CoinGecko identifies the main crypto-industry trends of 2023

The most popular directions in the digital assets market in 2023 were artificial intelligence, GameFi, and meme tokens — accounting for a third of total community interest. This is according to CoinGecko’s study.

Following are the Solana ecosystem (7.2%), BRC-20 tokens (7.1%), and real-world assets (6.5%). The 15 top trends (out of 139) accounted for 72.3% of total interest in cryptocurrencies.

Analysts collected data based on CoinGecko users’ web traffic in a specific category.

AI tokens

Over the past 12 months the share of the AI direction in the crypto market reached 11.3%, which put it at the top of the list. According to experts, this was driven by global popularity and the development of AI technologies:

«Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, interest in artificial intelligence and related efforts in the tech sector have gained momentum. This interest spilled over into the crypto space, drawing attention to AI tokens».

The largest growth was demonstrated by the Akash Network (AKT) token, the cloud service for developers. Over the past year the asset rose 1110%, and its market capitalization jumped from $36 million to $550 million.

Quotations of the largest AI token by volume, Render (RNDR), over the same period increased by 1080%.

The return of GameFi

Decentralized games accounted for 10.5% of total interest. The sector has always been popular, but in 2023 it surged thanks to new projects and the entry of major players.

In particular, seven leading developers showed interest in blockchain gaming, including Take-Two, Konami, and Bandai Namco.

Researchers highlighted the integration of the Web3 game Pixels with Ronin sidechain, as well as the appearance of Gods Unchained and Illuvium in the Epic Games Store.

The most productive GameFi token was ImmutableX (IMX), whose price over 12 months rose by almost 500%.

In a recent Delphi Digital report, the aggregate market capitalization of 183 gaming coins in 2023 fluctuated between $4 billion and $7 billion — 86% below the historical high. Meanwhile, Fortune Business Insights forecast blockchain gaming market size to grow to $615 billion by 2030.

Meme coins

Meme coins took third place with an 8.3% share of interest. In 2023, the season of popularity for such assets, as in previous years, began with a specific token — Pepe (PEPE).

According to CoinGecko experts, later the hype around the token spilled over to HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu (BITCOIN) and the revived Bonk (BONK).

The latter became the leader in annual growth (+220%) among meme coins, reaching an all-time high on December 15.

Blockchain development

Four of 49 blockchain solutions made the top 15 trends, including Solana (SOL), BRC-20 tokens, Ethereum (ETH) and Avalanche (AVAX).

Notable performances were also from the L2-network Arbitrum, Base, zkSync Era and Mantle, but they did not make the list of leaders.

The most impressive development, in the researchers’ view, was Solana’s revival from the dead after the chain reaction from the FTX collapse.

«There were several notable projects in the Solana ecosystem. The BONK token drew attention with an airdrop for community members in the darkest times, signaling a turn for the better. Jito served as a liquidity-staking protocol for the blockchain, and Pyth became a promising oracle aiming to compete with Chainlink,” CoinGecko noted.

Experts also added that the growth of the ecosystem was driven by developers’ efforts and partnerships with major traditional companies such as Shopify and Visa.

Over the past year, SOL rose by more than 900%, ranking fifth by market capitalization with a value of $43.8 billion. On December 26 the asset reached a high not seen since April 2022, around $118.

Kaiko analysts noted increased activity among cryptocurrency traders, including a rise in average transaction volumes on both centralized and decentralized exchanges.