Best performing cryptocurrencies in February 2022

The crypto market experienced substantial volatility in February. However, the two leading crypto assets, Bitcoin and Ethereum, gained 1.43% and 4.8%, respectively. Moreover, a handful of cryptocurrencies managed to record substantial gains despite the challenging geopolitical environment that global markets are currently faced with. Read on to learn more about these cryptos.

Best performing cryptocurrencies in February

• Anchor Protocol (ANC)
• UNUS SED LEO (LEO)
• Terra (LUNA)
• Celsius (CEL)
• Gala (GALA)
• Gnosis (GNO)
• Ripple (XRP)
• KuCoin Token (KCS)
• Waves (WAVES)
• Zcash (ZEC)

Below, you will find a list of the top ten performing digital assets in February with a market capitalisation of over $1 billion.

Anchor Protocol (ANC)

Anchor Protocol (ANC) is a lending and borrowing protocol on the Terra blockchain. It currently offers one of the best yields on USD stablecoins, with almost 20%.  It has experienced a rapid rise in price in the last month, allowing it to enter the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation. The token spiked in value to $3.54 on February 25, an increase of $1.5 or 73.53% from February 18. It currently trades at $3.67 at the time of writing.

• Market capitalisation: $947,307,784
• MoM %: 181.55%
• YoY %: 8.24%

UNUS SED LEO (LEO)

UNUS SED LEO is a cryptocurrency created by iFinex, the owners of Bitfinex. It is a utility token that allows Bitfinex users to save on trading fees. The token rallied in February as it was reported that U.S. authorities helped recover and capture the bad actors that took over 100,000 BTC from the platform back in 2016. The LEO token was also created as part of the compensation for the victims of the attack.

There are lots of speculation whether U.S. authorities will return the stolen funds to Bitfinex. It could be a huge boon for the token if it happens to be true as it can be used to continue its massive monthly token buyback and burn to reduce the supply of LEO in the market.

• Market capitalisation: $5,682,568,356
• MoM %: 73.22%
• YoY %: 211%

Terra (LUNA)

LUNA has outperformed almost every top-ranking cryptocurrency in the past month. The token hovered around the $50 level most of February but exploded to nearly $75 in the last week of the month. One of the major reasons for the price gain is the announcement that Terra's stable coin, UST will be backed by a $1 billion Bitcoin reserve.

The announcement is a major one for the Terra ecosystem as many crypto enthusiasts see it as a key step toward reducing the volatility of the stablecoin, prompting a bullish view of the token.

• Market capitalisation: $27,136,590,542
• MoM %: 46.56%
• YoY %: 1,247%

Celsius (CEL)

CeFi platform Celsius performed relatively well in February and entered the top 100 cryptocurrencies. During the month, Celsius announced it will roll out a cryptocurrency lending service on DeFi platform Maple Finance. It will enable it to provide greater access to finance for institutional investors seeking to take advantage of the emerging opportunities within the DeFi space. The token price revolved around $2.5 and $3.6, suffering the same volatility witnessed across the crypto market.

• Market capitalisation: $691,755,228
• MoM %: 24.87%
• YoY %: -37.9%

Gala (GALA)

In the middle of the month of February, Gala's price jumped 19% in 24 hours on Feb 15th. Gala games enable players in blockchain-based games to control their games using a play-to-earn model. Gala announced its Galaverse festival launch, a three-day live event starting from June 7 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The project also revealed its plans to deploy $5 billion to bolster its NFT and metaverse offerings. The token is currently trading at $0.227.

• Market capitalisation: $1,621,636,298
• MoM %: 23.84%
• YoY %: 693%

Gnosis (GNO)

Since dropping to a low of $219 on January 24, the price of GNO gained momentum to increase by 57% to reach a daily high of $351 on February 14. The major reasons for this price performance are the protocol's rebrand to Coincidence of Want (CoW) protocol, the launch of a governance proposal that would burn a large portion of the circulating GNO supply, and other major integrations that is said to help increase the liquidity in the Gnosis ecosystem. The token currently trades at $319.

• Market capitalisation: $596,961,924
• MoM %: 18.45%
• YoY %: 165%

Ripple (XRP)

XRP has risen by nearly 19% in February amid rising investor optimism on the latest updates in the SEC lawsuit. XRP saw its largest gains in the last few days at the end of the month as it rose nearly 15% since February 15. The token reached an intraday high of $0.9 in the first week of the month before losing value following the general selloff in the market. XRP currently trades at $0.72 and ranks as the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, overtaking Cardano and Solana.

• Market capitalisation: $34,439,392,150
• MoM %: 18.40%
• YoY %: 69%

KuCoin Token (KCS)

KuCoin Token is an Ethereum token issued by the KuCoin cryptocurrency exchange. Users who hold the token and keep it on the exchange receive a percentage of the trading revenue that the exchange receives. The price of KuCoin Token has fallen by 2.48% in the past 7 days. The price is currently trading at $19.02.

• Market capitalisation: $1,518,302,891
• MoM %: 14.07%
• YoY %: 359%

Waves (WAVES)

WAVES is the token of the Waves platform, which supports decentralised applications (DApps) that require high security. Some of the use cases of the platform include personal identification, storage of sensitive data, gaming, and handling information related to finance. Since the beginning of the month, the momentum for the token has been bullish. Its price has recorded a series of higher highs and higher lows and currently trading at $11.48. It started the month at a price of $9.17 and reached a high of $12.82 in intraday trading on February 27th.

• Market capitalisation: $1,195,021,844
• MoM %: 12.63%
• YoY %: 25.9%

Zcash (ZEC)

The Zcash network offers more privacy for transactions on the blockchain than Bitcoin does. Zcash enables users to be able to shield information about the sender, receiver, and balance of a transaction. The digital currency has done relatively well, opening the month at a price of $94.67 and reaching a high of $135 in the first week before retracing to $102.65 by the end of the month. The market capitalisation has also grown by more than 10% in the month.

• Market capitalisation: $1,417,509,953
• MoM %: 12.60%
• YoY %: -6.54%

It will be interesting to see how the crypto market performs in March as global security, economic growth and sentiments remain bearish. You can catch the March review of the crypto market here.