Last month, Donald Trump was re - elected to the White House and promised to introduce more crypto - friendly regulatory policies. This opened the floodgates for the market, causing cryptocurrency prices to soar.

 

Bitcoin (BTC) was the first to be affected, surging to a new high last month. However, after hitting a roadblock near the $100,000 mark, investors' interest started to shift towards a group of alternative coins that took turns to perform.

Dogecoin (DOGE) skyrocketed due to its connection with Elon Musk and the plan to co - lead an institution named the "Department of Government Efficiency" (yes, the acronym is DOGE). The original meme coin soared to its highest price in three years in late November and remains close to that level, also driving up the prices of several other well - known meme coins.

 

According to CoinGecko data, Solana (SOL) reached an all - time high of $263 in November and then pulled back to $235.

 

Ethereum (ETH), although its increase this year has been significantly lagging behind that of Bitcoin, finally broke through last weekend, climbing to an eight - month high and surpassing $3,730.

 

However, the most significant recent gains have come from some unexpected tokens. These tokens had had little room for growth for years, and many of them are well - known veteran coins in the industry.

 

XRP has been the most outstanding performer. This asset, which is widely used in the Ripple payment ecosystem, has skyrocketed in the past few weeks, with a gain of over 400% in 30 days.

 

This surge is mainly due to market optimism about regulatory clarity and the anticipation of the possible launch of spot - trading - platform exchange - traded funds (ETFs) and other financial products.

 

This frenzy was further fueled by the news that Gary Gensler, the chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, announced his departure in January next year. During his tenure, the SEC's multi - year lawsuit against Ripple Labs has been closely watched. Affected by this news, XRP soared to a seven - year high, breaking through $2.82 on Monday.

 

Tron (TRX) has also seen an unexpected rise, reaching an all - time high on Tuesday. Similar to XRP, Tron broke a seven - year record dating back to January 2018, surging 69% on the day with the price approaching $0.37.

 

However, in this end - of - year rally, it's not just these more established cryptocurrencies that have attracted trading enthusiasm.

 

Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR) became the biggest winner among the top - 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization this week, surging 137% in seven days. IOTA's performance was equally impressive, with a 130% increase, while Algorand (ALGO) rose by 84% during the same period.

 

Other major cryptocurrencies that have increased this week include Litecoin, Tezos, Chainlink, and EOS, while Cardano has soared by 200% in the past month.

 

Even metaverse game tokens such as The Sandbox (SAND) and Decentraland (MANA) have seen significant surges.

 

Yes, it's the metaverse. It's as if we're back in 2021, or depending on which tokens you're looking at, perhaps even a repeat of 2018.

 

Bitcoin is still hovering on the way to chase the $100,000 mark. After several unsuccessful attempts, Bitcoin reached a peak of $99,645 on November 22 and is currently priced at around $96,000.