The year 2024 has been a diverse narrative for the cryptocurrency landscape with innovations including decentralized finance (DeFi), the explosion of real-world assets (RWAs) onchain and the rise of memecoins as cultural phenomena.
In addition, Bitcoin began the year just under $40K, making its rally to six-digit dollar territory the most blatant embodiment of how far crypto’s come.
The industry showed record growth in sectors such as stablecoins and RWAs, while memecoins created a trading frenzy that dwarfed every other on-chain vertical.
ETFs, Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, were the most anticipated events of the year opening the floodgates to institutional inflows.
The infrastructure for professional investors in DeFi has been rapidly improving this year, including better solutions for custody, compliance and asset tokenization.
Real-world assets have become a multi-billion dollar sector, including stablecoins, predicted to be a $10T industry by 2030 that is now being tokenized and traded onchain.
The rise of AI agents, DeSci, GameFi, TravelFi, and other DeFi derivatives added to crypto's prolific year.
The unpredictable global economy could result in a bumpy ride for crypto in 2025. However, few would bet against crypto being in a better place 12 months from now.
Crypto is finally closing in on the dream of mass adoption, and next year will influence it to come to pass.