December 31, 2024 Welcome back to our blog, where we aim to equip traders and investors with the knowledge needed to understand the crypto world and how to master the markets with our wide range of advanced crypto bots.
As we approach the end of another calendar year, it is time to reflect on the past 12 months and set goals for the following year. This post intends to do just that!
Today, we’ll go through all the main events in the world of cryptos in 2024, what went up, what went down, and what the key areas are that crypto traders should keep their eyes on in 2025.
Before we move forward with our yearly rundown, this is the time to remind you that all of the information presented in this blog post is intended solely for educational purposes and should not be considered a call to action or any other kind of financial advice. Traders must consider their financial status and risk tolerance before employing any crypto trading strategy. Crypto trading involves inherited risks; consulting with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decision is highly recommended.
Without further ado, let’s review all of the leading crypto news of 2024:
The year 2024 started with some very positive news for cryptos. After much anticipation, 11 Spot Bitcoin ETFs got approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to be launched in traditional markets and exchanges, giving the crypto world another nudge toward the global financial world.
While these launches contributed over 1.5 billion dollars in inflows and high trading volumes, BTC and most other cryptos finished the month with no meaningful returns.
In other news, we also witnessed January’s trading volumes moving away from decentralized exchanges (DEXs) into central exchanges (CEXs). In addition, strong sales of meme-coin tokens occurred, setting up the stage for a very good year for these cryptos.
After a relatively slow first month, the effects of the new Bitcoin ETFs started to unfold, igniting a 45% rally in the price of BTC. This made February the best month for BTC since December 2020 and the best month ever in dollar terms.
The rest of the cryptocurrencies didn’t lag far behind, with ETH rallying 48%, token sales approaching a one-year high, and DeFi TVL also showing strong growth. Even the 5-hour outage the Solana network suffered from on February 6th didn’t seem to affect this positive momentum.
All of the above contributed to the crypto world’s market capitalization, which exceeded 2 trillion dollars.
After a very positive February, March was also lucrative for cryptos.
Bitcoin ETFs attracted $5 billion worth of inflows, raising BTC’s price by 14% to a new all-time high of $73.125 in the middle of the month. Overall, the crypto market cap showed the same increase, rising 13%, with Theter’s stablecoin USDT reaching a $100 billion market cap for the first time.
In other news, the Ethereum ecosystem completed the Duncan upgrade, their most significant system update since 2022. The Avalanche blockchain also touted a new system upgrade, sending its native token AVAX higher by 38%.
Elevated activity in meme-coins also impacted the markets, with Solana surpassing Ethereum for the first time in trading volumes over DEXs after Ethereum gas fees reached a two-year high.
Another notable mention from March is NEAR (NEAR Protocol) which rose by a whopping 100%. This surge was mainly attributed to the announcement that NEAR’s founder would be one of the key speakers at Nvidia’s AI conference later that month.
On the downside, Arbitrum and its native token ARB did not enjoy March’s positive sentiment. ARB (Arbitrum) dropped by more than 13% due to a huge token unlock that flooded the markets with supply and pushed prices downwards.
Following a couple of powerful months, April weakened the bullish momentum.
After showing signs of regulatory easing, the U.S. SEC returned to old habits, threatening a potential lawsuit against Uniswap, one of the biggest names in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
As momentum faded, BTC prices fell by 14% after another smooth halving event, presenting crypto investors with the first month of negative returns since August 2023. This was accompanied by slower activity in the meme-coins sector after a few months of hype.
The above caused a sharp decline in overall trading volumes, on-chain revenues, and activities across innovative contract platforms.
May started with some positive news that regained the trust of mainstream investors in cryptos.
After much anticipation, the SEC finally approved the launch of spot Ethereum ETFs on traditional exchanges in the U.S. While this was good news, it didn’t affect the price of ETH, which dropped by 2%.
Along with the SEC, both Democratic and Republican candidates in the 2024 U.S. elections presented crypto-friendly agendas that further supported market sentiment. An 11% BTC price increase restored positive momentum in the markets.
Memecoins also had a very eventful month, with the projects LayerZero, EigenLayer, and ZkSync releasing long-awaited airdrops and three new tokens, BeerCoin (BEER), Bouncebit (BB), and Notcoin, each reaching a $100 million market cap for the first time.
June was a relatively slow and uneventful month for cryptos. Most cryptos displayed a sideways trend or a subtle price decline, usually accompanied by low year-to-date trading volumes and volatility.
Honorable mentions from this month are the projects TRON (TRX), which rose by 11%, and NEAR Protocol, which had a price correction of about 30% after having a very bullish year so far.
July wasn’t much different than June, with no significant events in sight to boost market momentum. Ethereum continued to struggle, as the launch of its ETFs didn’t seem to have the same positive effects as Bitcoin ETFs had on the markets. Ethereum’s problems didn’t end there, with issues from the Duncan upgrade continuing to drive activity to its biggest rival, Solana.
Following a strong start for the year that was by a few mediocre months, August was the worst month for cryptos in 2024.
Bitcoin fell by more than 11% from around $64,000 to $49,000. ETH and SOL showed even more significant drops, reaching 21% and 31%, respectively.
On the bright side, TRON (TRX) performed strongly for another month, rising by more than 20%.
In September, most of the crypto market was on its way to a comeback after a few disappointing months.
This was partially due to some good news from the fiat economy, where most Western economies could slow down inflation to a level that allowed them to begin cutting interest rates. On the other side of the world, the Chinese government declared a hefty stimulus package to boost its local economy.
Then, Bitcoin ETFs attracted another $1.2 billion in inflows, generating a 7.5% price increase. This pushed BTC’s dominance (a metric measuring the market cap of Bitcoin against the combined market cap of all other cryptos) to a four-year high of 59%.
The problems for the biggest altcoin, ETH, didn’t end there, as its on-chain revenues plunged from $7.2 billion before the Duncan upgrade to $1.2 billion. On top of that, ETH’s market shares fell to a five-year low, while many of its L1 competitors presented strong results. These include the blockchains Solana (14%), Aptos (23%), NEAR Protocol (31%), and Sui, whose native token SUI rose by 118%, pushing its market cap above the $5 billion price mark for the first time.
In October, we witnessed the world of cryptos continue on its path towards recovery.
First, blockchains, including Bitcoin, Solana, Sui, Aptos, Base, and others, reach new all-time highs in Total-Value-Locked (TVL), showcasing increased liquidity flows into various DeFi protocols.
In addition, the Solana ecosystem continued to display strong growth in most other key metrics, with active addresses, on-chain activity, and revenues reaching new all-time highs. ApeCoin (APE) also had a great month, rising by 130% thanks to the launch of its new L3 solution, ApeChain.
With that, while most significant cryptos finished the month in the green, Bitcoin did manage to outshine them, setting an even higher BTC dominance of about 60%.
This month’s notable worst performers were Polygon (POL, formerly MATIC), which tumbled by 19%, and NEAR (-23%).
The big story of November was the U.S. elections and the Republican Party’s overwhelming victory across all key branches: the Presidency, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. Viewed as the more favorable party for the crypto world, these election results ignited a major bull run in most cryptos.
BTC surged by another 34%, finishing the month with a 120% year-to-date increase and closing just shy of the $100,000 price mark (but still setting a new all-time high).
Following the election results, Gary Gensler, the current chairman of the SEC known for his hawkish stance against cryptos, announced he would step down in January. This sparked investors’ hopes for more favorable regulations under the new administration.
This resignation was considered excellent news for Ripple, which has been on trial since 2020 after being sued by the SEC over regulatory issues. As expected, the price of Ripple’s native token, XRP, increased almost 190%.
Other strong performers this month were the cryptos XLM (421%), HBAR (207%), and ADA (197%).
After a very eventful year, some significant things also occurred last month.
On December 2nd, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) launched its first cash-settled index options based on the price of Bitcoin ETFs. This is big news since it’s the first time institutional investors can speculate on the price of Bitcoin with leverage positions without holding BTC itself, which could add another layer of complexity to the entire BTC ecosystem.
On other positive crypto news, former president and president-elect Donald Trump started to fulfill his pro-crypto policy, appointing Paul Atkins as the new head of the SEC, a former lobbyist in the crypto industry and a strong supporter of free market policies with loose regulation.
With all this news pushing the price of Bitcoin higher, we also witness over 1 billion dollars in liquidations of long positions, as expected when reaching a substantial and symbolic price mark like the $100,000 level.
BTC is consolidating around the $100,000 level, as prices often do when they reach such significant price points.
After reviewing the main stories of 2024, here are some of the storylines crypto traders are advised to follow in 2025:
While BTC’s bullish momentum is positive, it would be a red flag if the rest of the crypto world didn’t follow suit. While Bitcoin has established its position in global financial markets, many altcoins still struggle to gain traction.
Because these projects are smaller and less established, altcoins are generally considered riskier than Bitcoin. That means investors are usually willing to take on additional risks in exchange for a higher ROI.
If altcoins can’t deliver, more funds are expected to move from altcoins to BTC, which could be bad news for many crypto projects.
With meme coins being the biggest story on the altcoin scene this year, it’s worth monitoring this metric in the upcoming year to gauge market sentiment and have a clearer picture of the future of altcoins precisely and the crypto world as a whole.
There’s good reason to suspect that part of the rise in BTC’s dominance can be explained by ETH’s surprising weakening in the crypto world. After many years of being second only to Bitcoin, ETH is starting to lose ground as the second-biggest crypto project.
From a disappointing ETF launch to the unexpected effects the new system upgrade would have on revenues to the rise of Solana and other L1 blockchains that have some technological advancements over it, ETH will be under a lot of pressure this year.
We recommend watching how the Ethereum Foundation will deal with it all since it should significantly impact the price of ETH and its related tokens, like UNI, POL, and many others.
As you may have noticed from our year summary, many of the triggers for big crypto moves were due to developments outside the crypto world.
Regarding positive catalysts, any updates on inflation and interest rates coming down are generally considered a good sign for cryptos. On top of that, if the new U.S. government follows through on its promises for more favorable regulations in the crypto sphere, it could ignite a new bull run.
As for risks, any news implying inflation and interest rates going up or staying steady could cause market sell-offs and any rise in geopolitical tensions in Ukraine, the Middle East, Taiwan, Korea, or other influential regions.
We hope you enjoyed reading our comprehensive summary for the year 2024.
Above all, this summary is another excellent example for crypto traders of the importance of following both crypto and mainstream news. Most major price actions can be easily explained once you know where to look.
For the time being, since none of us can accurately predict the future, it’s best if you focus your efforts on collecting reliable sources of news and mastering your trading skills. Hence, you can capitalize on future events.
Keep in mind that with the help of our wide range of crypto bots and other advanced trading tools like demo trading and backtesting features, you can take advantage of almost any type of scenario in the markets if you put your mind to it.
If you are serious about stepping up your game in 2025, we at Cornix invite you to explore firsthand how we can help you become a more efficient and profitable crypto trader. With a free trial, flexible pricing plans, and other advanced trading tools, our all-in-one automated trading solutions are an opportunity that you don’t want to regret not taking years from now.
