A review of crypto projects that broke into the top CMCs

1. Pi (PI)

The Pi cryptocurrency has had an unusually strong performance, ranking in the top 20 cryptocurrencies in the overall CoinMarketCap (CMC) rankings immediately after listing on exchanges at the end of February 2025. This is despite not yet being listed on leading crypto exchanges such as Binance, Kraken, or Coinbase, although the Pi cryptocurrency is already trading on OKX and Bitget.

Pi, formerly known as Pi Network, is positioned as the first blockchain platform with cryptocurrency that can be mined on a smartphone. The platform was developed by PhDs from Stanford University and is designed to release decentralized applications. Pi was the first significant blockchain to link smartphones rather than computer nodes into a single network.

Pi users can form coalitions, called "circles of trust", and jointly mine cryptocurrency: the larger the coalition, the faster the asset is mined.

As a certain amount of PI cryptocurrency is generated, the mining speed decreases — similar to Bitcoin. Although the Pi blockchain is similar to Bitcoin's Proof-of-Work (PoW), its network has its consensus mechanism, the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP).

At the very start of trading, the capitalization of the PI cryptocurrency exceeded $9 billion. As of March 2025, with a market capitalization of $8.03 billion, the exchange rate of the PI cryptocurrency is $1.17. In the ranking of cryptocurrencies, the asset occupies the 16th position, surpassing Avalanche (AVAX), Polkadot (DOT), and Litecoin (LTC).

However, it is worth considering that less than 7% of the total PI cryptocurrency stock of 100 billion is circulating in the market so far. This means that as new tokens are released into the market, the price of the PI cryptocurrency will come under intense pressure.

2. Hyperliquid (HYPE)

The Hyperliquid cryptocurrency was released in November 2024, and almost from the get-go, it has firmly established itself in the top 30 digital assets by market capitalization, which is $4.97 as of March 2025. With this metric, Hyperliquid surpassed well-known crypto projects such as Uniswap (UNI) and Monero (XMR).

The developers of Hyperliquid have unveiled a next-generation blockchain platform focused on providing high-performance decentralized applications (DApps) in the DeFi market, especially DEX exchanges, for trading open-ended cryptocurrency futures. According to the developers, Hyperliquid's blockchain platform is capable of processing up to 200,000 transactions per second, making it one of the highest-performing networks in the crypto industry.

The curious fact is that the creators of Hyperliquid were able to develop the platform with their funds — with virtually no outside capital.

The secret of Hyperliquid's success is that, unlike other DeFi protocols, this platform is both a decentralized exchange and a blockchain network. Existing DEX exchanges, such as Uniswap on Ethereum and Raydium on Solana, do not have their blockchains and rely only on existing networks, which reduces their performance.

As of March 2025, HYPE is worth $14.9, and the asset ranks 27th on CMC's list of cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

3. Official Trump (TRUMP)

In January 2025, the newly elected President of the United States released an official meme token, thus confirming his loyalty to cryptocurrencies. Immediately after its launch, the TRUMP meme token attracted a lot of attention, and its rate began to grow rapidly: in less than two days, the value of Official Trump rose from $0.18 to a historic high of $75, i.e., more than 400 times.

Thanks to this incredible growth, the TRUMP meme token immediately became the top of CoinMarketCap. Despite its success, the meme token has no practical application yet and does not benefit the crypto ecosystem. However, some experts assume that decentralized applications will be created based on the TRUMP meme token in the future to attract more users.

As of March 2025, the TRUMP exchange rate is $11.41, and by market capitalization, which exceeded $2.2 billion, the meme token occupies the 43rd position in the overall cryptocurrency ranking.

Interestingly, back in 2016, a meme token with a similar name — Trump Coin — was released. However, this asset has nothing to do with the current US President, and later, Trump Coin was renamed to FREEdom Coin (FREE). However, in 2025, this cryptocurrency was almost forgotten by many, and its market capitalization was less than $1 million.

4. Sonic (S)

Sonic is the new native cryptocurrency of the platform of the same name, into which the Fantom blockchain protocol was renamed after rebranding. The Fantom cryptocurrency (FTM) still exists, with a market capitalization of $2.2 billion, and its holders can convert their coins into Sonic.

The Sonic platform is a Tier 1 blockchain built on top of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and provides throughput of up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS).

As of March 2025, Sonic cryptocurrency is ranked 54th on CoinMarketCap's list of cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, which is $1.54 billion. However, the S cryptocurrency is behind FTM in terms of this metric. However, after the final migration, FTM will cease to exist.

With a total issuance of 3.17 billion S, the Sonic cryptocurrency's value is $0.53. However, the S cryptocurrency does not have a maximum issuance, which means that new coins will be issued in the future, creating additional pressure on the price.

5. Story (IP)

Story is a new decentralized protocol designed to protect intellectual property using blockchain technology. Hence, the cryptocurrency's name is IP (Intellectual Property).

The Story protocol's popularity is due to its innovative approach to intellectual property management, which focuses on fair revenue distribution for IP owners and license automation.

As of March 2025, the Story token ranks 57th in the CMC rankings, just behind the cryptocurrency Sonic in market capitalization.

IP has been one of the few cryptocurrencies that have continued to grow after launch despite the general correction in the crypto market. Since its listing on exchanges, the IP cryptocurrency has gained more than 450% to $5.54, and its capitalization has risen to $1.38 billion, more than the well-known blockchain projects Ethena (ENA) and Movement (Move).