What happened in the crypto industry, and how did it change in 2024? Sometimes, numbers speak louder than words. We’ve prepared a visual map of the year with several infographics highlighting key metrics from different sectors of the market.
Dynamics of the Cryptocurrency Market Capitalization
Over the past year, the total capitalization of the cryptocurrency market grew by 108% — from $1.742 trillion to $3.602 trillion. However, excluding Bitcoin’s contribution, the growth was only 70%.
Bitcoin Price Dynamics
2024 marked an important milestone — the price of the first cryptocurrency exceeded $100,000 for the first time. This happened amid the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs and Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential race.
Performance Since the Beginning of the Year
However, the best-performing digital asset among the top 5 by market capitalization (excluding USDT) was XRP. The price of this cryptocurrency increased by 270% since the beginning of the year. Ethereum showed the worst performance, with its price growing only by 52% since January.
Active Address Dynamics
In terms of on-chain activity, Solana stood out in 2024. While the number of active addresses for Bitcoin and Ethereum remained relatively unchanged since the beginning of the year, Solana’s number of active addresses grew by 938%. This is likely due to the network’s popularity in the meme coin sector.
TVL Dynamics and Blockchain Share in Total Volume
Over the past year, the total volume of assets locked in smart contracts for decentralized applications grew by 121% — at one point exceeding $130 billion. However, it is still below the peak levels recorded in November-December 2021 (~$170 billion).
In terms of liquidity distribution across different DeFi ecosystems, Ethereum still leads, accounting for over 56% of the total TVL, with this share remaining largely unchanged since the start of the year.
Meanwhile, Solana managed to capture a significant market share. In December 2023, it accounted for only 2.6% of the total TVL. A year later, this share increased to 6.88%.
It’s also worth noting the situation around Tron — over 12 months, the blockchain lost almost 9% of its share.
Stablecoins and RWA
The total supply of stablecoins, one of the key indicators signaling the start of an active market phase, increased by 54% in 2024, surpassing $190 billion for the first time in history.
Stablecoins are part of the RWA (Real-World Assets) sector, which also grew significantly. Over the past 12 months, the total market cap (excluding stablecoins) reached almost $15 billion. The majority of this figure is made up of tokenized private loans and U.S. Treasury bonds.
Meme Coins
2024 was undoubtedly the year of meme coins. A strong narrative and the emergence of platforms simplifying access to launching and purchasing these assets did their job — meme tokens became the hottest topic among retail investors, and the total market cap of the sector exceeded $100 billion.
Hacks and Fraud
The cryptocurrency industry has long struggled with hackers, and 2024 was no exception. According to DeFiLlama, the industry lost over $1.2 billion in the past 12 months due to malicious actions. The peak of criminal activity occurred in May and July.