2024 Recap: Milestones and Narratives

January 11: Launch of the Bitcoin ETF

This long-anticipated event had been awaited ever since the first rumors emerged in early 2023. By October of that year, these rumors began to materialize as major financial institutions, including BlackRock, submitted applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs. These applications were finally approved at the start of January 2024, and the first trades with these instruments occurred on January 11. Over the course of the year, net inflows into Bitcoin through various ETF funds amounted to nearly $36 billion, accounting for approximately 2% of Bitcoin’s current market capitalization.

January 19: Launch of the pump.fun memepad

At the time, few could have predicted its success, but pump.fun went on to become one of the most successful platforms of 2024, generating over $316 million in Revenue! Its groundbreaking idea—allowing any user to launch their own meme token on the Solana blockchain with just a few clicks and minimal cost—was enthusiastically embraced by the market. Since its launch, the platform has facilitated the creation of over 5 million meme tokens, some of which reached market capitalizations exceeding $100 million, with a few even surpassing $1 billion (e.g., Goatseus Maximus, Peanut the Squirrel, Fartcoin). Numerous similar memepads have since been launched on other blockchains.

February 29: Blast mainnet launch

This highly anticipated project debuted with an aggressive marketing campaign and, alongside EigenLayer, triggered a boom in so-called “point programs.” By the final day of point farming in Blast’s first season, $2.27 billion had been locked within Blast ecosystem. However, as we now know, the ecosystem struggled to maintain user attention after the first season ended and failed to compete effectively with Solana and Base ecosystems. This decline in interest negatively impacted the price performance of the BLAST token.

March 5: Bitcoin Breaks Its ATH for the First Time Since November 2021

A landmark event that was anticipated by all crypto investors but also took many by surprise. For the first time in crypto cycle history, Bitcoin’s price surpassed its all-time high (ATH) before the halving. This unexpected move caught many cyclical traders and investors off guard, especially as the price failed to hold above this level and entered a six-month correction.

March 14: Ripple Wins Court Case Against the SEC

The first major breakthrough in a legal battle that began back in December 2020. Surprisingly, XRP’s price only grew by 35% in March following the news, while the true wave of growth came at the very end of the year—seemingly unrelated to the court case itself.

March 25: TON Hits a New ATH for the First Time Since December 2021

This spring, investor attention was focused on the TON ecosystem, sparked by increased involvement from Telegram founder Pavel Durov. Telegram actively highlighted its ties with the TON blockchain. Additionally, this year saw the launch of several major GameFi projects on TON, such as Notcoin, Hamster Kombat, and Dogs, which gave rise to the narrative of “mini-apps” directly accessible through Telegram. While it would be an overstatement to call TON a leading Layer-1 blockchain, its recognition significantly grew.

April 8: Peak of Political Meme Tokens

In early April, the meme-token jeo boden, parodying current U.S. President Joe Biden, reached a market capitalization of $800 million, briefly surpassing the earlier political meme token MAGA (dedicated to Donald Trump).

April 19 (Block Height 840,000): Bitcoin’s 4th Halving

Bitcoin Halving – historic event, occurring once every four years, it could not go unnoticed. The block reward was reduced from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.

June 20: LayerZero TGE

The launch of one of the most anticipated infrastructure projects in the Ethereum ecosystem, designed to enable seamless interoperability between rollups. LayerZero gained significant popularity among airdrop hunters due to its massive fundraising ($260 million) and its charismatic founder, Bryan Pellegrino.

July 21: Popcat Becomes the First Cat Meme Token to Reach a $1 Billion Market Cap

Many remember when prominent trader and Twitter blogger GCR predicted in 2022 a shift from “dog-themed” meme tokens to “cat-themed”. This prophecy only began to materialize in 2024, with two contenders for the title of the first cat meme token to hit a $1 billion market cap: MOG and POPCAT. Polymarket even hosted a prediction market for betting on which token would achieve the milestone first. As history shows, Popcat claimed the title.

July 23: Launch of Ethereum ETF

In November 2023, BlackRock and Fidelity filed applications with the U.S. SEC to launch the first spot Ethereum ETFs. These applications were approved in May, and the first trades took place on July 23. However, the high expectations fueled by the success of Bitcoin ETFs were not met, as Ethereum ETFs proved far less popular this year—at least until Trump’s victory, which we’ll discuss later.

July 27: Trump’s Speech at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville

An event that a few years ago would have seemed like a dream to even the most optimistic crypto enthusiasts: former U.S. President and official presidential candidate Donald Trump delivered a keynote speech at a conference entirely dedicated to Bitcoin. During his 50-minute address, Trump made several promises, including the creation of a Bitcoin strategic reserve, the dismissal of SEC Chair Gary Gensler, and transforming the U.S. into the “crypto capital of the world.”

August 5: The “Japanese Dump,” BTC < $50,000

Despite the bullish momentum from Trump’s Bitcoin conference speech, the market entered freefall just days later due to extraordinary events in Japan’s stock market. The Bank of Japan raised its key interest rate from 0–0.1% to 0.25%, the highest level in 15 years. Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock index plummeted by 12.4% in a single session—the largest drop since 1987. Bitcoin briefly dipped below $50,000, while altcoins experienced 20–50% declines within 24 hours.

August 24: Pavel Durov Detained in France

The founder of Telegram and the TON blockchain, Pavel Durov, was detained by French authorities at Le Bourget Airport. He faced several serious charges allegedly tied to Telegram’s operations. A few days later, Durov was released on bail of €5 million with a ban on leaving France. On September 6, 2024, he publicly commented on the incident for the first time, expressing surprise at the French authorities’ actions and reaffirming Telegram’s commitment to free speech and privacy.

September 10: EigenLayer TGE

Early autumn saw the launch of the largest infrastructure project in the Ethereum ecosystem: EigenLayer. This project kickstarter the restaking narrative, which inspired numerous clone projects as well as unique solutions. While the event itself wasn’t particularly loud or liquidity-generating, it marked a significant milestone for Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap. You can read more about this roadmap in our study, "The Future of Ethereum".

September 18-19: Token2049 in Singapore

In mid-September, the largest conference of the year took place in Singapore, hosting over 10,000 delegates from more than 100 countries and featuring over 300 speakers. One standout moment was Murad’s talk titled "The Memecoin Supercycle" which spurred significant growth for memecoins on Murad’s infamous list.

November 5: Trump Wins U.S. Presidential Election, Polymarket Sets Record

While major American media outlets were reporting a “neck-and-neck” electoral race on the morning of November 5, many crypto enthusiasts likely already knew the outcome: Donald Trump had won. They knew this thanks to prediction markets on Polymarket. The U.S. presidential election made 2024 a landmark year for prediction markets, with Polymarket setting an industry record: the election market reached $3.6 billion in total bets! However, it’s worth noting that after the elections, Polymarket’s TVL dropped by 80%.

November 12: GOAT Becomes the First AI-agent to Reach a $1 Billion Market Cap

November was the busiest month in terms of on-chain activity on Solana and Base blockchains. The main stars were tokens of so-called AI agents – LLM-powered chatbots equipped with their own on-chain wallets and Twitter accounts. The narrative began with the rapid success of the Terminal of Truths project and its meme token, Goatseus Maximus (GOAT). We covered this story and other meme AI agents in greater detail in our study dedicated to tokenized AI agents.

November 22: SOL Hits a New ATH for the First Time Since November 2021

Despite the Solana ecosystem dominating organic demand throughout most of 2024—primarily due to the memecoin mania of this cycle and the phenomenal success of pump.fun—the blockchain’s native token, SOL, managed to reach new all-time highs only at the very end of the year. Even then, its performance was lackluster, with significant retracement in December.

November 29: Hyperliquid TGE

We’ve previously covered this event, noting that it marked the largest airdrop campaign in the history of the industry. With the HYPE token surging to nearly $30 after its TGE, the already staggering airdrop valuations multiplied tenfold!

December 5: BTC Hits $100,000

Towards the end of the year, the most iconic event of the cycle occurred: Bitcoin breached the $100,000 mark, surpassing silver in market capitalization!

In summary, the crypto market in 2024 can be characterized by the 10 following “buzz-words”:

• Bitcoin dominance
• Institutional money
• Memecoin supercycle
• Memepads
• Point programs
• Artificial intelligence
• Polymarket
• Trump-pump
• AI-agents
• Hyperliquid