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Since the election of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States, the crypto market has gone into a frenzy, with dozens of coins posting triple-digit percentage growth between the November-December period of 2024.
As expected, the end of the year has brought some corrections and a changing market sentiment to the market, with the Crypto Fear and Greed Index showing a value of 57/100 as of this writing, which indicates indecision and mild greed among crypto investors.
It is also worth noting that the month of December has been particularly fruitful for select memecoins that were launched in 2024, with eye-watering returns, especially if we consider their performance since their pre-sale periods.
Top Crypto Gainers of December
The month of December saw some relatively obscure and newly-listed memecoins gain massively, while the largest and most influential cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and others, lagged behind.
Kekius Maximus (KEKIUS) +11,885%
The Kekius Maximus coin is the newest addition to the list of memecoins with explosive growth towards the tail end of 2024. While the coin was listed on several CEX-es, the growth of the coin really took off after Elon Musk changed his X.com handle to Kekius Maximus, which saw the coin reach almost $0.40 in price, which is an over
This unexpected rise is unlikely to be indicative of any fundamental factors at play and should be attributed to general uncertainty on the market and the residual bullish sentiment from the post-election crypto market in the U.S.
It is also worth noting that Elon Musk has long been active on the topic of crypto, which has affected the prices of Dogecoin and Shiba Inu multiple times in the past as well.
Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) +566%
Another memecoin that has taken the market by storm is Fartcoin, which has increased its market price by more than
Aside from the funny name, the coin’s fundamentals are nearly impossible to measure, as it is new to the crypto market and was skyrocketed by the meme-buying frenzy that followed the exceptionally bullish sentiment triggered by the reelection of Donald Trump as president.
While it is difficult to say whether Fartcoin’s meteoric rise was a one-off fluke or if the memecoin frenzy is expected to continue in the near future, investors who bought the coin during the pre-sale period have netted themselves incredible gains, as Fartcoin has now reached a market capitalization of over $1.4 billion as of this writing.
Budget Coin (BGB) +262%
Budget Coin, or BGB, is a cryptocurrency that had its ICO at the start of 2024 and had spent most of the year seemingly lying dormant and away from the attention of mainstream crypto investors.
However, the end of the year saw the coin explode and more than triple in market capitalization, reaching more than $7 billion. It is also worth noting that the coin also fell from its all-time high of over $8 to below $6 towards the last few days of December, which would have put the coin even higher in terms of overall monthly gains.
Going forward, a pullback in the price of BGB is likely to occur as investors cash in on their gains, while much of the future performance of the coin will depend on the broader market sentiment and the post-inauguration market dynamics.
Hyperliquid (HYPE) +100.7%
Hyperliquid is yet another new entrant on the global crypto market, having launched in December of 2024. Since then the coin has managed to double in price before the end of the month. However, the coin was closer to the $35 market by 20 December, as opposed to the $25 mark seen by the tail end of the month, which is a significant decline.
Due to the limited performance history, predicting the future movements of coins like HYPE can be considerably challenging. On the other hand, this also means that any significant developments in the near-term are likely to greatly alter the performance of such cryptocurrencies. A pullback in the coming weeks could be on the cards for Hyperliquid, as market uncertainty rises and investors sell off some of their holdings to lock in profits.
SPX6900 (SPX) +92.5%
SPX entered the crypto market in September and quickly rose through the ranks towards the end of the month. After a gradual pullback, the coin jumped again and nearly doubled in December, which creates a bit more performance history for traders to go off of when assessing the future prospects of this cryptocurrency.
However, four months of trading is unlikely to be enough for a thorough analysis on the technical characteristics of SPX heading into 2025. The high volatility of the coin presents many scalping opportunities to traders, while a near-term pullback is highly likely to occur, as the coin has set a new ATH figure of over $1.30.
Top Crypto Losers of December
The overall number of losing cryptocurrencies was quite low in December, which is why our list includes four entries instead of five.
While this points to a continuing bullish sentiment, the lower value shown by the Crypto Fear and Greed Index also indicates that the momentum could be shifting in the near future and is no longer as powerful as the weeks following the 2024 United States Presidential Election.
GMT (GMT) −33.8%
GMT has been a cryptocurrency that has been away from the mainstream attention since hitting the market in 2022, spending the past 2 years trading nowhere near its April 2022 ATH.
GMT’s fortunes have not seen much improvement since the start of 2024 either, as the coin has lost over 33% of its value in December alone, which puts its annual returns at a loss of 44%.
It is also worth noting that the coin has dropped significantly towards the end of December — Falling from $0.23 to $0.15.
Heading into 2025, GMT could be primed for further increases, which will depend on the prevailing market conditions, which seem to be heading downwards in the near-term future.
Solar (SXP) −26%
Similarly to GMT, Solar is another cryptocurrency that has been available on the market for several years and has fallen sharply since its ATH price.The coin has its ICO in 2020 and now trades between the $0.3-$0.4 range, which is nowhere near its $5 ATH.
The month of December has not been any more successful for the coin than the previous few years, as SXP has fallen by 26% over the past 30 days of trading.
For this reason, investors may not be as optimistic regarding the future prospects of the coin, as shifting market sentiment is unlikely to cause a sudden bull run for Solar in the near term.
However, if the market turns to a more explosive bullish period, SXP may well be one of the projects to benefit from market optimism.
Steem (STEM) −10.4%
Long-time investors in Steem are unlikely to have held on to much of their holdings in the coin, as the project has fallen flat since its 2018 ATH, with no tangible bullish momentum seen since 2021.
While the performance of the coin across December was far from catastrophic, the prospects of the coin seem bleak from today’ s market conditions. The past 30 days of trading have seen the coin lose 10% of its market value, falling to a market capitalization of $155 million.
After falling from $0.35 to $0.25 over the last couple of days of December, the coin could decline further in the first half of January, before regaining some momentum for a brief bullish period.
OpenGPU (oGPU) −8.3%
Investors who bought OpenGPU right after its ICO have taken in massive returns over the course of 2024, as the coin has risen from near-zero values to as much as $3.5 over the past 9 months of trading.
However, December has already seen the coin drop from $3.5 to as low as $1.5, which is a significant drop and a solid play for short-sellers. Due to such a steep drop, the likelihood of the coin regaining some lost ground in the coming few weeks is higher than other entries on our list. However, a further drop to below $1 could also be on the cards if market uncertainty persists.
Conclusion
After a period of explosive growth on the global crypto market, the sentiment has shown signs of stabilization in December, which has resulted in a handful of crypto projects delivering massive gains, while most of the market showing sluggish growth figures across the month.
Such changes in market activity are to be expected, as investors have started to cash in on their gains from the bullish run that followed the reelection of Donald Trump as President of the United States and his crypto-friendly policy promises.
The last month of 2024 has proven to be a mix between overly optimistic bullish sentiment on memecoins and a pullback on some of the largest cryptocurrencies on the market, which may indicate that a further correction is likely to occur over the first quarter of 2025.
Going forward, investors will be eyeing the January 20 inauguration to see what part of the crypto policy goes into full effect first and how these changes may affect the overall performance of individual currencies in the mid-to-long term.