2024 was the year crypto stopped being a niche corner of the financial world and became an influential force in the global tech and financial landscape. Unprecedented political support, the rise of artificial intelligence, real-world assets (RWAs) and intense blockchain competition defined the past year, setting the course for what most investors hope will be a bullish 2025.
In a world heavily impacted by inflation, Bitcoin (BTC) price went on a tear following its halving in April 2024. Remarkably, this surge wasn’t fueled only by retail investors and MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor but also by some of Wall Street’s biggest heavyweights, who positioned themselves in the industry through spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The momentum even reached Washington, D.C., where President-elect Donald Trump and numerous lawmakers publicly announced their pro-crypto stance.
Meanwhile, smart contract platforms battled for dominance, with Ethereum’s lackluster performance reflecting the rising competition from its rivals. In the Web3 space, new trends stole the spotlight, with tokens linked to AI and RWAs becoming the year’s biggest winners.
Bitcoin sets its sight on new price highs
In 2024, Bitcoin repeated its standard post-halving pattern, gaining 126% on the back of recognition from traditional finance and politicians.
The newly launched spot Bitcoin ETFs transformed the Bitcoin market by drawing in fresh capital from investors and companies looking for easier exposure to BTC.
In January 2024, nine asset managers — including the world’s largest, BlackRock — launched their first spot BTC ETFs. Over the year, their total assets under management (AUM) skyrocketed from $27 billion (from the existing Grayscale fund conversion) to $109B.
Spot Bitcoin ETF AUM (daily). Source: The Block
The potential for the establishment of a strategic Bitcoin reserve could also put tailwinds behind Bitcoin price in 2025. Longtime Bitcoin advocate and US Senator Cynthia Lummis introduced the BITCOIN Act, a plan that, with legislative approval, would lead to the US buying an additional 1 million BTC, which would “serve as an additional store of value to bolster America’s balance sheet.”
Related: US Bitcoin reserve would have ‘profound’ impact on adoption: CoinShares
Whether this bold idea gains support in Congress remains to be seen. However, the November elections have improved its chances.
Backed by the Fairshake political action committee — which spent $172 million during the 2024 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets — many pro-crypto candidates secured seats in the Senate and House, sometimes ousting anti-crypto incumbents. Data from StandWithCrypto showed over 247 crypto-friendly candidates elected to the House and 15 in the Senate. This is impressive, given that only 33 Senate seats were up for election in 2024.
Rising competition in smart contract platforms
While investors tend to focus primarily on Bitcoin’s role as money, most other blockchains serve as smart contract platforms, enabling the development of decentralized applications. 2024 saw these blockchains quietly improving their tech. Notably, Solana released its Firedancer client for higher scalability, and Ethereum underwent the Dencun upgrade to lower transaction fees on its layer-2 solutions.
The market is growing increasingly saturated, and it is crucial for blockchains to evolve to attract users and developers. The past year showed that even Ethereum, with its numerous layer-2 solutions, could risk losing its edge as faster and cheaper layer-1 blockchains like Solana close in.
From a financial perspective, this uncertainty resulted in modest Ether (ETH) price growth of 65% and tepid interest in the spot Ether ETFs.
2025 will bring the Pectra upgrade to the Ethereum network, enabling externally owned accounts to execute smart contract code directly. This will bring Ethereum closer to full account abstraction, improving account flexibility and the user experience. In the end, however, the value of Ethereum — and any blockchain — will depend on the industry’s ability to deliver useful real-world applications.
AI and RWA fuel Web3 growth
One of the main promises of Web3, a decentralized internet, is yet to be fulfilled. However, 2024 saw a number of developments that contributed to this goal.
The biggest Web3 trend of 2024 was, unsurprisingly, advancements in AI. Top projects included Render Protocol (RENDER), up 125%; machine learning network Bittensor (TAO), up 135%, and the AI agent protocol Virtuals (VIRTUAL), which saw truly astronomical growth of 33,000%. Overall, according to BlockchainCenter data, AI tokens gained 630% in 2024.
Closely following was the real-world assets category, a trend that encompasses protocols relying on the tokenization of real-world assets, such as securities, debt, real estate and art.
Structured financial products platform Ondo Finance (ONDO) and lending-borrowing DeFi protocol Mantra (OM) were the leaders in this sector, with price growth of 705% and 6,866%, respectively. Remarkably, the stablecoin issuer Tether joined the trend by launching its asset tokenization platform, Hadron, in November 2024. Overall, RWA-related tokens gained 570%.
Market cap growth per coin category. Source: BlockchainCenter
Well-established Web3 categories are progressively gaining traction too.
With a 270% year-over-year gain, decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) tokens are among the leading Web3 sectors. DePIN’s main promise is to allow users, device owners, and businesses to collectively own and monetize digital infrastructure. One of the oldest computation marketplaces, Filecoin (FIL), and the streaming-focused platform Theta (THETA) are among the notable representatives of DePIN, along with the AI-using protocols Render and Bittensor.
DeFi also followed an upward trajectory in 2024. In December 2024, DeFi’s total value locked (TVL) almost reached its $250 billion all-time high, according to DefiLlama. The standout launch of the year was EigenLayer, a restaking protocol. Introduced in April 2024, it quickly rose to third place globally, amassing over $17 billion in TVL.
Crypto gaming also continued its development, ending 2024 with nearly 9 million unique active wallets — a dramatic rise from 1.3 million in 2023 — according to data from DappRadar. High-profile 2024 launches like World of Dypians and Seraph, along with the viral Telegram game Hamster Kombat, fueled this growth.
Looking ahead, it looks like the momentum achieved in 2024 is poised to carry into 2025, driven by a pro-crypto Trump administration, Bitcoin’s ongoing bull run, and continuous technological advancements in blockchain.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.