Toncoin and WIF beat Dogecoin and Shiba Inu to win the title of best performing altcoins

Toncoin (TON) and Dogwifhat (WIF) are in the spotlight as they emerge as the best performing altcoins since the start of the year, ahead of other altcoins like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB).

Toncoin and WIF are leaders

Data from CoinMarketCap shows that Toncoin and WIF are the best-performing altcoins among the top 50 cryptocurrencies by market cap, recording year-to-date (YTD) gains of 207% and 1,668%, respectively. Although behind TON and WIF, other altcoins such as DOGE and SHIB have also made significant progress, posting year-to-date gains of 84% and 128%, respectively.

The market dominance of Toncoin and WIF is due to several factors. Toincoin has received significant support from Telegram. The messaging platform recently integrated TON payments, making the crypto token accessible to a user base of over 900 million people. Telegram also previously announced an ad revenue sharing program in which payments would be made exclusively in Toncoin.

TON’s bullish momentum is also partly due to increased activity on the TON network. This is thanks to notable projects like the Telegram-based game Notcoin, which also plans to launch its token on the network on April 20. TON’s price increase since the start of the year has allowed it to recently enter the top 10 crypto tokens by market capitalization.

Meanwhile, WIF’s parabolic rise is largely due to its “burgeoning community,” which includes famous crypto influencer Ansem. The meme coin has also benefited from the hype surrounding Solana, given that it is currently the largest meme coin on the network. Therefore, each bullish development in the Solana ecosystem has had a positive impact on the price of WIF.

The WIF has come a long way. Thanks to its parabolic price increase, it entered the top 50 cryptos by market capitalization this year. The meme coin also replaced the Solana BONK meme coin to become the third largest meme coin in terms of market capitalization, behind only DOGE and SHIB.

Meme and artificial intelligence pieces leave their mark

Meme and artificial intelligence (AI) coins were expected to be among the key narratives of this bull season, and they undoubtedly lived up to the hype.

This is evident from how meme and AI coins outperformed flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin in the top 50 cryptocurrencies. For comparison, WIF and Fetch.ai (FET) are the top-performing meme and AI coins, respectively, and have both outperformed Bitcoin, which is up 56% year-to-date.

DOGE, SHIB and PEPE, the only other meme coins in the top 50, also outperformed Bitcoin. Meanwhile, AI coins like Render (RNDR) and Bittensor (TAO) are posting higher year-to-date gains than Bitcoin, with gains of 97% and 110%, respectively.