Cryptocurrency prices have fluctuated widely so far this year, leaving some investors with notable gains and others with losses. But crypto is a notoriously risky investment and prices can skyrocket or plummet in a matter of days or minutes. Keeping an eye out for the top performers every now and then can give you important context on how the market is performing.
Here are the top eight best-performing cryptocurrencies year-to-date.
Data as of May 1 , 2025.
|
Cryptocurrency |
Performance YTD |
|---|---|
|
Monero |
42.41% |
|
XRP |
7.61% |
|
Bitcoin |
3.72% |
|
Ethena USDe |
0.30% |
|
Tether |
0.26% |
|
Dai |
0.04% |
|
USDC |
0.02% |
|
UNUS SED LEO |
-1.02% |
Source: CoinMarketCap.com.
Note: The top eight cryptocurrencies featured here all have a market cap above $4 billion.
Monero is a special crypto designed to keep its users anonymous. Unlike other tokens, Monero uses cryptographic technology to hide the details of transactions that occur on its blockchain. The coin was launched in 2014.
XRP was created to enable faster money transactions. Its main use case is to power Ripplenet, which is a system that allows fast and efficient international money transfers. In some cases, Ripplenet surpasses the capabilities of other similar platforms like SWIFT. The XRP ledger is open source, but not directly on the blockchain, which has led many people to question whether XRP is technically a cryptocurrency.
As the granddaddy of them all, Bitcoin is often the token people reference when they talk about crypto. Bitcoin has a mysterious creator — allegedly Satoshi Nakamoto — who introduced the currency in 2009.
USDe is a stablecoin tied to the value of the U.S. dollar. Like other stablecoins, USDe gives investors the experience of owning a crypto without the extreme price fluctuations associated with it.
Tether is one of the world’s most popular stablecoins. Its value is pegged to the U.S. dollar via a 1:1 ratio. Tether’s most popular use case is its ability to act as a medium when traders exchange one coin for another, or aren’t quite ready to cash out their earnings.
Dai is a collateral-backed stablecoin. It’s decentralized and runs on the Ethereum blockchain. Unlike some stablecoins that are backed by the U.S. dollar via a 1:1 ratio, Dai is backed by crypto collateral on a platform called MakerDAO. For every Dai coin created, the collateral behind it always has to be more than $1 (or the price of one Dai coin). This information is locked in a smart contract on the blockchain.
