Introduction
The year 2024 is destined to be a historic year for the cryptocurrency industry. In this year, Bitcoin reached a groundbreaking price of $100,000, marking the official entry of crypto assets into the realm of mainstream financial assets; the combination of AI and blockchain technology sparked a new narrative wave, injecting unprecedented innovative vitality into the industry; the rapid development of stablecoins and real-world assets (RWA) further solidified the important position of blockchain technology in the traditional financial sector.
As a symbol of the rapid development of the crypto industry, the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs and the election of Trump not only propelled a strong increase in Bitcoin prices but also opened a new era of deep participation by institutional investors in the crypto market. Meanwhile, continuous breakthroughs in decentralized technology have made the Solana and Base ecosystems the new focus of on-chain infrastructure, profoundly impacting trading efficiency and ecological diversity. The revival of the NFT market and the explosion of AI Agents highlight the infinite potential of the crypto industry in narrative shaping and technological implementation. Accompanied by dramatic changes in macroeconomic variables and the ongoing evolution of the policy environment, 2024 not only defined the current market landscape but also laid the foundation for the development of 2025 and the years to come.
This article aims to review the highlights of the cryptocurrency industry in 2024, analyze the breakthroughs and challenges faced during the year, and look forward to the future landscape of 2025. By analyzing key events, technological innovations, and market trends, we will depict how the crypto industry is moving towards a more mature and stable phase in its golden age and explore the infinite possibilities of this field under the wave of globalization.
Part One: Highlights of the Cryptocurrency Industry in 2024
1. Bitcoin and Institutionalization: The Core Driving Force of the Crypto Industry
1.1 The Launch of Bitcoin ETFs: Entering the Mainstream Financial System
The approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs was the most significant event at the beginning of 2024. This breakthrough marked the official entry of crypto assets from being marginalized speculative tools into the mainstream financial system, attracting significant attention from traditional institutions. The launch of ETFs not only provided investors with a safer and more convenient channel for Bitcoin investment but also further propelled the rise in Bitcoin prices.
Data shows that since the launch of Bitcoin ETFs, market inflows have significantly increased. Driven by the listing of BTC spot ETFs and the BTC halving, BTC achieved over 130% growth, breaking the important psychological barrier of $100,000 by the end of the year, and even approaching $110,000 at one point.
1.2 Evolution of Market Structure: The Impact of Institutionalization
The structure of the Bitcoin market underwent significant changes in 2024. The continuous influx of institutional funds shifted the dominant landscape of the market from being retail-driven to institution-led, with Bitcoin gradually becoming an important component of global investment portfolios. A report from K33 Research indicated that institutional participants purchased 859,454 Bitcoins in 2024, accounting for 4.3% of its total circulating supply. As of December 31, 2024, BlackRock's Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, iShares Bitcoin ETF, held 551,917.901 BTC, while MicroStrategy purchased 444,262 Bitcoins, bringing the total Bitcoin holdings of these two institutions close to 1 million BTC.
Source: https://x.com/NateGeraci/status/1872463503828959450
1.3 The Impact of the U.S. Election and Trump's Election on Bitcoin
The results of the 2024 U.S. election played a significant role in driving up Bitcoin prices and also promoted the development of Polymarket prediction markets and meme tokens related to the U.S. election. During his campaign, Trump publicly expressed support for the crypto industry and promised to implement a series of friendly policies, including firing the current SEC chairman, encouraging Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset, and loosening cryptocurrency regulations.
After Trump's confirmation of election, market sentiment for Bitcoin surged, with prices breaking the $100,000 mark within just a few weeks and continuing to rise. Analysts pointed out that Trump's election provided greater confidence for institutional investors, further accelerating the inflow of funds into Bitcoin ETFs. Additionally, the policy direction supported by Trump led the market to expect more institution-friendly financial products in the future, further solidifying Bitcoin's position in mainstream finance.
2. Stablecoins and RWA: The Integration of Traditional Finance and Crypto
2.1 The Rise and Mainstreaming of Yield-Bearing Stablecoins
In 2024, yield-bearing stablecoins became one of the important innovations in the stablecoin market. These stablecoins provide holders with stable and considerable interest income by being tied to high-yield decentralized finance protocols or traditional financial instruments.
The rise of yield-bearing stablecoins not only attracted crypto-native users but also traditional investors and enterprises. Many companies began to use yield-bearing stablecoins as reserve assets to hedge against market volatility and obtain stable returns. This trend indicates that the crypto industry is establishing a deeper connection with traditional finance through stablecoins as a bridge.
According to DefiLlama data, as of December 31, the total market capitalization of stablecoins had exceeded $200 billion. Fiat-collateralized stablecoins represented by USDT and USDC still dominate the market. Crypto-asset collateralized stablecoins and algorithmic stablecoins are also gradually gaining attention, with these new types of stablecoins providing more diverse options and higher yield potential. The rapid rise of yield-bearing stablecoins such as USDe, USD0, and BUIDL has quickly placed them among the top ten stablecoins, showcasing the immense potential of yield-bearing stablecoins.
Source: https://defillama.com/stablecoins
2.2 The Ecological Status and Representative Projects of RWA
The tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) made significant progress in 2024. By converting traditional financial assets such as real estate, bonds, and commodities into tokens on the blockchain, RWA brought new narratives and investment opportunities to the crypto industry. Representative projects such as Ondo Protocol and MANTRA have performed outstandingly in this field, attracting substantial capital inflows with their tokenized products.
Moreover, the rapid growth of RWA has also benefited from an improved policy environment. Several countries have passed legal frameworks supporting the application of blockchain technology in financial assets, providing stable legal guarantees for the development of RWA. The rise of this market offers new entry points for institutional investors into the crypto industry while also providing unprecedented diversified investment opportunities for individual investors.
3. The Rise and Prosperity of the Solana and Base Ecosystems
3.1 The Strong Comeback of the Solana Ecosystem and the Prosperity of Meme Coins
The Solana ecosystem made a strong comeback in 2024. With its high throughput and low transaction costs, Solana attracted a large number of developers and users to re-engage with its ecosystem, gradually developing into a paradise for meme coins.
Surge in Public Chain Activity and Trading Volume: In 2024, on-chain activities in the Solana ecosystem significantly increased, with daily active addresses rapidly climbing from millions. Data shows that Solana significantly outperformed other public chains in terms of new token issuance, with 80% of new tokens being issued on the Solana chain.
The Leading Role of the Pump.fun Platform: As a one-click token issuance platform, Pump.fun leveraged the low-cost and high-efficiency advantages of the Solana public chain, bringing revolutionary changes to the meme coin market. As of December 31, 2024, the platform had issued over 5.26 million tokens, with a cumulative trading volume exceeding 1.94 million SOL, attracting millions of users and becoming an important part of the Solana ecosystem.
Source: https://dune.com/evelyn233/pump-data
3.2 The Rapid Rise and Diversification of the Base Ecosystem
Base chain, launched by Coinbase, is a Layer 2 scaling solution that provides strong market influence, financial support, and technical endorsement for the Base ecosystem, significantly enhancing user and developer trust. Since its launch in August 2023, Base chain has achieved remarkable ecological construction results in a short time due to its low cost, high efficiency, and robust technical architecture.
In 2024, the total locked value of Base chain grew from $440 million at the beginning of the year to $3.75 billion by December, making it the second-largest Layer 2 network after Arbitrum. Many innovative projects emerged, attracting a large number of users and developers. The Base ecosystem saw the emergence of star projects such as BRETT, DEGEN, VIRTUAL, and Morpho in 2024, covering various fields including meme, social, AI, and DeFi.
4. The Expansion of Staking and Restaking Ecosystems
In 2024, the staking and restaking sectors experienced significant development, becoming an important part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
4.1 Increased Staking Rates and Demand for Liquidity Release
Staking, as a core mechanism of proof-of-stake (PoS) networks, continued to play a key role in 2024. The staking rates of major blockchains like Ethereum steadily increased, attracting a large number of investors to participate. Liquidity staking protocols (LSTs) such as Lido consolidated their market position this year, providing users with liquidity solutions for staked assets. However, as staking rates increased, the market's demand for staking services also continued to grow, prompting the emergence of new solutions and protocols to meet this demand.
4.2 The Rise and Expansion of the Restaking Sector
Restaking, as an emerging sector in 2024, has shown tremendous potential. This concept first gained attention at DevConnect in 2023, and its adoption rate has surged since then. Restaking allows users to reallocate already staked assets to other protocols, sharing the security of the staked assets, thereby enhancing capital efficiency. EigenLayer, as the leading project in this field, has received support from top investment institutions, including a16z, achieving a valuation in the billions. Inspired by Ethereum projects like EigenLayer, Bitcoin's strong consensus foundation and security provide a broad prospect for staking and restaking. Projects like Babylon have begun to explore the restaking of Bitcoin assets, which could not only activate dormant Bitcoin holders to participate in ecosystem building but also potentially form a restaking ecosystem comparable to Ethereum.
4.3 The Rise of Liquidity Restaking Protocols (LRTs)
Liquidity Restaking Protocols (LRTs) gained widespread attention in 2024. These protocols act as intermediaries between restakers and operators, managing capital allocation and providing liquidity solutions. Unlike Liquidity Staking Tokens (LSTs), LRTs handle various risk factors, including inflation, penalty conditions, and technical risks. Projects such as Ether.fi, Renzo, Puffer Finance, and KelpDAO have made significant progress in this area, attracting substantial user and capital participation.
5. The Formation of a Diverse BTCFi Ecosystem
In 2024, the Bitcoin financial ecosystem (BTCFi) achieved significant development, covering various fields such as inscriptions, runes, decentralized finance (DeFi), and staking.
In 2024, the Bitcoin DeFi sector experienced explosive growth. According to DeFiLlama data, the total value locked (TVL) in Bitcoin DeFi surged from $305 million at the beginning of the year to $6.7 billion by the end of the year, an increase of over 20 times. This growth was primarily driven by the rise of staking protocols, particularly the Babylon protocol, which accounted for over 82% of the TVL, becoming the largest protocol on Bitcoin.
Source: https://defillama.com/chain/Bitcoin
Staking and restaking became important components of the Bitcoin ecosystem in 2024. The rapid development of staking protocols shifted Bitcoin's applications from payment areas (such as the Lightning Network) to staking. The success of the Babylon protocol spurred the emergence of a series of staking and restaking protocols, further promoting the diversification of Bitcoin applications.
Additionally, the Bitcoin ecosystem also achieved continuous development in applications such as NFTs, gaming, and social interactions. Although the enthusiasm for inscriptions and runes has waned, a diverse Bitcoin ecosystem has begun to take shape, laying a solid foundation for future development. As the ecosystem continues to improve, Bitcoin is gradually evolving from a single value storage tool to a platform encompassing diversified applications in finance, art, and social interactions.
6. The Struggles and Resurgence of Altcoins and the NFT Market
6.1 The Warming of Altcoins and Structural Changes
The launch of Bitcoin ETFs led to a high concentration of market liquidity towards Bitcoin. This phenomenon caused many altcoin projects to face funding shortages and user attrition in 2024. For much of 2024, while meme tokens surged, established altcoins performed quite poorly.
As Bitcoin prices stabilized, market sentiment began to shift towards altcoins. Investor confidence in established projects rebounded, prompting these tokens to rise in turn. The price of XRP rose from about $0.60 at the beginning of the year to $2.44 by the end of the year, an increase of over 300%. This growth was primarily attributed to Trump's friendly attitude towards cryptocurrencies, with the market anticipating the SEC would end its legal proceedings against Ripple. Additionally, Ripple's plan to issue a new stablecoin, RLUSD, further boosted market confidence in XRP.
The altcoin market underwent noticeable structural changes in 2024. Funding and attention concentrated on a few high-quality projects, such as Aave, Ondo, and FET, while traditionally speculative tokens gradually fell out of favor. This change signifies that the altcoin market is evolving towards a healthier and more sustainable direction.
6.2 The Resurgence and Differentiation of the NFT Market
After experiencing a market cooldown from 2022 to 2023, the NFT market saw a resurgence in 2024. Blue-chip NFT projects like Pudgy Penguins and Bored Ape Yacht Club once again became the focus of the market.
The differentiation among NFT projects was significant, with high-performing blue-chip projects maintaining their value through strong community support and scarcity. Projects like Pudgy Penguins attracted widespread attention and capital support through tokenization and community governance. However, smaller NFT projects lacking innovation and community support lost their market position during the bear market, with underperforming projects gradually exiting the market.
7. The Strong Performance of the Meme Sector: Winning Over with Growth
In 2024, the meme coin market maintained strong growth, demonstrating robust vitality and market appeal. According to GoinGecko data, the total market capitalization of meme coins grew from $22.28 billion at the beginning of the year to approximately $116 billion. Among the top 100 crypto projects by market capitalization, meme coins accounted for 10%, with established projects like DOGE, SHIB, and PEPE still leading, while emerging meme projects like WIF, BRETT, and GOAT rapidly rose through innovation.
Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/view/memes/
The meme narratives of 2024 can be categorized into the following types:
Animal-themed memes: Such as DOGE, PEPE, MOONDENG, and PNUT, these coins are often driven by celebrity effects and have strong community foundations.
Cult culture memes: Represented by WIF and POPCAT, these memes gain market recognition through unique community cultural cohesion.
Hotspot mapping memes: Such as BAN and MAGA, these coins can quickly respond to market events and attract capital attention.
Technology-themed memes: Combining new technology narratives, such as GOAT, ACT, FARTCOIN, and RIF, these memes attract a large number of biotech investors and AI enthusiasts.
As the meme market develops, more institutions are beginning to pay attention to and invest in this sector. Mainstream exchanges and investment institutions like Binance, Coinbase, and a16z are actively participating, providing support for multiple meme projects. This trend indicates that despite early controversies surrounding meme coins, institutional attitudes are gradually shifting, beginning to recognize their potential value. Established mining coin Litecoin stated, "Given the current market conditions, we now recognize LTC as a MEME coin," quickly sparking a marketing trend around memes, with many institutions and projects following suit.
8. The Combination of AI and Crypto: From Technological Innovation to Market Explosion
In 2024, the cryptocurrency market witnessed the rapid development of AI-related tokens, particularly in the fields of AI memes and AI agents. These tokens combine the innovation of AI-generated content with the dissemination advantages of meme culture, driving market activity and investor attention.
8.1 The Rise of AI Meme Tokens
AI meme tokens performed particularly well in the second half of 2024. Tokens represented by GOAT, ACT, and FARTCOIN achieved leaps in market capitalization and price in a short time. For example, TruthTerminal, an AI agent, not only received $50,000 from a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen but also became a millionaire through social media. Its supported AI + meme project represented by GOAT combined AI's technical capabilities with the dissemination effects of meme culture, becoming a leader in the AI meme field, repeatedly creating "wealth-building" myths and entering the mainstream meme stage by the end of the year.
8.2 The Expansion of Application Scenarios for AI Agent Tokens
AI agent projects rapidly developed in the second half of 2024, showcasing strong discussion heat and "wealth-building effects." Among them, ai16z and Virtuals Protocol were undoubtedly the two most prominent representative projects. ai16z is a decentralized AI trading fund based on the Solana blockchain, aiming to utilize AI agents to gather market information, analyze community consensus, and automatically conduct token trading. Its open-source framework, Eliza, gained widespread attention in the developer community, promoting the development of the AI agent ecosystem.
Virtuals Protocol is positioned as a distribution platform for AI agents, allowing users to create and deploy AI agents. Its token, VIRTUAL, performed excellently in 2024, with a market capitalization exceeding $380 million, becoming one of the leaders in the AI agent field. Tokens created through Virtual, such as LUNA and AIXBT, also quickly became some of the hottest AI agents at the moment.
Part Two: Outlook for the Cryptocurrency Landscape in 2025
1. Macroeconomic Environment and Policy Drivers
1.1 Trump's Re-election Brings Expectations for Crypto-Friendly Policies
Regulatory Reform: Trump proposed to fire current SEC Chairman Gary Gensler and appoint a pro-crypto policy advisory committee. This high-level personnel change will create a more friendly regulatory environment for the crypto industry.
Strategic Reserve Plan: Plans to designate Bitcoin as a national strategic reserve asset, formally entering the mainstream financial framework of the United States. This will further solidify Bitcoin's position in the global financial system.
Support from Policy Tools: Possible introduction of tax incentives, regulatory relief, and other measures to encourage the development of the crypto industry in the United States.
1.2 Continued Influx of Institutional Capital and Synergistic Effects
Expansion of Market Size: Institutional capital purchased over 1.4 million Bitcoins in 2024, accounting for about 7% of the market circulation. This trend is expected to continue and accelerate in 2025. The increased holdings by publicly traded companies and institutional investors, such as MicroStrategy and pension funds, will continue to drive up the prices of Bitcoin and other mainstream crypto assets.
Correlation Between Price and Capital Flow: Data from 2024 shows a significant correlation between the inflow of funds into spot ETFs and Bitcoin prices. This relationship may become more pronounced in 2025 as more capital chooses to enter the market through ETFs.
Synergistic Effects of Global Institutional Capital: The pro-crypto policies in the U.S. will prompt other regions around the world to relax regulations to maintain market competitiveness. The Asian region (especially Hong Kong and Singapore) may continue to attract institutional capital to counter the competitiveness of the U.S. market.
1.3 Further Promotion of Spot ETFs
Simplification of Investment Pathways: Bitcoin spot ETFs provide traditional investors with a low-risk, high-convenience investment method that does not require direct ownership of crypto assets. This attracts more long-term capital, such as pension funds and sovereign funds.
Potential for Altcoin and Thematic ETFs: As institutional investors show increased interest in niche areas, ETFs focusing on themes like DeFi, Layer 2, and AI + Crypto may emerge. The appearance of altcoin ETFs could provide funding support for smaller projects and may become a new favorite for high-risk, high-reward investors.
Expansion of Regulation and Compliance: The promotion of ETFs requires more regulatory support, especially regarding the review standards for diversified asset portfolios. This may trigger competitive regulatory optimization for ETFs on a global scale.
2. Track Trend Analysis
2.1 Accelerated Adoption of DeFi Protocols by Financial Institutions
Lending Sector: Traditional financial institutions are utilizing DeFi protocols to enhance capital utilization, particularly in cross-border payments and corporate financing.
Insurance Applications: On-chain insurance solutions are becoming new tools for institutional investors to manage risks.
Derivatives Innovation: The DeFi derivatives market is expanding, including further development of options, swaps, and index derivatives. Institutional investors are gradually adopting complex strategy combinations, including liquidity mining and yield enhancement tools, providing new sources of liquidity to the market.
2.2 Deep Integration of AI + Crypto
AI Agent-Driven Crypto Economy: AI agents will play a larger role in areas such as asset management and DAO governance, where AI agents autonomously manage funds and make decisions through decentralized networks, bringing long-term growth potential to AI tokens.
Integrated Development of AI Technologies: The application of zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-SNARKs) and multi-party computation (MPC) technologies provides security for the combination of AI and blockchain. Through distributed physical infrastructure networks, AI systems can more efficiently access computing resources.
Blurring Boundaries Between Virtual and Real Economies: Crypto projects that integrate AI technology will have a profound impact in areas such as decentralized finance, content creation, and data analysis. The boundaries between virtual and real economies will further blur, creating new growth points for the industry.
2.3 Deepening Integration of RWA and Real-World Financial Products
Application Scenarios: The tokenization of real-world assets such as real estate, commodities, and bonds is seeing broader applications, particularly in cross-border settlements and enhancing asset liquidity.
Market Impact: The market size of tokenized assets is expected to exceed several trillion dollars, providing institutional investors with more diverse options.
2.4 Rise of DeSci Narratives
Decentralized Scientific Research: Achieving transparent management of scientific research funding through smart contracts and DAOs, particularly in fields like genetic research and medical innovation.
Unleashing Potential: Funding support from Binance Labs and other leading investment institutions provides strong growth momentum for DeSci projects.
2.5 Extension of Meme Coins and Attention Economy
Narrative-Driven Diversification: AI narratives and community autonomy become the core driving forces for the long-term growth of meme coins, continuously generating hotspots and dissemination effects to attract more new users.
Transition from Emotion to Actual Value: Some meme coin projects are exploring real-world application scenarios, such as social networks and in-game economies.
2.6 Diversification and Integration of Layer 2 Scaling Solutions
Continued Expansion and Optimization of Layer 2: As user demand grows and technology continues to iterate, Layer 2 networks will continue to lead the expansion trend in the crypto industry. Cross-chain interoperability and user experience optimization will become core themes for future development.
Shared Security and Ecological Synergy: The interactivity between Layer 1 and Layer 2 is further enhanced, with more emerging Layer 2s sharing the security of mainnet staked ETH through restaking features on platforms like Eigenlayer, providing users with seamless experiences and ecological integration.
Conclusion
2024 was a remarkable year for the crypto industry, with the approval of Bitcoin ETFs and the expectations of pro-crypto policies in the U.S. following Trump's victory driving market development and structural changes globally. The landmark event of Bitcoin first breaking the $100,000 mark not only elevated its status as a global value storage tool but also further solidified its recognition in traditional finance.
This year saw unprecedented institutional participation. From the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs to large-scale purchases of Bitcoin by MicroStrategy and other institutions, mainstream financial capital gradually penetrated the crypto market. This phenomenon not only brought in capital but also promoted the institutionalization and professionalization of market structures. However, it also significantly increased the correlation between market volatility and traditional financial markets, with Bitcoin's performance increasingly influenced by macroeconomic and policy changes.
On the other hand, 2024 also witnessed a comprehensive explosion of innovative tracks. The hot performance of meme coins once again showcased the potential of the attention economy, while the combination of AI and crypto became the core narrative of the market, with DeSci narratives poised for takeoff. These trends reflect not only the market's high speculative nature but also its vigorous innovative capacity and sensitivity to new technologies.
Looking ahead to 2025, the crypto industry will enter a new cycle, beginning its journey towards a golden age. Bitcoin, as a mainstream asset for global value storage, will continue to enhance its stability and global recognition. However, caution is needed regarding the potential impact of reduced volatility on investment attractiveness. Meanwhile, RWA, AI agents, and DeSci will become growth points for the future market. In 2025, we have reason to expect more technological breakthroughs and new market highs, while also preparing for possible challenges. The story of the crypto market remains full of unknowns and opportunities.
About Us
Hotcoin Research, as the core investment research department of Hotcoin, is dedicated to providing detailed and professional analysis for the cryptocurrency market. Our goal is to offer clear market insights and practical operational guidelines for investors at different levels. Our professional content includes the "Play and Earn Web3" tutorial series, in-depth analysis of cryptocurrency industry trends, detailed analyses of potential projects, and real-time market observations. Whether you are a newcomer exploring the crypto field for the first time or a seasoned investor seeking in-depth insights, Hotcoin will be your reliable partner in understanding and seizing market opportunities.
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