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- The cryptocurrency market in 2024 has seen major milestones such as the approvals of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs and the rise of institutional acceptance.
- Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $108,000, while ETFs attracted billions in inflows.
The cryptocurrency market rebounded in 2024 to become the second largest single-year trading volume of all time. In November alone, trades totaled $2.7 trillion, which is the highest value in three years and better than several months in the upswing of 2021. December alone further supported the trend, bringing annual trading volume to $18.4 trillion.
Despite falling short of the $26.2 trillion set in 2021, 2024 was still a recovery year. The monthly average reached 1.5 trillion dollars, almost double the amount of the previous year. Binance also continued to dominate the market, accounting for 40% of annual trading volume of $7.7 trillion.
The exchange managed to process an average of 641 billion dollars per month, which makes it the market leader. Coinbase is second with a total trading volume of $1.2 trillion and a monthly trading volume of $99 billion.
The crypto market trend is volatile at the end of 2024. According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin is currently trading at around $93,000 and is down 1% in the last 24 hours and 2% in the week. Ethereum is up 2% on the week, implying that the currency has had some positive momentum.
On the other hand, XRP has fallen by 4% and 5% respectively in the last 24 hours and one week. Solana increased its weekly return by 5%, while Cardano fell by 2% to trade at $0.8754 at the time of writing. Of the most popular meme tokens, Dogecoin also witnessed a weekly increase of 2%.
Major wins in 2024
On January 10, the SEC gave the go-ahead for spotting Bitcoin ETFs, marking a new era of investing. These funds from BlackRock, Fidelity and ARK Invest increased trading volume to nearly $10 billion a day by March. The first Bitcoin ETFs were launched in the United States in the first week of October 2021, while Ethereum ETFs were launched in May 2021 as more regulatory approval of crypto investment products was observed.
These ETFs saw massive inflows, with Bitcoin ETFs taking in 21,158 BTC ($2.22 billion) and Ethereum ETFs taking in 220,702 ETH ($873 million) through December. This raised net assets under management to almost 120k BTC, showing increasing institutional interest. Ethereum ETFs have also grown to over 3 million ETH and continue to be a convenient and low-risk way to invest in Ethereum.
The halving of Bitcoin that took place on April 19 only added fuel to the fire in the market. By reducing block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, the event saw the price increase by 146%, proving that rarity affects demand.
Also, Web3 gaming on Telegram experienced explosive growth. Other examples include Hamster Kombat and Catizen, which attracted millions of users, proving Telegram’s virality as a mobile application platform.
Challenges in the crypto sector
However, not everything was rosy in 2024 as there were some challenges we faced. The year was marked by stock market failures and legal problems for the industry. Binance has come under increased scrutiny for potential anti-money laundering violations, and eToro has scaled back services following a settlement with the SEC. Such incidents highlighted the importance of following rules and regulations in protecting investor confidence.
Cybercrime has also soared, with hacking losses amounting to $2.2 billion. The hacking attacks were carried out mostly by North Koreans, proving that highly skilled cyber threats remain a significant threat.
