“Oh, what a year!”
That’s the only justified reaction for 2024 as a crypto enthusiast.
And if you disagree, this Crypto-wrapped will change your mind.
So, get ready to relive the highs, the lows, and all the unforgettable moments that made 2024 one for the blockchain history books.
Let’s begin with the best-performing coins of the year.
- Memecoin, AI and RWA were the top 3 best-performing crypto narratives of 2024. This observation indicates a shift towards speculative investments and a growing interest in AI and real-world asset tokenization.
- Solana and Base meme coins scored in the top ranks, followed by other meme coins.
- The GameFi narrative saw a significant decline, with interest falling from 10.49% in 2023 to 3.72% in 2024.
- This year also witnessed the emergence of two new crypto trends-PolitiFi and Tap-to-Earn (T2E). While the elections scheduled in the USA paved the way for the Poltifi category, the launch of The Open Network (TON) blockchain led to the emergence of T2E.
- Bitcoin stayed as the centrepiece of crypto conversations throughout 2024, from the approval of Spot Bitcoin ETFs in January to the victory of pro-Bitcoin advocate Donald Trump as US President.
- The total stablecoin market capitalization reached a new high of $190 billion in November 2024, surpassing the previous high of $188 billion in April 2022.
- The largest stablecoin issuer, Tether, ended 2024 with over $10 billion in net profits. The majority of this profit came from the company’s investments in US treasury reserves, biotech, bitcoin miners, Gold, and other industries.
Apart from narrative shifts and price twists, 2024 also served up a few blockbuster network upgrades, migrations and integrations. Here are the headliners:
Ethereum Dencun Upgrade
The Dencun upgrade of Ethereum was completed on March 13, 2024. It consisted of nine significant Ethereum Improvement proposals (EIPs), with proto-dank sharding being the most important one. This is because Proto-dank sharding in the Ethereum network opens the way for reducing the roll-up fees, benefitting the end users. The Dencun upgrade is a blended name for Deneb and Cancun upgrades. While the former involved changes related to the consensus layer, the latter focussed on the execution layer improvements. This upgrade marked the beginning of the "The Surge" era in the Ethereum roadmap.
Bitcoin Halving
Bitcoin network successfully completed the fourth halving on 20th April after reaching the block height of 840,000. This halving reduced the Bitcoin mining reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. Historically, Bitcoin halvings have been linked to significant price movements, often triggering short-term volatility followed by long-term price appreciation.
ASI Merger
Three prominent AI crypto projects, Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol and SingularityNET, joined hands to form the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI) in two phases starting from July 1, 2024. Phase 1 involved Ocean Protocol’s OCEAN token and SingularityNET’s AGIX tokens to be combined into Fetch.ai’s FET token in a 1: 0.433 conversion rate. Phase 2 involves FET tokens migrating into the ASI ticker. This merger aims to create a single decentralized alternative to AI projects and introduce new features.
MATIC to POL Migration
The migration of Polygon’s native MATIC token to POL began on September 4, 2024. This migration is part of a Polygon 2.0 upgrade to make the Polygon ecosystem more secure, scalable and efficient. POL, the new token, will replace MATIC in all its functions. MATIC holders could convert their holdings to POL in 1:1 proportion. There is no deadline for Polygon users to upgrade their tokens. However, the conditions could change in the future.
Ripple Launches New Stablecoin
Ripple rolled out its new stablecoin, RLUSD, on December 18, 2024, after receiving the final approval from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDES) on December 10th. RLUSD stands for Ripple Labs USD, and it acts as a stablecoin digital currency for transactions and trading. Like other stablecoins, it is also backed by the US dollar with a 1:1 backing. The collateral providing this backing is either US dollar deposits or cash equivalents. Ripple Payments will use it for enterprise clients requiring global payments for efficient and cost-effective cross-border transactions. The debut of RLUSD caused a significant surge of 8% in XRP volume.
Chainlink Introduces Major Upgrade
In a global blockchain conference, SmartCon 2024, Chainlink introduced the Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE) upgrade. It featured a modular and composable architecture to make Chainlink more flexible and user-friendly for developers and enterprises. Similar to Ethereum, Chainlink is also introducing platform upgrades in phases to ensure uninterrupted services for its existing users.
Hedera and Chainlink Integration
In December 2024, Hedera completed integration with Chainlink’s Data Feeds and Proof of Reserve systems to enhance its capabilities of supporting DeFi applications and attracting more DeFi developers.
But 2024 wasn’t just about tech upgrades—it was also the year crypto went big on adoption. 🚀
Let’s check out the moves that got everyone talking!
- The year began with a watershed moment when the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved 10 Bitcoin ETF applications, including that of BlackRock, Ark Investments, 21Shares, Fidelity, Invesco and VanEck. The initial approvals finally came on 10th January 2024. While the European markets have been offering crypto Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) since 2019, this was the first time that US investors had access to spot Bitcoin ETFs. Most of these ETFs started trading on 11th January 2024.
- Following the USA’s lead, Brazil also approved its first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in March 2024.
- The world’s largest asset management firm, BlackRock, shared its plan to tokenize $10 Trillion worth of its assets. As the first step, it launched its first tokenized fund, the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), on the Ethereum blockchain in March 2024. By November, this fund expanded to five other blockchains, like Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, and Polygon.
- Following Bitcoin spot ETFs, the US SEC also approved the sale of 8 spot Ether ETFs on May 23, 2024. However, these 8 ETFs were allowed to be traded officially in the US stock market only after submitting their S-1 registration statements. On July 23, 2024, the SEC finally allowed the first spot, Ethereum ETFs, to start trading.
- Donald Trump openly supported crypto at the annual Bitcoin Conference in Nashville. He promised to make America “the crypto capital of the planet and Bitcoin superpower of the world” if he wins the US Presidential elections.
- Brazil’s Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) approved the world’s first Solana ETF by QR Asset Management on August 8, 2024.
- The Dubai Court allowed cryptocurrency to be a legal means of salary payment.
- In September, the Russian government approved a law that legalizes cryptocurrency mining in Russia. It also inaugurated a pilot project for using cryptocurrency to pay for international trade amidst Western sanctions. However, just two months later, it introduced a 6-year partial ban on crypto mining in 10 regions to maintain a balanced energy consumption.
- In October 2024, Mastercard integrated its Crypto Credential solution with the Stellar network. This integration aims to make cross-border payments as efficient as domestic transactions.
- In November, a leading asset management company, Franklin Templeton, announced a plan to shift $1.7 trillion of its assets via blockchain technology using the Stellar (XLM) network. The firm planned this strategic move to reduce transaction costs by 99.75% and enjoy other operational efficiencies.
- On November 21, 2024, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler announced he would step down from his role, effective at 12:00 pm on January 20, 2025. Known for his tough stance on crypto and imposing sanctions on various crypto firms, his resignation came on the same day Donald Trump is set to take office as the 47th US president.
- The 12 US spot Bitcoin ETFs collected over $100 billion in assets under management, making it one of the most successful ETF launches in history. These funds together own about 5% of all existing bitcoins at the time of writing.
- Pro-crypto candidate Donald Trump won the US presidential election on November 6, 2024, securing his place as the 47th president. His victory led to BTC's price hitting a new high of $100k within just a few weeks.
- Brazil formally introduced a bill proposing the creation of a Strategic Sovereign Bitcoin Reserve (RESBit) to diversify national financial assets. If approved, the bill will allow the Brazilian government to allocate up to 5% of the country’s international reserves to Bitcoin.
- Bitcoin surged even higher to $107K on 16th December 2024 after Trump’s reiteration of his plans to create a U.S. Bitcoin strategic reserve similar to the country’s existing oil reserves.
“Who can ban Bitcoin? Nobody. And who can prohibit the use of other electronic means of payment? Nobody.”
- Vladimir Putin (Russian President)
“I mean, we believe Bitcoin is an asset class in itself. It is an alternative to other commodities like gold.”
-Larry Fink (BlackRock’s CEO)
“If crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted and made in the USA”.
-Donald Trump (US President)
"We'll just keep buying the top forever, every day is a good day to buy Bitcoin."
-Michael Saylor (Microstrategy CEO)
Scam Exposure Committee (SEC)
The U.S. SEC’s official X account got hacked on January 10, 2024. The hackers posted a false announcement that the SEC had approved spot Bitcoin ETFs, causing the Bitcoin price to hike over 2.5%.
Faketoshi
At a London Club, a man with a vibrant dress and long grey beard claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s creator. He also claimed to have designed the X logo and ChatGPT. He avoided the question when asked about accessing Bitcoin Genesis coins, saying the keys are split across eight computers worldwide.
What a Coincidence!
After winning the US elections, Donald Trump announced the new “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which will be headed together by crypto advocates Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. The department aimed to cut wasteful spending and restructure federal agencies. However, the name of the department resembling Dogecoin’s ticker led to DOGE price surging 10% within hours. But was it a coincidence that DOGE’s price spiked 10% shortly after? With Musk being the "Godfather" of Dogecoin, we can't help but wonder!
Dev Lights Up the Market... and Himself
The founder of a Solana-based meme coin developer, DARE, set himself on fire in front of a camera to pump his token. Surprisingly, the trick worked, and the token spiked over 2,000% in just a few hours. But he was hospitalized with severe burns and couldn’t cash out on time. Once he was discharged, he claimed his phone’s face ID didn’t recognize him.
Isn't that crazyyy?!🤯
But hold up—your Crypto Wrapped isn’t complete just yet.
Because, with all the wild crypto happenings, how could Flitpay just HODL back? 😎
So, here’s the highlight of what your favourite cryptocurrency exchange achieved this year!
- Flitpay became one of the first Indian cryptocurrency exchanges to secure FIU registration. It means we’re all about keeping things safe and secure as we follow the FIU’s Anti-Money Laundering guidelines. So, you can trade confidently knowing Flitpay’s got your back!;
- Flitpay is now the ultimate crypto hotspot as we listed 111+ cryptocurrencies in 2024, including some of the trendiest ones like PEPE, BRETT, PNUT, VIRTUALS, OM and more. So, if you are looking for the hottest cryptocurrencies, you know which app to open on your phone. Come for the hype, and stay for the options!
- This year, Flitpay became the only Indian cryptocurrency exchange providing uninterrupted crypto withdrawals. While other exchanges played hide and seek with your funds, we kept things flowing smoothly.
- Flitpay also rolled out one-of-its-kind “Spend & Earn” feature where you can turn all your online purchases into an earning opportunity by being rewarded in INR, BTC or other cryptocurrencies. So, you know where to shop this new year and later.
- Who doesn’t like having options, right? That’s why we jazzed up our trading page with fresh trading layouts, themes and colour palettes so that you can look at the trading screen for hours without getting bored.
- We’ve had a 45% boost in our user base this year! Looks like we’re doing something right!
- Once again, we've proven our dedication to you by offering the lowest trading fees in the industry. The year may have ended, but our commitment to delivering the best trading experience is still going strong.
That was your 2024 Crypto Wrapped.
Now, let’s say goodbye to the year of crypto “trump-h” and “Elon-gitivity”, where multiple new animals made their debut in the crypto kingdom and institutions felt the breeze of FOMO.
Here’s to the year closer to the moon!🥂
