Altcoins that rose even as the crypto market plummeted

However, several major altcoins were still able to show impressive growth even amidst the crypto market's decline.

AB (AB)

Originally known as the Newton Project, it was launched in 2018 and was a blockchain infrastructure with smart contracts for running decentralized applications (DApps).

One of the key protocols of the Newton Project ecosystem was a heterogeneous network of the then-new generation of NewChain, which also includes the Cosmos and Polkadot blockchains. Heterogeneous blockchains presented a new approach to scaling decentralized networks by combining them into one ecosystem. Heterogeneous blockchains enable the creation of compatible (interoperable) networks that can communicate with each other in the same environment.

In early 2025, the Newton Project team rebranded and renamed the project AB. The purpose of the rebranding was to embrace a new trend known as real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. In 2024-2025, the RWA market has become one of the fastest-growing markets, with its volume reaching $34.7 billion as of April 2025. The AB Project developers are developing an ecosystem of decentralized applications that combines digital and real-world economies.

Since the beginning of 2025, the value of Project AB's native token has increased by more than 7000% from $0.00016 to $0.011. Regarding market capitalization, which is $633 million as of April 2025, the AB token has hit 82nd on CoinMarketCap's ranking.

The price of the AB token started to grow strongly after rebranding and entering the promising RWA sector. In addition, the probable reasons for the growth of the AB token include:

The introduction of a deflationary mechanism whereby a portion of tokens are withdrawn from circulation with each transaction made;
Adding cross-chain compatibility, allowing the AB token to be used in different blockchain ecosystems;

Onyxcoin (XCN)

Although Onyxcoin is not as well-known an asset as TRUMP and FORM listed in this article, this altcoin is still among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization and has grown stronger than other digital assets, except for AB.

The Onyxcoin protocol, formerly known as Chain, is a cloud-based blockchain platform that provides developers with tools to create decentralized financial services. Onyxcoin's smart contracts have been designed to be scalable and easy to use. The project was founded in 2014, but its token was not launched until March 2022.

XCN is the native management token of the Onyxcoin platform. It is used to vote for proposals to improve the ecosystem and in decentralized applications (lending, liquidity pools, and so on). The XCN token also has a special function: the asset is used to launch its node in the Onyxcoin network.

Since the beginning of 2025, the XCN token rate has grown by 667%. As of April of the same year, it is $0.017 with a market capitalization of $590 million — by this indicator, the altcoin is in 89th place in the overall ranking of cryptocurrencies.

Onchain analysts also noted an explosive growth in activity: for example, at the end of January 2025, the number of active addresses in the Onyxcoin network increased by 600% in just one week. Possible reasons for this explosive growth in the value of the XCN token include:

The listing of the asset on major crypto exchanges such as Coinbase and Kraken;
The launch of a Layer-3 or L3 solution called Goliath, which provides Visa-level transaction throughput;
Support among prominent cryptocurrency investors and influencers.

Official Trump (TRUMP)

After assuming the office of US President in November 2024, Donald Trump began developing cryptocurrency initiatives. In January 2025, the current US President released his own meme token, TRUMP, which attracted a lot of attention.

Even though the TRUMP meme token has no practical application, its value has grown hundreds of times in a matter of days if we count from the moment of its liquidity launch on decentralized exchanges (DEXes).

Since listing on CoinMarketCap in January 2025, the TRUMP token's value has increased by more than 530% from $1.21 to $7.63, and its market capitalization has reached $1.52. By this metric, TRUMP was among the top 50 cryptocurrencies and the top four memcoins, behind only Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Pepe (PEPE).

This rapid growth was caused by political excitement over Trump's return to the White House, the support of major influencers and celebrities, and the fear of missing out on profits (FOMO). The limited maximum supply probably also played its role: the supply of TRUMP tokens is only 1 billion.

Four (FORM)

Four is the largest GameFi project in the cryptocurrency market as of April 2025, surpassing even ImmutableX (IMX) and The Sandbox in market capitalization.

Project Four was initially known as BinaryX and was only a platform for launching game tokens and conducting IGO (Initial Game Offering) tokenizations.

However, in 2024, the BinaryX team launched a meme tokenization platform in the BNB Smart Chain ecosystem called Four.meme with a built-in marketplace, which quickly became popular. Following this, the BinaryX project was renamed Four and eventually became a platform for token launches and decentralized games.

As of April 2025, the FORM token, with a market capitalization of $792 million, is worth $2.07 — up 418% since the beginning of the year. The FORM token is in 74th place in the CMC ranking.

Gate Token (GT)

Gate Token (GT) is one of two exchange tokens that have grown since the beginning of 2025. It was issued by the well-known crypto exchange Gate.io and is a native cryptocurrency of GateChain's own network. GT is used to pay transaction fees and in applications.

The Gate.io exchange has seen an influx of users since January 2025, with the number of GT token holders also increasing in the first quarter. In addition, the Gate Token has an inherent deflationary mechanism that makes the total GT stock shrink over time. All of this can be attributed to the reasons that have influenced the growth of the GT token since the beginning of the year.

As of April 2025, the value of the GT token has reached $23 with a market capitalization of $2.8 billion — the asset ranks 32nd in the cryptocurrency rankings. Since the beginning of the year, the GT exchange rate has grown by 38%.