2024 Crypto Almanac: New and Old Powers Come to the Table Together, 12 MEMEs String Together a Year of Opportunity

Original Author: TechFlow from Deep Dive

After seeing so many institutional annual reviews and outlooks, are you feeling a bit aesthetically exhausted?

Recently, CoinMarketCap also released a 2024-25 Cryptocurrency Market Yearbook, summarizing the significant innovations, market-shaking moments, and memorable milestones of the past year, while also looking ahead to the next 25 years.

However, what's interesting is that this yearbook appears vivid and interactive:

In the review section, CMC vividly and interactively portrays the major events of the past year in a more stylish, lively, and engaging manner; while in the outlook section, different from expert predictions from institutions, CMC hands over the decision-making power to the market --- letting you vote on the 25 trends that may occur over the next 25 years.

For example, which projects do you think will make big headlines in the next 25 years? Will it be the pure meme Fartcoin or the Trump-related World Liberty Financial?

In addition, throughout the yearbook, there are some charts and analyses worth collecting, which TechFlow has curated and interpreted, presented as follows.

Suits & Ties VS Laser Eyes, Both Winners

Throughout the year 2024, while standing in the perspective of a retail investor, you may be contemplating the price fluctuations of certain coins; amidst the unpredictable nature of the entire cryptocurrency market, the yearbook summarizes a more macro trend --- 「Suits & Ties VS Laser Eyes」.

This is indeed a very precise cultural comparison.

Suits & Ties represent the traditional financial world (Wall Street), symbolizing conservatism, professionalism, and established financial institutions; typical representatives include BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and other traditional financial institutions.

Laser Eyes are the iconic cultural symbol of the cryptocurrency community, originating from Bitcoin supporters adding red laser eyes to their avatars on social media, representing cryptocurrency believers and supporters of emerging digital assets.

In 2024, both sides were actually winners.

The two seemingly opposing groups achieved true integration in terms of assets:

Traditional financial institutions (such as BlackRock) began launching Bitcoin/Ethereum ETFs; Meme coins reached billion-dollar market caps and gained mainstream acceptance.

Perhaps Wall Street and Web3 are no longer adversaries but partners influencing each other at the same negotiation table.

Shifting from past opposition to each carving their own piece of the pie, the cryptocurrency market entered a new stage of maturity.

Top Crypto Story of the Year: The Rise of TON

Amidst the AI Agent craze, did you overlook last year's TON soaring success?

Telegram's corresponding L1 saw astronomical growth: users surged from 100K to a staggering 17.4 million, ranking 8th on CoinMarketCap. With 1,400 dApps and seamless integration with Telegram's 9.5 billion users, TON proved to be more than just another Layer 1—it was a movement.

And this movement even transcended beyond the crypto sphere.

On August 24, 2024, Telegram's CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in Paris on charges related to platform activities. While this news could have sent shockwaves of uncertainty, it instead sparked a blaze.

The TG communities rallied, posting messages of support on social platforms and initiating a meme project, becoming a rallying cry for justice.

CMC's yearbook also elevated the significance of this event:

"This is a declaration of the crypto spirit. A reminder that decentralization is power, and the purest technology is a tool of freedom, not malice. In that moment, the TON community showed the world it was more than just a blockchain; it was a revolution driven by resilience, unity, and unwavering belief."

While TON may have lost its momentum for now, it remains one of the many shining events from last year.

Top Asset Class of the Year: Meme Dominates, Diversity Thrives

Considering the popularity, the asset categories and projects that performed well in this yearbook are:

1. MEME:

·  MEW: The fifth-largest Memecoin, utilizing a unique tokenomics model with 90% of LP tokens burned, driving a stable price floor and market confidence.

·  Popcat: The first cat-themed Memecoin to reach a $1 billion market cap on Solana, achieving a valuation of $120 million and pioneering the concept of "cat coins."

·  WIF: Becoming the third-largest meme coin within four months, behind only DOGE and SHIB, reaching a $3 billion market cap fueled by community engagement and Elon Musk's endorsement.

2. Application Sector:

·  Polymarket: Wagering $3.3 billion on the 2024 U.S. presidential election, leading decentralized prediction markets, dominating the space through smart contract automation and KYC-free methods.

·  Pump.fun: A revolutionary shift occurred in Memecoin creation on Solana, driving the development of 3M+ tokens, attracting 150,000 users, and generating substantial revenue. While the platform has had a significant impact, it has also been controversial, sometimes fueling the most extreme meme culture.

·  Binance Launchpool: Enhancing user engagement through innovative token farming mechanisms, successfully launching new tokens like Notcoin, Scroll, and Catizen.

3. Rising Stars of Note:

·  Story Protocol: Pioneering blockchain-based IP management, attracting over 100 projects, and fundamentally altering creator rights through programmable IP licensing infrastructure.

·  Monad: The next-generation Layer 1 implementation achieves 10,000 TPS and finality in 1 second, raised $225 million, and introduces the innovative MonadBFT consensus mechanism.

·  Berachain: The innovative Layer 1 with Liquidity Proof consensus launches the Artio testnet, attracting 230 active development teams through unique DeFi integration.

Considering innovation, from AI-enhanced DeFi to real-world asset platforms, from decentralized infrastructure to core scaling solutions, the following projects have pushed the boundaries of on-chain possibilities:

AI Sector:

·  Bittensor: Builds a framework for decentralized AI development, expands to 64 subnets, achieves full Ethereum compatibility, and launches complex AI models.

·  Prime: Leading AI gaming with flagship games Parallel TCG and Colony, backed by OpenAI integration and the Wayfinder protocol for autonomous AI agents.

·  Near: Building the world's largest 1.4T parameter open-source AI model, launching the Nightshade 2.0 upgrade, achieving a 400% transaction speed improvement through innovative sharding.

DeFi Sector:

·  LIDO: Maintaining liquidity staking dominance by staking 9.8 million ETH, introducing institutional solutions, and reducing validator requirements from 32 ETH to 2.4 ETH.

·  Pendle: Innovating yield tokenization in DeFi, increasing TVL from $230 million to $1 billion through token liquidity rehypothecation and launching the Boros collateral trading platform.

·  EigenLayer: Dominated 80% of the market share in a re-delegation, reaching a TVL of $12.9B, re-delegating 4.5 million ETH, and fundamentally changing Ethereum's security model.

DePIN Section:

·  Render: The leading decentralized GPU rendering service has successfully migrated to Solana, expanded to real-time streaming and dynamic NFTs, and is now serving major entertainment and architectural clients.

·  Arweave: A permanent storage solution that has maintained stable growth amid market fluctuations, pioneering a "pay once, store forever" data storage model.

·  Aethir: A decentralized cloud computing platform that converts GPU power into shared resources for gaming and artificial intelligence, supported by a $100M ecosystem fund and key partnerships with Nvidia and Filecoin.

RWA Section:

·  Ondo: The first platform to tokenize over $500M in U.S. Treasuries within four months, capturing over 25% of the market share through partnerships with BlackRock and JPMorgan.

·  Clearpool: Redefining institutional liquidity in DeFi, with a loan volume exceeding $500M and the launch of Ozean, a Layer 2 network based on the OP Stack enabling RWA yield.

·  Ethena: The synthetic dollar protocol has become the fourth largest stablecoin, pioneering risk management through a Delta-neutral strategy on spot and short positions.

Infrastructure:

·  SUI: Building the world's largest 1.4T parameter open-source AI model, launching the Nightshade 2.0 upgrade, achieving a 400% transaction speed increase through innovative sharding.

·  Wormhole: Built the world's largest 1.4T parameter open-source AI model, launched the Nightshade 2.0 upgrade, and achieved a 400% transaction speed improvement through innovative sharding.

·  Arkham: Introduced an on-chain perpetual trading platform utilizing intelligence data, pioneering entity-based blockchain analysis.

Note: The selection of all the above projects only represents the perspective of this yearbook. Interested readers can also visit the original website to view the introduction of each project, and each project also thoughfully provides a short video for explanation.

Due to space limitations, some projects within different ecosystems will not be elaborately discussed further. The nominations are as follows.

6 Treasure Charts to Take You Through 2024

It is well known that CMC excels in data analysis and graph visualization.

This yearbook has also selected 6 charts that depict the changes in the 2024 crypto market from different data dimensions.

1. Best and Worst Performing Tracks: Smart Contracts and Storage

Smart contract-related projects topped the list with a 6000% return, while the worst performer was the storage track with a -24% yearly return.

2. The Pattern of Post-Halving Bitcoin Price Increase Continues

In the 24th year post Bitcoin halving, the price was around 63,000; everyone has witnessed the journey, from an experiment to $100,000, spanning 16 years of BTC's relentless surge.

3. Learning from History, It Seems the Bearish Inflection Point Has Yet to Arrive

Bitcoin and the overall market roughly follow a 3-4 year cycle. From the chart below, in the new cycle of 2024 represented by the black line, the Bitcoin price does not show a clear downturn trend.

4. MicroStrategy Leads the Way: A Look at Global Institutions/Countries' Bitcoin Holdings

MicroStrategy leads the world's other institutions with its holding of 440,000 bitcoins, surpassing even the holdings of any single country; meanwhile, the gap in Bitcoin holdings between China and the U.S. has not widened.

5. The U.S. Still Holds the Title for the Most CMC Website Users

Surprisingly, India takes second place.

6. The Most Popular Track: Memes Gradually Prove Their Value (Blue Area in the Image Below)

12 Memes, Reflecting a Year of Opportunities and Fun

There were many opportunities last year. Seize one or two of them, and your story will definitely be different.

If you missed too many opportunities, take a look at the context and development of opportunities over the past year in these meme images.

·  January: SEC Slower Than Hackers. The SEC's official Twitter account was hacked, posting news of a "Bitcoin ETF Approval," and a few hours later, the SEC officially announced the ETF approval...

·  February: Will Prices Rise After ETF Approval? In fact, Bitcoin was quite dull in February.

·  March: BTC Hits $73K All-Time High, While Degens Are Busy Claiming Airdrops.

·  April: BTC Holders Explain the Significance of the Halving to Their Friends and Family, Or Drag People into Understanding the Halving.

·  May: Heard You're Bearish on Ethereum? SEC Approves ETH ETF!

·  June: Iggy launched a coin and joined the celebrity coin craze, asking to be called "Mother".

·  July: The annual thread of "Real or Fake Satoshi" emerged again with Craig Wright's "Satoshi identity verification" case.

·  August: The founder of Tg was arrested in France, causing community uproar and giving rise to related memes, which also led the trend of political coins.

·  September: The man himself, CZ, is back! The market also saw a positive turn.

·  October: The "October Must Rise" law was postponed...

·  November: Comrade Jian Guo returned, and crypto gained a foothold in Washington and the White House.

·  December: The expected interest rate cut gradually materialized, and the crypto market seemed to see a savior.

Looking ahead to 2025, what are your choices and predictions?

In this section, CoinMarketCap conducted an open poll, handing over the decision-making power for the 25-year outlook to users, which is like a market survey to see which tracks and projects people favor.

At the same time, the topics designed for the outlook section are as follows. Which projects do you think will come out on top?

·  Which projects will make big news this year?

Selection list: ETH, PEPE, Monad, Fartcoin, World Liberty Financial (Trump-related).

·  Which narrative will dominate this year?

Selection list: NFTs/Gaming, Post-quantum Computing Tokens, Crypto IPOs, RWA, and AI Agents.

·  Which asset will be approved for an ETF?

·  Who Will Quietly Enter the Top 30 by Market Cap?

Watchlist: Virtuals, FET, Pengu, Ethena, Ondo.

·  Who Will See Blossoming of an Old Coin?

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