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The most exciting thing about cryptocurrency investments is that they can skyrocket in value. In 2024, Virtuals Protocol (CRYPTO:VIRTUAL) increased by more than 23,000%, one of several cryptocurrencies to deliver well over 10x returns. Last year, market leader Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) also added $1.2 trillion to its market cap and surged past $100,000.
Of course, prices can fall just as quickly. There's also no guarantee that crypto is here to stay. But overall, the market is trending upward, which is exciting news for crypto investors.
It's impossible to know which cryptocurrency is next to boom. However, we can pick out some possible candidates capitalizing on current trends, such as artificial intelligence (AI), decentralized applications (dApps), and digital asset trading, as well as some of the larger cryptos in position to grow even more this year.
Render Token (CRYPTO:RNDR) is a rendering network that allows users to rent out extra graphics processing unit (GPU) power for rendering (using a computer program to create a photorealistic or non-photorealistic image from a 2D or 3D model). Artists and studios can rent rendering capacity through the Render Network and pay for it with the RNDR crypto token.
While many crypto projects haven't demonstrated any real-world uses yet, Render has been used in high-profile projects. For example, it was used to create the opening titles for the fourth season of Westworld. Artists have also used Render for a digital Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) ad at the Las Vegas sphere, for a Star Trek spatial experience available with the Apple Vision Pro, and for multiple short films.
It's a unique service, and demand will likely grow as more media companies need to convert text to images. The growing popularity of AI could also be good for Render, as training AI models requires considerable GPU power.
Render saw significant year-over-year growth in 2024. Network usage more than tripled, and there were more than 40 million rendered frames, a massive jump from about 10 million in 2023.
Over the years, plenty of supposed "Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) killers" have offered their own programmable blockchain platforms. None have been as successful as Solana (CRYPTO:SOL), which became famous for its blazing-fast speeds and transaction fees that cost a fraction of a cent.
Like Ethereum (and several other projects), Solana gives developers a platform to build dApps. It's used for decentralized finance (DeFi) services, minting non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and more. According to a 2024 CoinGecko study, it's also the fastest large blockchain. With 1,504 average daily transactions (its maximum theoretical speed is 65,000 transactions per second), it's 46 times faster than Ethereum.
After losing most of its value in 2022 and 2023, Solana's price shot up in 2024. Even though it has already delivered impressive returns, it could still have more room to grow.
Superintelligence Alliance (CRYPTO:ASI) is a merger of three popular AI cryptos: SingularityNET, Fetch.ai, and Ocean Protocol. All three projects were interesting players in the AI space, and two (SingularityNET and Fetch.ai) have been on this list before.
The goal of Superintelligence Alliance is build an open-source blockchain platform for artificial intelligence (AI) research and development. Participants can lend computing power to support AI model training in exchange for crypto tokens.
The AI boom has been one of cryptocurrency's most exciting recent technological developments. Superintelligence Alliance is well positioned to capitalize on the trend, especially as the number of companies using AI continues to grow. It plans to leverage:
Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) is already a top cryptocurrency -- the top cryptocurrency, to be exact. Although it's certainly not a dark horse crypto that will triple in value, it had some very positive news in 2024.
After years of waiting, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally approved Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024. There are now more than 10 Bitcoin ETFs available, which makes investing in the market's largest cryptocurrency easier than ever and has led to more institutional investors buying Bitcoin.
Although all cryptos are volatile, Bitcoin's size makes it safer since it's more likely to stick around. While smaller coins often deliver bigger returns, Bitcoin is far more reliable -- when the crypto market is doing well, the same is usually also true for Bitcoin. If you're looking for a comparatively low-risk crypto investment that could do well in 2025 and beyond, Bitcoin is worth considering.
Thorchain (CRYPTO:RUNE) is a decentralized crypto exchange that operates through an automated market maker (AMM) model. It has liquidity pools for cryptocurrencies managed by smart contracts. Anyone can use Thorchain by connecting their blockchain wallet to trade more than 5,500 cryptocurrencies.
Centralized crypto exchanges have had their share of high-profile issues, including the collapse of FTX in 2022. It's understandable why many investors would want full control of their crypto and use decentralized exchanges when possible.
While many decentralized exchanges are available, Thorchain stands out for its experience in the space and its recent growth. It was founded in 2018, but the business started picking up toward the end of 2023, when it had about $1 billion per week in swap volume.
Aave (CRYPTO:AAVE) is a DeFi protocol and lending platform that allows users to lend and borrow cryptocurrency. Everything is done with smart contracts, so no intermediary is required. Users can earn interest on the digital assets they lend.
Aave has liquidity pools for many popular cryptocurrencies, such as Tether (CRYPTO:USDT) and DAI (CRYPTO:DAI). One reason Aave could be a long-term winner is that in addition to crypto lending, it has expanded into real-world assets by partnering with Centrifuge.
As part of that partnership, Aave has built a real-world asset (RWA) market that allows companies to tokenize parts of their businesses. Investors can buy tokens offered by those businesses, and the issuers of the tokens can then borrow stablecoins against their assets.
Ethereum has been the second-largest cryptocurrency for years. It's notable for being the first blockchain to offer smart contracts, which developers can use to build dApps.
There has been some positive news for Ethereum in recent years. It went through its long-awaited change to a proof-of-stake system in September 2022, significantly improving its energy efficiency. After making that switch, its energy consumption dropped by more than 99.9%. In July 2024, the SEC approved Ethereum ETFs.
That hasn't translated into sizable returns so far, especially compared to what market leader Bitcoin has been doing. Ethereum's performance hasn't impressed investors, and some institutional investors have decided to sell.
However, Ethereum is still widely used and one of the most popular cryptocurrencies. This down period could be a good buying opportunity for one of the few cryptocurrencies, other than Bitcoin, to demonstrate long-term success and staying power.
It's tempting to try to find that next big cryptocurrency. Even though you could potentially see incredible returns this way, it's also difficult, time-consuming, and extremely risky.
For starters, you'll need to look for cryptocurrencies outside the market leaders. Smaller cryptocurrencies have greater growth potential but are also more likely to fold, so there's a bigger chance of losing your entire investment. You might want to put some of your money into cryptocurrency stocks or large-cap coins to balance that out.
Researching those smaller cryptocurrencies takes time. And even if a project looks like a sure-fire winner, anything could happen in the crypto market. Your carefully researched investment could go nowhere, while a practically useless cryptocurrency goes to the moon just because it has Shiba Inu (CRYPTO:SHIB) or Dogecoin (CRYPTO:DOGE) in its name.
Following cryptocurrency trends or trying to predict them is not a good investment strategy. There's nothing wrong with giving it a shot, but keep your expectations -- and the amount you invest -- very low.
Here are the cryptocurrencies that could be due for a significant bull run:
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