The 10 cryptocurrencies that rose the most in 1 year among the top 100

Short answer

Among the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, the ten that rose the most over the past 12 months were, in order, AKEDO (AKE), Venice Token (VVV), Zcash (ZEC), JUST (JST), Rain (RAIN), Quant (QNT), NEAR Protocol (NEAR), Hyperliquid (HYPE), WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) and Monero (XMR). Their gains range from 89% to about 1,800%.

The context matters as much as the list: over the same period, Bitcoin fell 24%, Ethereum fell 39% and the typical top-100 cryptocurrency lost about a third of its value. Only 17 of the 68 assets with a full year of history ended in positive territory. This article shows the figures, the sources and what they do not allow you to conclude.

How this list was built

What is measured: the change in the US dollar price between the moment of the query and the same moment one year earlier. It compares two points and ignores the path between them.

Period: October 18, 2025 to October 18, 2026. Data retrieved on October 18, 2026, at 18:47 UTC.

Scope: the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization on the day of the query, global market, in US dollars.

Source: CoinGecko public API — the 1-year change field of the markets endpoint, complemented by the 365-day daily history of each coin on the list.

Method: of the 100 positions, we removed 16 stablecoins (coins pegged to the dollar, such as USDT and USDC) and 10 tokenized traditional assets — gold, government bond funds and fund shares such as Blockchain Capital's BCAP. They track the price of another asset and are not comparable. That left 74 crypto assets; 6 of them do not have a full year of price history (Canton, Bitway, Lighter, Pearl, Stable and Midnight) and were also excluded. The ranking compares the remaining 68.

Limitations: the list starts from today's top 100, which favors the winners; the result changes with the cut-off date; and market capitalization is not money that flowed into the asset. These points are covered at the end of the article.

The 10 biggest gains in numbers

Source: CoinGecko, retrieved Oct 18, 2026. Changes in US dollars. *CoinGecko's all-time high for Zcash dates from its first trading day in October 2016, with minimal liquidity; within the period analyzed, the highest daily close was about $1,653, on September 27, 2026.

For comparison: Bitcoin changed −24.0% and Ethereum −38.8% over the same window. The median of the 68 crypto assets was −35.5%, and 16 of them fell more than 50%. The 11th-placed coin, Morpho (MORPHO), rose 26% — a big step down from tenth place.

1. AKEDO (AKE)

AKEDO describes itself as an artificial intelligence platform for creating games from natural-language prompts, on BNB Chain. It is the biggest gain on the list and also the most extreme case: in CoinGecko's daily history, the price fell to about $0.00019 on March 31, 2026 and reached $0.065 on September 20 — a more than 300-fold increase in under six months.

Since then it has lost more than half of its value. Three numbers call for caution: only 23% of the maximum supply is in circulation, leaving room for new issuance; 24-hour trading volume was about $8 million, small for a $670 million market cap; and the coin sits in 95th place, at the edge of the cut.

2. Venice Token (VVV)

VVV is the token of Venice, an artificial intelligence service that promises not to store users' conversations. The token gives access to the platform's computing capacity through its API. Industry press has linked part of the rally to token burns and scheduled emission cuts, which reduce new supply.

The price reached a high of $34.53 on September 21, 2026 and was 37% below it at the time of the query. About 60% of the supply is already circulating, and daily volume, around $13 million, is low for the size of the asset.

3. Zcash (ZEC)

Zcash is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency launched in 2016: it uses zero-knowledge proofs to allow transactions in which sender, recipient and amount stay hidden. Its maximum supply is 21 million units, like Bitcoin.

It is the largest gain among the big coins: its market cap went from about $3.6 billion to $18.5 billion, and ZEC reached 10th place in the ranking. A milestone of the period was the start of trading of Grayscale's Zcash ETF on NYSE Arca, on August 25, 2026, which opened access to the asset through the US stock exchange. Even so, ZEC fell 25% over the last 30 days, a sign that volatility remains high.

4. JUST (JST)

JST is the governance token of JUST, a set of decentralized finance services on the TRON network, such as the JustLend lending platform. The project uses part of its revenue to buy back and burn tokens in periodic rounds; the fifth round, completed on October 17, 2026, destroyed about 170 million JST, according to the project.

Its path was different from the others: the year's lowest point was the first day of the window, and the period high, $0.143, came on October 10, 2026. The token depends on an ecosystem closely tied to a single network and to its founder, Justin Sun.

5. Rain (RAIN)

Rain is a prediction-market and options protocol on the Arbitrum network, where anyone can create markets on events. Part of the volume traded on the platform is allocated to buying back the token, according to the project's description.

It is the coin on this list that most needs checking. Its $6.5 billion market cap coexists with daily volume of about $18 million — less than 0.3% of its market value. CoinGecko did not record Rain's market cap a year ago, and a token unlock in October 2026 brought the circulating share to about 62%. The price is 53% below its August high.

6. Quant (QNT)

Quant develops Overledger, software that connects blockchain networks to each other and to banking systems. QNT is used to pay for the platform's licenses and services.

Almost all of the gain came in the last month. On September 24, 2026, The Clearing House — the company owned by large US banks that operates US payment systems — chose Quant for the interoperability layer of its tokenized deposit network, planned for the first half of 2027. QNT rose 199% in 30 days. In CoinGecko's daily history, the token was worth about $61 on September 18, 2026 — 28% less than a year earlier —, reached $287 on October 1 and pulled back to $188 at the time of the query.

7. NEAR Protocol (NEAR)

NEAR Protocol is a network for applications and smart contracts, with a recent focus on artificial intelligence agents. After falling to about $0.96 in February 2026, the token recovered. The 124% one-year gain accelerated in October, with a 28% rise in 30 days, amid a proposal to reduce the issuance of new tokens and ecosystem news.

Even with this result, NEAR is 77% below its all-time high from January 2022. A large 12-month gain can be just a partial recovery from a bigger fall. The full story is in the article NEAR Protocol: past, present and future.

8. Hyperliquid (HYPE)

Hyperliquid is a decentralized derivatives exchange with its own blockchain. Almost all of the fees charged to users go to a fund that buys HYPE on the market; the total bought back passed $1 billion in 2026, according to DL News.

The all-time high was $97.98, on September 23, 2026. One important point: the $17.2 billion market cap is less than a quarter of the fully diluted value of about $74 billion. In other words, most of the tokens are not yet circulating. The platform also offers leverage, which exposes it to mass liquidation events.

9. WhiteBIT Coin (WBT)

WBT is the token of the WhiteBIT exchange, founded in Ukraine. It gives fee discounts and other benefits on the platform, and the company says it uses part of its trading revenue to burn tokens. It was only 10% below its high, set on September 21, 2026.

Like every exchange token, WBT depends directly on the health, rules and regulatory situation of a single company. Daily volume, around $60 million, is low for a $9.4 billion market cap, and the market cap equals about 40% of the fully diluted value.

10. Monero (XMR)

Monero is one of the oldest privacy cryptocurrencies, launched in 2014. Unlike Zcash, privacy is mandatory in every transaction. XMR set a new all-time high in January 2026, at $797.73, and was 26% below it at the time of the query.

Privacy coins carry a risk of their own: several exchanges have already delisted these assets at regulators' request, which can reduce liquidity overnight.

What the data shows

A down year for most. The window starts a few days after Bitcoin's record on October 6, 2025 — the start of the current bear market. That is why the ten gains are exceptions: 51 of the 68 crypto assets fell, and the median was −35.5%.

Recurring themes. Privacy (Zcash and Monero); tokens with buybacks or burns funded by revenue (Hyperliquid, JUST, WhiteBIT, Venice and Rain); artificial intelligence (AKEDO and Venice); and infrastructure for banks (Quant). These are patterns observed in this list, not a rule about what will rise.

Many recent peaks. Nine of the ten coins reached their highest close of the period between August 25 and October 12, 2026; only Monero peaked in January. Seven of them were already more than 10% below that peak at the time of the query. A difference of a few weeks in the cut-off date would change the percentages considerably.

The biggest gains are in the smaller coins. Three of the top four — AKEDO, Venice and JUST — are worth around $1 billion or less and rank between 71st and 95th. In that range, less money is needed to move the price — up and down.

What the data does not allow you to conclude

That these coins will keep rising. Past performance does not indicate future returns. Several of them have already fallen 20% to 80% from their recent highs.

That last year's top 100 would show the same result. The list starts from today's largest coins. Coins that rose a lot entered the top 100 precisely because they rose; those that fell a lot dropped out and do not appear. This is called survivorship bias. AKEDO, Venice and JUST, for example, were worth between $37 million and $310 million a year ago.

That anyone earned these percentages. The calculation compares two prices. Someone who bought along the way, near the September highs, may be at a loss.

That market value is invested money. Market cap is price times circulating supply. With low volume and much of the supply still locked, the figure can overstate what the market would actually support. See what market cap measures and what it leaves out.

That the numbers are exact. CoinGecko's 1-year field is calculated at the moment of the query. Using daily closes, the percentages change slightly (AKEDO, for example, comes to about +1,716%), without changing the order of the top ten.

Beginner checklist

• Look at the 30-day change and the distance from the high: an annual gain may have happened entirely in the last month or may already have given back a large part.
• Compare market cap with daily volume. Very low volume means it may be hard to sell without pushing the price down.
• Check how much of the supply is already circulating. Future unlocks put new tokens on the market.
• Ask what the asset depends on: an exchange, a company, a founder or a regulator.
• Be wary of "top gainers" lists without a date, source and method. Confirm the figures on the day you decide.
• Do not use your emergency fund and do not buy out of fear of missing out. Read about risk and discipline first.

Frequently asked questions

Which cryptocurrency rose the most in 1 year among the top 100?

AKEDO (AKE), up about 1,800% between October 18, 2025 and October 18, 2026, according to CoinGecko. It has also already fallen more than half from its September 2026 high.

Why are Bitcoin and Ethereum not on the list?

Because they fell over the period: −24% and −39%, respectively. The window starts near Bitcoin's October 2025 record.

Why were stablecoins and tokenized gold excluded?

Because they track the price of another asset — the dollar, gold or a fund — and are not comparable with freely priced cryptocurrencies. The tokenized BCAP share, for example, rose 302%, but it represents a stake in a venture capital fund.

How often does this list change?

Daily. Because the one-year window moves every day and several of these coins swing more than 10% in a week, the order can change within days. To follow the market, use the Cripto View dashboard.

Informational and educational content. It does not constitute investment advice, an offer or a solicitation to buy or sell any asset.

Sources: CoinGecko — market data (1-year change); CoinGecko — daily history; Grayscale — Zcash ETF begins trading (Aug 25, 2026); FinTech Futures — The Clearing House selects Quant (Sep 2026); DL News — Hyperliquid buybacks; TechFlow — fifth JST buyback and burn (Oct 2026); Crypto Briefing — VVV record high (Sep 2026); CryptoTicker — Rain unlock (Oct 2026). Retrieved Oct 18, 2026.