Memecoins, real-world assets (RWA) and artificial intelligence were the most popular narratives in the second quarter of 2024, based on CoinGecko’s website traffic.
CoinGecko released its latest crypto industry report on July 16, outlining key milestones and events in the crypto market in Q2 2024.
According to CoinGecko’s data, memecoins, RWA and AI were the top three narratives in Q2 2023, capturing as much as 36% of all CoinGecko web traffic categories during the quarter. The share is similar to Q1 2024, as noted in the report.
Memecoins dominate crypto narratives in Q2 2024
Memecoins — cryptocurrencies inspired by internet memes or trends — made CoinGecko’s crypto narrative chart’s top, accounting for 14% of all listed crypto categories on CoinGecko.
Real-world assets — or tokenized real-world assets like real estate — accounted for 11% of web traffic among CoinGecko-listed narratives, while AI made up 10%.
Solana and Base made the two most popular memecoin ecosystems, capturing about 23% of total market attention, according to the report.
Beyond memecoins, Solana, Ethereum, Base and The Open Network made it into the top 15 crypto narratives.
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Memecoins have emerged as one of the biggest trends in the crypto industry in 2024, posting the highest returns of 1,312% on average across the top tokens by market capitalization.
While generating record-breaking returns, memecoins have triggered controversy and concerns over whether such tokens serve crypto’s original purpose.
Some prominent crypto figures like Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino are skeptical about memecoins because they are “completely at the opposite parts of the spectrum” than Bitcoin (BTC).
Ether turned inflationary in Q2 2024
Among other insights in CoinGecko’s crypto industry report, the firm mentioned that Ether (ETH) became inflationary, meaning that its purchasing power declined due to increases in supply.
According to CoinGecko, Ethereum added 120,000 ETH to the circulating supply in Q2 2024 out of 228,543 ETH emitted. As 107,725 ETH were burned, the Ethereum network turned inflationary during the past quarter.
As previously reported, the Ether supply ceased to be deflationary for the first time in May 2024 following Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade, which went live in March 2024.
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