Crypto markets in the H1 2024 have seen growth and shakeups in equal measure. The total crypto market cap continued to rise in the first half of 2024, reaching around $2.27 trillion, marking a 37.3% year-to-date increase.
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According to on-chain data, the gains were concentrated in the year’s Q1, with a 60.2% increase. Q2 was rather more difficult, as the crypto market reversed some of its gains and plummeted 14.3%.
According to the Binance research report, the successful introduction of spot BTC exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) in the U.S. in January changed the market sentiment.
Binance Research says, “Looking ahead, we are keeping a close eye on the Fed’s interest rate policies, the approval and traction of the spot ETH ETFs, and the emergence or resurgence of crypto-specific narratives by monitoring on-chain metrics.”
Crypto 2024 key takeaways
According to the Binance Research report, Layer-1s had a promising start to the year, as Bitcoin maintained its market dominance after the fourth Bitcoin Halving.
In addition, the launch of the Runes Protocol and the approval of the U.S. spot ETFs have been significant developments, attracting over $14 billion in inflows. Also, Ethereum experienced a market surge after restaking the EIP-4844 update.
In the first half of 2024, there was a surge of airdrops in the Layer-2 (“L2”) space, particularly for zero knowledge (“zk”) projects. With the allure of rewards, substantial amounts of capital have poured into the L2 chains, resulting in a staggering total value locked in L2s of $43B. This signifies a 90% surge in total value locked (“TVL”) in a mere 6 months.
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On the other hand, the stablecoins market has experienced a significant rebound, with only a 14.5% gap remaining from the peak in April 2022, right before the TerraUSD (UST) crash.
On June 30, 2024, stablecoin’s market cap reached an impressive US$161B, marking a huge milestone in the last two years.
The first half of the NFT market was quite volatile, as sales volumes took a dip and major projects saw significant declines of over 50% in floor price. Blur maintained its strong position in the market, driven by the recent Blast token airdrop.
Moreover, the Web3 gaming sector experienced a robust performance in Q1, but unfortunately, gaming project tokens, along with the rest of the altcoin market, witnessed a significant decline in market cap in Q2. However, projects such as Pixels and Hamster Kombat have had a successful start.
Crypto’s fear and greed index dropped following the German government’s BTC offloading and Mt. Gox possible crypto repayments.
When it comes to performance, Bitcoin and Ethereum have proven to be strong contenders in the world of traditional finance investments. Year-to-date, Bitcoin has seen a 48% return, while Ethereum also performed well with a 43% return.
Alphabet and Amazon’s equities have shown growth this year, outperforming other investments in the same trading group. The major stock market indexes are significantly lagging, with many showing single-digit returns.
Gold, often considered as an alternative to Bitcoin, has experienced a modest spike of 13%, while crude oil has seen a rise of approximately 14% this year.
For what lied ahed for the second half of 2024, Binance adds that “six key themes are particularly exciting to us, and we anticipate significant progress in these areas throughout the year. These themes span various narratives and sectors, such as those related to the macro environment, Bitcoin ecosystem, ownership economy applications, real-world assets (“RWAs”), and more.”
