PIPPIN, a newcomer to the top 100, tops the annual ranking.
AB and ZEC occupy second and third place on the podium, respectively.
2025 was a mostly adverse year for the cryptocurrency market. However, within the top 100 by capitalization, some projects managed to show strength and distanced themselves from a trend that, in general terms, was negative.
In this context, PIPPIN, a memecoin that operates on the Solana network, led the annual ranking of highest increases. One step below were the AB token and zcash (ZEC), which completed the podium of the best performing assets.
The following graph, provided by the Crypto Bubbles portal, shows the annual performance of the top 100 cryptocurrencies and tokens by market capitalization.
Now, what was behind these increases that allowed them to stand out in a largely adverse market and capture the attention of investors?
As we mentioned, PIPPIN appears first, an asset that has just entered the top 100 by market capitalization after registering an annual increase of 6,143%.
The token emerged as a creative experiment by venture capital investor Yohei Nakajima. For this creation, he used ChatGPT-4 in order to develop a unicorn named Pippin, along with his personality and backstory, as reported by CriptoNoticias.
The community launched the memecoin on Pump.fun and the public endorsement of its creator gave it legitimacy within the Solana ecosystem, driving its rapid popularity.
However, Bubblemaps researchers warned that the asset presents a high level of risk. The main argument that fuels this suspicion is that a small group of insiders controls about 80% of the supply. In addition, coordinated wallets with suspicious financing patterns and massive withdrawals from exchanges were detected.
This activity reinforces suspicions of possible price manipulation.
What about AB?
In second place stands out AB, the native token of a protocol focused on decentralized governance, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT).
During the last year, the price of the asset went from 0.0001234 to 0.004584 dollarswhich represents an annual increase of 3,615%.
In this case, The main novelty behind its rise was the integration into AB Chain of USD1the stablecoin of World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform linked to Donald Trump’s family.
This move reinforced the project’s visibility and reignited market interest by associating AB with a high-profile DeFi initiative, which acted as a catalyst for its strong price performance.
Great year of zcash
The podium is completed by zcash, a cryptocurrency with privacy foundations, which registered an annual increase of 738%.
In the case of ZEC, the rise was driven by a combination of corporate moves and developments within the ecosystem.
On the one hand, Cypherpunk Technologies began a strategic shift by beginning to purchase ZEC as a treasury asset. As reported by CriptoNoticias, the initial investment was 50 million dollars and, as announced, the objective is to accumulate up to 5% of the total supply.
Added to this were advances within the ecosystem, such as the launch of Zashi CrossPay. It is a tool focused on privacy, which generated renewed interest from miners due to improved profitability.
In parallel, Grayscale, one of the most important digital asset managers on the market, expanded institutional exposure to the asset with the launch of an investment fund focused on ZECreinforcing their adoption narrative.