marketcap of US$ 47.3 billion (bn).

#4 BNB (346x)

Next on this list is BNB.

What started at less than 2 dollars in 2017 has now turned to US$ 692 per unit with a market cap of US$ 99 bn.

BNB or Binance coin is currently the fifth largest crypto in the world.

Binance Coin is the cryptocurrency issued by Binance Exchange, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.

BNB was initially based on the Ethereum network but is now the native currency of Binance's own blockchain, the Binance chain.

Like Bitcoin, Binance has a limited supply of 200 m tokens and every quarter Binance used 20% of its profits to permanently burn or repurchase coins held in its treasury.

Initially created as a utility token for discounted trading fees in 2017, it is now also used to pay transaction fees on the Binance Chain and travel bookings among others.

Before getting into this crypto, one must understand that cryptocurrency exchanges have a reputation of getting hacked so the repercussions could be bad... but BNB has survived so many years, so what's a couple of years more?

#5 XRP (139x)

Next on this list is Ripple or XRP.

At the start of 2015, XRP's price stood at around US$ 0.016. The coin has so far managed to climb to US$ 2.24 in December 2024.

Here's another fun fact...

Bitcoin's marketcap rose by 12x in 2017, but Ripple dwarfed these gains, going up by 262x.

XRP, a cryptocurrency tailored to work on the Ripple network, is consistently listed among the top five cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation. It's currently ranked fourth (as of 24 December 2024) with a marketcap of US$ 129 bn.

Ripple is a payments settlement system and currency exchange network that can process transactions around the world.

The idea is that Ripple serves as a trusted agent between two parties in a transaction as the network can quickly confirm that the exchange went through properly. It can facilitate exchanges for a variety of fiat currencies, cryptos and even commodities like gold.

When it was launched in 2012, Ripple marketed XRP as a faster, cheaper alternative to bitcoin because transactions were settled in 3-5 seconds.

XRP's network can achieve this rapid speed because its infrastructure is centralised and it does not utilise proof of work, the consensus algorithm used by Bitcoin to process transactions.

Unlike bitcoin, XRP coins are not mined. Ripple minted the entire supply when the network was launched. Ripple releases portions of the supply from escrow and sells them on the market.

Coins like Ripple encourage savvy crypto investors to diversify their portfolios, providing an opportunity to gain exposure to alternative assets rather than concentrating solely on Bitcoin.

#(Bonus) Solana (149x)

While we promised 5, this list is incomplete without a mention about Solana.

Solana is currently the sixth largest crypto in the world. It has a marketcap of US$ 92 bn.

The crypto started in July 2020 at US$ 1.3 per unit. Currently, it trades at US$ 193.

This is what we wrote to readers in October 2021...

• Solana is the fastest blockchain in the world and the fastest growing ecosystem in crypto, with over 400 projects spanning DeFi, NFTs, Web3, and more.
  
  Solana rivals Ethereum, which is currently the largest decentralised crypto apps platform, by promising faster operation and lower transaction fees.
  
  So why has Solana skyrocketed this much even when it competes with an established platform like Ethereum?
  
  An obvious reason can be its lower transaction fees, which gives Solana an edge over most of its competitors.
  
  Another reason is the fact that Solana has the backing of popular cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which has launched several Solana-based projects.

Here's something interesting...

Currently, a company - Sol Strategies - holds 130,125 Solanas on its balance sheet, valued at more than US$ 33 m. As Solana's value rises, so will this company's asset base.

I mention this because this was originally one of the pioneering publicly traded companies focused on Bitcoin. It recently took a new direction, shifting its strategy towards Solana.

Solana has also outperformed Bitcoin in the past year.

Conclusion

After looking at more than a thousand cryptos, and their past 10-year historical data, only a few have managed to emerge on the winning side and deliver over 100x returns. That is why crypto investors tend to diversify their holdings across a few coins, hoping to find a 100 bagger.

Asset allocation is the most important decision in investing. You should be clear about how much of your portfolio to allocate towards crypto.

If you're a conservative investor, and try to diversify into cryptos, i.e., go down the high-volatility route, it's unlikely to work out because you will most likely panic sell once there is a downturn.

Ultimately, if you can stomach market volatility, the optimal portfolio would be the one that you will stick to for a long time and not lose sleep over.

Equitymaster on Cryptos

We at Equitymaster are not against investing in Bitcoins at all.

However, an investment like a Bitcoin should not be where you park your maximum savings. They should be the high risk-high return part of your overall corpus.

Equitymaster's take on cryptos is simple. We don't get cryptos. It's something that has caught our imagination, but we just can't figure out a way to value it. Fundamentally speaking.

Our "fundamental" take on cryptos is in line with the approach anyone should have when dabbling in a space one does not understand.

Invest only what you can afford to lose. Nothing more.

Happy Investing.

Disclaimer: This article is for information purposes only. It is not a stock recommendation and should not be treated as such. Learn more about our recommendation services here...