The past five years have seen violent fluctuations in the cryptocurrency market, between historic bull waves and sharp crashes. However, some cryptocurrencies managed to achieve amazing growth and prove their place among the best-performing assets globally. In this article, we review the top 5 cryptocurrencies in terms of performance and sustainability between 2020 and 2025.
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1️⃣ Bitcoin (Bitcoin – BTC)
🔹 Approximate return over 5 years: +400%
Despite being the oldest and most famous, Bitcoin remains the undisputed king, as:
It peaked above $69,000 in 2021.
Faced corrections but always returns to rise.
Attracted interest from institutions, banks, and hedge funds.
> 📌 Bitcoin has become the standard for digital investment, even being referred to as 'digital gold'.
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2️⃣ Ethereum (Ethereum – ETH)
🔹 Approximate return over 5 years: +900%
Ethereum outperformed itself after:
The 'The Merge' update and the transition to Proof of Stake (PoS).
Being the backbone of the DeFi and NFTs world and smart contracts.
> 📌 Ethereum is not just a currency, but an infrastructure for an entire decentralized finance world.
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3️⃣ Binance Coin (BNB)
🔹 Approximate return over 5 years: +1500%
The leading currency of the Binance platform used in:
Reduction in trading fees.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) projects.
The BNB Smart Chain network that competes with Ethereum.
> 📌 The success of BNB is closely tied to the success of the Binance platform, the largest exchange in the world.
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4️⃣ Solana (Solana – SOL)
🔹 Approximate return over 5 years: +3000%
Despite facing outages and network disruptions, Solana has emerged strongly due to:
High transaction speed.
Very low fees.
Wide adoption by game developers and NFTs.
> 📌 SOL is a direct competitor to Ethereum in terms of efficiency and speed.
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5️⃣ MATIC (Polygon – MATIC)
🔹 Approximate return over 5 years: +4000%
A supporting project for Ethereum, offering Layer 2 solutions to reduce fees and improve transaction speed, and has been adopted by major companies such as:
Meta
Disney
Nike
> 📌 Polygon has become a bridge between Ethereum and the real world.
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🔮 What sets these currencies apart from others?
Currency Technology Use Cases Community Support
BTC Proof of Work Store of Value High
ETH Smart Contracts DeFi/NFTs Very High
BNB Trading Fees Integrated Platform Medium to High
SOL Super-fast Transactions Games/Apps Growing
MATIC Ethereum Improvement Smart Bridges High