Cryptocurrencies surpass equity markets in 2020: Here's a list of the best-ones

2020 has been a devastating one for obvious reasons. Equity markets were thrashed badly at the year-beginning but later recouped as the economy steadily began to open. However, crypto industry is one sector that saw the best profits this year since 2017.

After the crisis looming over the global economy and equity markets like a dark cloud, investors with cryptocurrencies rather enjoyed a wave of gains in 2020. Unlike stocks, bonds and other traditional assets, the digital currencies recovered quickly after hitting the bottom.

PayPal's big move of supporting the largest cryptocurrencies received a plethora of cheerful feedback from the investors in US. Furthermore, Joe Biden's victory at the US presidential elections 2020 remained another trigger behind the gains that digital coins made this year.

Here's a list of the best cryptocurrencies this year:

: The most popular name at the Street, bitcoin this year has seen a 160 percent price growth on a year-to-date (YTD) basis, moving from $7,000 levels to $19,800 in November.

Many analysts even believe that the BTC prices could move up to $1,00,000 and $2,88,000 by end-2021. Like, Citi technical analyst Tom Fitzpatrick said in a note earlier that bitcoin could climb as high as $318,000 by the end of next year, citing its limited supply, ease of movement across borders, and opaque ownership.

Ethereum: This digital currency saw a steady performance this year, by touching a new two-year high of $600 on November 24. It is the second-best crypto in the industry.

The coin did not even reach half of its former all-time high. However, that does not mean that the coin does not have potential. Ethereum has held the industry's largest collection of DApps and smart contracts, both of which were invented on Ethereum before spreading out to other blockchains. It is also home to DeFi, which only started receiving the attention it deserves in 2020.

Litecoin: In 2020, Litecoin is considered as one of the best cryptocurrency, despite the strong competition in the industry. The digital currency, like BTC, has limited supply of 84 million coins (in comparison to Bitcoin’s 21 million) and a block reward of 25 LTC. This is a high block reward compared to other cryptos.

Many experts think that whatever happens in the future, Litecoin will surely remain one of the altcoins that keeps standing strong.

Ripple (XRP): A cryptocurrency created by the Californian crypto start-up, Ripple, surged by 83 percent in the last week. Ripple is oriented more towards large institutions, rather than to individual users. It has partnered with large banks around the world and even more financial institutions are looking to adopt the Ripple protocol.

The reason experts think Ripple might explode this year and in the years to come is the fact that due to its institutional support and being safe from SEC regulation, XRP will surely remain a powerhouse among the cryptocurrency community and indeed one of the best cryptocurrencies.

Stellar (XLM): Stellar Lumen has been one of the best performers in the crypto industry over the past week. The coin's price skyrocketed by 102.5 percent in the past seven days.

Currently, the coin is also going through a price correction, although this could easily be nullified in the next bullish wave. Stellar is also the only coin on this list that is currently not among the top-10 cryptocurrencies by market cap. While it also has a multi-billion market cap ($3.45 billon).