Crypto Market Recap: October 2024

October: Bitcoin's Third Best Month of 2024

In October, the market lived up to the nickname "Uptober" with Bitcoin showing substantial growth. After consolidating support during its flat period since April, Bitcoin now appears poised for further upward momentum.

Demand for Bitcoin is also bolstered by historically high futures open interest, which reached an all-time high in October.

Ethereum Underperforms Despite Market Growth

Meanwhile, Ethereum's price performance in October has lagged behind Bitcoin and other tokens. This could point to a deeper issue within Ethereum beyond market underperformance, as its ecosystem lacks the agility seen in chains like Solana, which rapidly adapt to new trends, such as the memecoin boom.

Memecoins Remain the Biggest Gainers

Memecoins remain the top performers across all categories. In contrast, currencies, NFT, and CeFi tokens have shown the weakest performance, largely due to a lack of compelling narratives and utility within these segments.

Bitcoin: One of the Best Performing Coins from Cycle to Cycle

As Bitcoin rises to the top, it reaffirms its credibility as an asset that reaches new highs with each cycle, setting it apart from other popular tokens. In October, Bitcoin's price approached previous highs, positioning itself to potentially surpass them in November, given favorable market conditions.

Bitcoin Scaling Solutions Lead in TVL Growth

In October, not only did Bitcoin’s price see strong growth, but its TVL and ecosystem also expanded significantly, driven in part by the success of Babylon and other Bitcoin restaking platforms like Lombard and Solv Protocol.

This pushed BTC’s TVL to an all-time high, securing its place as the fifth-largest chain by TVL, even without an established DeFi ecosystem. With the introduction of more sophisticated DeFi solutions on Bitcoin, it could easily enter the top three, competing directly with Solana and Ethereum. 

Chains Update Their TVL All-Time Highs

Alongside Bitcoin, several other chains—though with more modest gains—have also reached new highs, including Solana, Base, Sui, Aptos, Scroll, Hyperliquid, Core, Bitlayer, Sei, dYdX, BOB, and Taiko. This trend suggests an inflow of liquidity into DeFi.

Other Blockchain Metrics Show Growth

As the memepad hype gradually fades, particularly on Tron, its revenue has continued to decline since August. In contrast, Base and Ethereum, with their established DeFi ecosystems, have shown strong revenue growth. Meanwhile, Solana reached a record daily revenue of $2.5 million on October 24, highlighting the expanding presence of the Solana ecosystem.

October not only saw price growth but also a rise in key metrics, such as the daily average number of users. Three chains—Near, Base, and Solana—reached all-time highs in daily active addresses.

While Solana, Sui, and Tron lead in daily transactions driven by memecoin trading, the impressive transaction numbers from NEAR, Sei, Injective, and Celo highlight sustainable growth, independent of any specific narrative or major news.

New Market Projects Show Poor Performance

Despite strong price growth in the crypto market, newly launched projects have shown modest market results. Scroll's market cap stands just above $100 million, a sharp decline from its $1.8 billion valuation during its March 2023 funding round—an 18-fold decrease. Even Scroll's FDV, around $692 million, is nearly three times lower than its private round valuation. Additionally, five of the top 10 tokens by market cap are memecoins.

The Scroll airdrop, one of the most anticipated events in the crypto market, turned out to be a source of frustration for the community. It further confirmed the end of the lucrative airdrop era, as the market is now flooded with too many drophunters. 

October Was Energized by the Upcoming Presidential Election

The presidential election, scheduled for November 5th, is one of the most highly anticipated events, particularly for the crypto community. Donald Trump is viewed as a pro-crypto candidate, having not only voiced his support but also participated in a crypto conference in Nashville and proposed specific actions, such as creating a Bitcoin reserve, dismissing Gary Gensler etc. In contrast, while Kamala Harris claims to support crypto, her actions suggest a lack of genuine commitment, as her previous activities show little tangible support for the crypto space compared to Trump’s involvement.

The crypto community's interest in the election is reflected in the significant trading volume and user activity on Polymarket. If you're curious about the future of prediction markets after the election, be sure to check out our research.

Historically, Bitcoin has shown significant price gains following presidential elections, and this election could have a similar effect, particularly if Donald Trump wins. Bitcoin experienced substantial price growth in September and October, and this trend may continue into November and December. This could even mark the start of the long-awaited altseason. 

Conclusion

October set a solid foundation for continued price growth in the coming months, with Bitcoin positioned as a primary potential gainer. Among blockchains, Bitcoin, Solana, and Base showed impressive growth across key metrics, including TVL, active addresses, transactions, and revenue. However, the market has faced challenges with new token launches, as most recent tokens have relatively low market caps and are heavily dominated by memecoins. Scroll's airdrop further highlighted the end of the lucrative airdrop era, prompting users to seek alternative strategies to profit in the crypto space.