The 10 Hottest Crypto Gainers for Week 29
Whether it’s community hype, scalability narratives, or simply traders chasing short-term trends, altcoins, once again, stole the show.
The crypto market has been active this week, but not in the way you might expect. Normally, one would expect that with Bitcoin breaking a new all-time high, the alternative coins (altcoins) would also pump, as we have seen in the past.
However, while Bitcoin and Ethereum stayed relatively stable, several mid-cap altcoins quietly posted major gains, according to fresh data from CoinGecko. In case you’re new to the space, the “Top 100” cryptos we’re looking at here are no small projects. These are tokens with market caps ranging from $500 million to over $2 trillion, meaning any major price swings are significant moves. Here’s a closer look at the biggest winners this week.
David Adubiina
Top 10 Crypto Gainers This Week
1. Curve DAO (CRV)
Best known as a decentralized exchange focused on stablecoin trading, Curve DAO has dominated the crypto market this week with a 65.7% price surge over the past seven days. Currently, CRV is priced around $1.06, pushing its total market capitalization to roughly $919.7 million, just under the $1 billion mark. This strong performance positions Curve among the leading mid-cap DeFi projects, gaining traction right now.
2. Stellar (XLM)
As a direct competitor to XRP in the cross-border payments space, Stellar is known for offering fast, low-cost international transfers. This week, its native token, XLM, climbed by 64.1%, making it one of the strongest performers among larger-cap cryptocurrencies.
XLM currently trades at about $0.50 per token, which is still much lower than XRP, despite Stellar’s sizable $2.19 billion market capitalization. The rally is notable, showing that even established, multibillion-dollar projects can still surprise the market with breakout gains.
3. Bonk (BONK)
Memecoins refuse to fade as retail money pumps. Bonk, built on Solana’s ecosystem, surged 53% this week, pushing its market cap past $2 billion. Each BONK token trades for a fraction of a cent ($0.00003664), but don’t let that fool you. With branding that echoes Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, Bonk’s meme-fueled momentum is very real right now.
4. Pudgy Penguins (PENGU)
What started as a cute NFT collection now boasts a billion-dollar token. Pudgy Penguins’ PENGU soared 45.5% this week, crossing $1.03 billion in market cap. With each token priced at just over $0.03, PENGU’s success highlights how strong community backing can push even quirky projects into serious valuation territory.
5. Hedera (HBAR)
Hedera is an enterprise-focused blockchain solution with high transaction speeds and low costs. HBAR Hedera's native token gained 44.2% over the past week, making it one of the strongest performers among blockchain infrastructure projects. Currently, one HBAR token trades at $0.2854 with a market Cap of $1.59 billion, placing it comfortably in the mid-cap range.
6. Algorand (ALGO)
With a market valuation under $600 million($564.3 million), Algorand’s performance this week stands out in the lower end of the top 100 cryptos as a blockchain platform designed for fast transactions and scalability. Over the past 7 days, ALGO rose by 43.8%. Currently trading at $0.3211 per ALGO.
7. XRP (XRP)
XRP is the largest project on this list by far. Known for its focus on cross-border payments and backed by Ripple Labs, XRP registered a 40.9% gain this week, a massive move for a project of its size. Currently trading at $3.63 (at the time of writing this article), XRP’s surge underlines that big players can still surprise the market when sentiment shifts. Its near-$20 billion market cap makes its 40% weekly growth particularly notable.
8. Story (IP)
Story is a relatively small Layer 1 (L1) blockchain currently trading at $4.64 per IP designed to serve as the foundation for intellectual property (IP) on the internet, enabling creators to register, license, and monetize their IP assets seamlessly. It climbed 32.8% this week, catching attention in the lower-cap segment of the market.
Compared to the others, Story is still a micro-cap token with a market cap of $51.5 million, but its performance shows small caps can still deliver sharp gains.
9. Mantle (MNT)
Mantle is a Layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum, aiming to help the network handle more transactions at lower fees. MNT grew by 31.1% over the past 7 days.
Sitting under $400 million in market cap, Mantle’s rise places it among smaller blockchain infrastructure players, gaining traction with its current price sitting at $0.8398 per MNT
10. Floki (FLOKI)
FLOKI's 31.5% rise this week reflects ongoing demand in the meme sector, with retail money pumping the fun. Presently, FLOKI trades at $0.0001359 per token, which is approaching a $1 billion market valuation ($946.5 million). That in itself shows that memecoins continue to command serious attention from traders.
David Adubiina
Conclusion
This week’s top gainers are a reminder that while institutions are piling into Bitcoin, retail traders haven’t lost their appetite for altcoins. From memecoins like Bonk and Floki to older players like Stellar and XRP, the action is shifting toward tokens that offer either hype or the hope of a comeback. It’s a classic script of Wall Street eyes Bitcoin, while retail keeps hunting for the next breakout among altcoins.
