The Fear & Greed Index is up 48 points from August, indicating investors are hopeful for the future. BTC hit a new all-time high of $103,900, but it’s not the only crypto that can bring significant returns this season. Alternative cryptos may offer more upside due to their innovative use cases, volatility (which in bullish times becomes a pro), and early entry opportunity. Let’s see which cryptos are the most likely to explode this December. Crypto All-Stars (STARS) Wall Street Pepe (WEPE) Best Wallet Token (BEST) Sui Network (SUI) Ripple (XRP) Cardano (ADA) Hedera (HBAR) 1. Crypto All-Stars: Stake Your Meme Coins & Earn Staking APY Crypto All-Stars introduces a unified meme coin staking protocol MemeVault, which allows degen investors to generate passive yields from their favorite tokens. Upon launch, users will be able to stake 11 popular coins, among which are DOGE, PEPE, BRETT, and FLOKI. The project team will add support for more leading meme coins in the future. MemeVault debuts just in time for the new altcoin season, as BTC dominance has fallen from 61% to 55% in two weeks. Strategic timing lowers the risk of staking your meme coins, which are notorious for their volatility. If you stake a meme coin during a downward trend, you’re essentially locking in your losses. But with the current uptrend, you can both benefit from price appreciation and generate passive yields. The platform’s native token, STARS, is currently available on presale at $0.0016782. While you don’t have to own it to use MemeVault, STARS early adopters will get a higher staking APY. The token claim is scheduled for December 19. 2. Wall Street Pepe Democratizes Crypto Trading As institutional investors are lining their pockets through coordinated actions, the small fish have no way to predict market movements. Wall Street Pepe (WEPE) is on a mission to change this. The WEPE army declares war on whale insider groups. The project assembles a group of degen investors to share insights and tested strategies to outperform hedge funds. To succeed, a meme coin must have a strong community – that’s a no-brainer. That’s why WEPE incentivizes investor participation with 382% staking APY, on top of weekly market digests. Early supporters have staked over 2B tokens to date. The WEPE presale kicked off recently and has already raised $1.4M. One WEPE now costs $0.000204, but the price will increase in three days. 3. BEST Holders Get Lower Fees and Higher Rewards With the Best Wallet App Best Wallet is a popular non-custodial crypto storage solution that lets you buy, swap, and stake assets across 60+ chains. Through Best Wallet’s new presale aggregator, users can participate in new projects ahead of time to support their growth and potentially secure higher gains when the tokens are listed. Its native token, BEST, is freshly out on presale at $0.022975. The project has already raised $2.5M in funding, all of which will go toward product developments and community incentives. BEST holders will gain early access to exclusive presales and new features, along with lower transaction fees and higher staking yields. Besides, the token holder community will dictate the project’s direction by voting on key proposals related to new features and partnerships. 4. SUI Soars 557%, Surpasses $1.6B TVL – Is $2B On the Horizon? This season, we see higher-than-ever demand for scalable, fast blockchain networks. Sui is a young Layer-1 network that grew from $151M Total Value Locked (TVL) in December 2023 to $1.6B TVL in December 2024. Sui’s native token, SUI, rose by 557% over the year and just hit a new all-time high of $4.47. SUI’s 24-hour trading volume exceeds $3.68B, and its market cap reached $12.08B. Sui Network’s appeal lies in its object-centric data model, which allows for efficient and parallel processing of transactions. Technical nitty-gritty aside, Sui is an exceptionally fast chain that processes around 10,000 transactions per second (TPS). To put that into perspective, Ethereum only processes 12–15 TPS. 5. Ripple’s Legal Victory Benefits XRP, a 341% Monthly Growth Ripple’s rough patch has ended with a legal victory over the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As a result, XRP saw a 341% monthly increase and now trades at $2.35, 17% below its yearly high of $2.86. Last week, XRP surpassed USDT by market cap and became the third-largest cryptocurrency. However, the token has since rebounded to #4, which is still an impressive result. Like Sui, Ripple’s proprietary Layer-1 network XRP Ledger is extremely fast and scalable. Its focus on low-cost cross-border transfers has earned it attention from traditional financial institutions like American Express, Santander, and MoneyGram. 6. Is Cardano the Next Ethereum? ADA Spikes 243% in November Cardano’s ADA is another top-performing token that surged by over 243% in November and shows no sign of stopping. Cardano is much like Ethereum in the sense that it uses a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism and allows for the development of custom applications through smart contracts. However, Cardano’s layered architecture makes it more scalable. The network has a $691M TVL and over 71K active wallet addresses. That’s a substantial growth from January’s 2022 TVL of just $1.4M. ADA’s technical indicators, particularly oscillators and moving averages, suggest the token will see more upside in the long run. 7. HBAR Grows 502% In November, Might Hit a New ATH Soon Hedera is among the fastest-growing blockchains by TVL, with a 262% monthly increase. While Hedera’s current TVL of $172M is significantly lower than Sui’s, it may soon outpace competitors if it maintains such a pace. The reason for Hedera’s growth is its energy efficiency, high degree of decentralization, and security, which are ensured by the Hashgraph consensus algorithm. Hedera’s native token HBAR surged 502% last month and hit $0.2905, 49% below its all-time high of $0.5701 recorded in 2021. However, the token has high odds of regaining its prime in this market cycle. Conclusion As we wrap up 2024, we witness undeniable demand for utility-driven cryptocurrencies. Among established projects, native tokens of scalable Layer-1 networks hold the most promise. It might very well be that in 2025, the list of leading blockchains will change. Meanwhile, new projects like Crypto All-Stars and Wall Street Pepe merge meme appeal with use cases that strive to solve real-world problems. Remember that diversification, risk management, and patience are key to benefiting from this bull run and minimizing your losses. References Today’s Cryptocurrency Prices by Market Cap (CoinMarketCap) All Chains TVL (DeFiLlama)
