Six Best Performing Altcoins of 2016

25.12.2016

Bitcoin’s December rally caused some hype both in the cryptocommunity and in mainstream media, even though the latter has earlier repeatedly predicted its imminent death. The explanation is obvious: price increase upwards of 100 percent over 12 months is something any investor dreams of.

Still, Bitcoin isn’t the only profit-maker of the year. It may sound surprisingly to some, but at least half a dozen of altcoins proved to be way more profitable than the first cryptocurrency.

The short analysis below is based on the data from Cryptocompare and Coinmarketcap, with December 25, 2015, being starting point.

DISCLAIMER: the data specified below is actual as of 14:00 UTC December 25, 2016, and may differ from the actual data at the moment of publication due to the cryptocurrencies’ inherent volatility. The percentage is specified against Bitcoin, and is different from that against the U.S. Dollar.

1. Monero (XMR) +928%

The undeniable all-round champion is Monero. Trading at 0.00107593 BTC a year ago today, currently XMR is worth 0.0011 BTC, having gained 928% against Bitcoin, and the incredible 1,969% against USD. It’s also well worth noting these numbers could be even higher as XMR lost a good deal of its value after peaking in September after the news of the coin’s integration in some darknet platforms broke out. Nevertheless, it has been steadily growing since November, and XMR’s popularity is well reflected by its market cap that has jumped from $5,129 million last Christmas to $ 131,112 million.

2. Siacoin (SC) +500%

Decentralized data storage platform Sia works on a proof-of-work blockchain and smart contracts. It uses Siacoin to rent disk space from other users. Over the past year, the coin has gained some price, even though, similar to Monero, it has lost much since summer. Even though the general downtrend of Siacoin has become quite obvious over the last six months, patient investors still could make a hefty profit of 500 per cent.

3. Ethereum (ETH) +333%

There’s no need to introduce Ethereum. The project is a household name thanks not only to the growing interest from the world of traditional finance, but as a result of a series of controversies as well, just to name the epic crash of The DAO. Having climbed to an all-time high in the first six months of the year, the ETH value has dropped significantly after the hardfork in July. The second attempt to hit the heights in August and September failed to bring much success, yet, despite the clear downtrend in the past couple of months, ETH is still the second best cryptocurrency by market cap, while its annual growth comprises solid 333% against BTC, and almost 700% against USD.

4. Storjcoin (SJCX) +290%

Storj is another cloud storage provider which utilizes its own token for that purpose. SJCX has hit record heights back in September, and even though the coin has been sliding down since that, nearly 300% of annual profit definitely looks quite impressive.

5. Factom (FCT) +222%

Blockchain startup Factom offers auditÂ and records validation services, and even though it is yet to reach publicity comparable to that of Ethereum’s, the Austin-based company is steadily moving forth. Its services are in demand, and investors can be pretty happy having FCT in their portfolios as it has brought them some good profit this year.

6. DASH +81%

DASH continues its mission of creating a worthy alternative to bitcoin. Over the past twelve months it has reached some important milestones including integration with several popular cryptocurrency wallets and payments services. Also DASH initiated the industry’s first interwoven solution for AML/KYC compliance which will provide it with the capacity for safe adoption by commercial or financial institutions. All these factors have helped DASH to grow by 81% against BTC and solid 286% again USD.

As we can see, Bitcoin isn’t the only valuable asset found in today’s cryptospace. Such diversity is definitely a good sign, and there are all reasons expect that 2017 will bring a breakthrough for other projects which are possibly just waiting for their time to come.