Emily Walker
The cryptocurrency sector experienced significant growth in 2024, with Bitcoin maintaining its position as the leader of the market. Recent statistics reveal that the overall market capitalization of crypto has more than doubled in just one year.
Although identifying a single theme for the growth of the market in 2024 is complex, various aspects of advancement in the digital asset space are quite apparent. A leading blockchain analytics company has outlined five key trends that illustrate the changes in the crypto landscape over the past year.
Key Trends in Cryptocurrency for 2024
In a recent weekly overview, the market intelligence organization IntoTheBlock discussed five prominent on-chain trends that signify the growth of the crypto market in the last year, highlighting that 2024 has been a year of excitement, especially for Bitcoin.
First, IntoTheBlock emphasized Bitcoin’s rising influence and market dominance, particularly following the acceptance of spot exchange-traded funds in the U.S. Consequently, Bitcoin’s market share reached its highest point in over three and a half years.
The report also pointed out that political events, including Trump’s presidential election victory, have contributed to Bitcoin’s increased value, pushing its market dominance from below 50% to 59% over the year.
In tandem with Bitcoin, the meme coin sector has thrived, experiencing a staggering rise of over 400% in market cap. IntoTheBlock highlighted the launch of the Solana-based platform Pump.fun, which triggered a surge in meme coins within the Solana ecosystem.
However, this meme coin boom on Solana negatively affected Ethereum’s ecosystem and ETH’s price in 2024. As the popularity of meme coins shifted to Solana, and given the weaker performance of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) this bull cycle, Ethereum’s network fees dropped, resulting in less ETH being burned.
Moreover, decentralized finance (DeFi) made a comeback in 2024 as new investments flowed into various protocols. With fewer hacks and regulatory pressures this year, the total market cap of the DeFi sector has reached its highest level since early 2022.
Finally, IntoTheBlock observed significant development for new projects initiated during the previous bear market, such as restaking and basis trading protocols, which became notable highlights in the crypto space this year.
Current Cryptocurrency Market Capitalization
As of now, the overall market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market is approximately $3.49 trillion. Data from TradingView indicates that this figure has risen by over 105% since the beginning of the year.