Top Crypto Gainers of the Week: Which Coins are Leading the Surge?

Each week, we take a closer look at the top-performing cryptocurrencies that have made significant gains, highlighting the tokens leading the charge in the ever-changing digital asset market. This week: DOGE, DYDX and Litecoin lead the pack.

Mega Cap (Market Cap >US$10 Billion)

Dogecoin (DOGE) – $0.14, Up ~29.2% in the last 7 days

Dogecoin (DOGE) is crypto’s most recognizable and popular memecoin, which derives its name from 2013’s Shiba Inu meme. It was originally conceived by developer Jackson Palmer as satire, mocking the sudden emergence of often low-quality blockchain projects littering the ecosystem five years ago. It is often said to be the original memecoin. 

Dogecoin is up almost 30% in the last week. Source: Brave New Coin Market Cap Table

Memecoin projects take their inspiration from memes – the cultural ‘inside’ jokes that are instantly recognizable to their targeted communities. These meme coins base their marketing and communications around memes to take advantage of their immediate relatability – with meme culture ensuring there is a ready-made marketing strategy and audience to connect with. 

DOGE also got a shout-out from Elon Musk at his Pennsylvania Town Hall. Musk said he plans to launch a Department of Government Efficiency — codenamed D.O.G.E. 

Large Cap (Market Cap between US$1.5 billion – US$10 billion)

Litecoin (LTC) – US$74.47, Up ~15.6% in the last 7 days

Litecoin is a fork of the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain created by former Coinbase CTO Charlie Lee.  Litecoin was created to have shorter block times, an increased supply, and a different hashing algorithm. Litecoin has been described as the silver to Bitcoin’s gold.

Litecoin is up 15.6% in the last seven days. Source: Brave New Coin Market Cap Table

Brave New Coin covered the Litecoin rally in a recent article published on October 20th. The article explains — “Analysts attribute Litecoin’s increased on-chain activity, including the record $4 billion intraday volume, to its growing adoption by payment gateways. As businesses and individuals increasingly recognize the benefits of cryptocurrencies for fast and secure transactions, more global payment systems have integrated Litecoin, enhancing its accessibility and usability.”

Medium Cap (Market Cap between US500 million – US$1.5 billion)

dYdX (DYDX)- US$1.28, up ~37.0% in the last 7 days

dYdX is an Ethereum-based decentralized exchange that offers spot, perpetual, and futures trading. It was founded by ex-Coinbase employee Antonio Juliano. dYdX offers margin trading on its derivative products, a feature many decentralized exchanges do not include. It is noted for its quick settlement and low transaction costs, powered by a zero-knowledge proof-based layer-2 settlement model.

Dydx is up 37% in a week. Source: Brave New Coin Market Cap Table

dYdX has enjoyed alpha price momentum in the last week thanks to hype surrounding an upcoming conference the project is set to have in Dubai. It is also speculated that a recent rise in trading volume is being driven by the launch of a US presidential election (Trump-win is the bet) perpetual swap market on the platform.