Forgot Bitcoin? Only a handful of top cryptocurrencies have surpassed it so far in 2024

Even after the latest crypto market “crash flash”, Bitcoin (BTC -0.38%) it is still growing at 35% per year. While Bitcoin is now trading well below its all-time high of $73,750 set earlier this year, those 35% gains in Bitcoin now look impressive given what is happening elsewhere in the crypto market.

If you look at the top 50 cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, only a third of them are now being canceled. And only a handful of those in the green surpass Bitcoin. So, aside from Bitcoin, what should investors be buying now?

What’s down for the year?

To answer that question, we first need to consider which investment strategies didn’t work out as planned this year. For example, crypto AI tokens were supposed to be one of the blockbusters of the crypto market this year. But so far, all of them are still underperforming Bitcoin. For example, Do what (CRYPTO: RNDR) it is now declining by 4% per year. And Alliance of Artificial Superintelligence (CRYPTO: FET) — the crypto token formerly known as Fetch.ai — is growing at just 24% year-over-year.

Or what about the so-called “Ethereum killers” who were supposed to roll over Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) this year? Except Solana (SOL -1.90%)which is up 53% for the year, were all colossal failures. Cardano (CRYPTO: ADA)for example, it decreased by 44%. Avalanche (CRYPTO: AVAX) decreased by 46%. fit (CRYPTO: APT) decreased by 43%. Granted, Ethereum is only up 7% for the year now, but at least it’s in the green.

And all Layer 2 scaling solutions for Ethereum have failed. These are blockchains that promise to make Ethereum run faster, cheaper and better. However, if you take a look at the top tier 2 scaling solutions for Ethereum, they are also down for the year. most notably, Polygon (CRYPTO: MATIC) it is decreasing by 58% per year.

What’s up for the year?

As you can see, there have been poor choices so far in 2024. But there is one category of cryptocurrency that has performed admirably and that is meme coins. Floki (FLOKI -1.28%) — named after Elon Musk’s pet dog Shiba Inu — is up 254% this year. pepe (PEPE -0.95%) — whose avatar is a green cartoon frog — has increased by 500%. And Dogwife (WIF -0.95%) — which features a cute dog wearing a cute hat — is up 1,000 percent this year.

But there is only one problem here. Meme coins are very risky and highly speculative and offer little or no real-world utility. Thus, they are not suitable for long-term investment portfolios. Over time, they are unlikely to retain their value. And they are subject to extreme price fluctuations, solely due to the whims of investors.

This leaves us in a quandary. Almost every sector of the crypto market is down, and the only coins solidly outperforming Bitcoin right now are silly meme coins. So what should a long-term, buy-and-hold investor do?

Solana

An answer could be: Solana. As mentioned above, Solana is one of the few large-cap cryptocurrencies to outperform Bitcoin this year. This is primarily because Solana is the only Layer 1 blockchain that is most closely associated with the “meme coin craze” that has taken over the crypto market this year. So in many ways, Solana is an indirect play on meme coins without taking as much risk.

Image source: Getty Images.

Everyone — including some entertainment celebrities — now seems to be minting meme coins on the Solana blockchain, leading to a huge increase in the value of Solana’s performance. Most importantly, Solana’s daily active users have seen a sharp upward spike. And key metrics related to decentralized finance (DeFi) — such as 24-hour trading volume — are also seeing significant growth. This is because Solana’s decentralized exchanges are the only places where you can actively trade many of these new Solana meme coins. As a result, Solana is seeing more trading volume than Ethereum right now.

Of course, there are other reasons to like Solana beyond just the meme currency factor. In terms of overall performance, Solana is cheaper, faster and more efficient to use than Ethereum. This is something Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood pointed out to institutional investors last November. As a result, Solana could be the only blockchain capable of toppling Ethereum one day.

And don’t forget Solana’s mobile strategy. Solana was the first major blockchain to launch its own “crypto phone” (Saga), and mobile could be a catalyst to drive future growth.

If not Bitcoin, then what?

For now, it’s hard to ignore Bitcoin. It held up well after a crypto market crash and continues to outperform almost every other top cryptocurrency. But if you want to supercharge your portfolio, you might want to consider adding some high-octane Solanas.