The crypto-data aggregator CoinGecko has published seven key takeaways from the past year, rendered in charts and numbers.
Crypto-market capitalisation
Total crypto-market capitalisation rose 97.7% in 2024, peaking at $3.91 trillion in mid-December before consolidating around $3.4 trillion.
In the fourth quarter, market cap added 45.7% ($1.07 trillion). Average trading volume over the final three months of the year was $200.7 billion, up 128.2% from the prior period ($88 billion).
Bitcoin’s dominance
The first cryptocurrency strengthened its position relative to other assets. Bitcoin accounts for 53.6% of total crypto-market capitalisation.
Over the fourth quarter, the “digital gold” increased its dominance by 0.9%. At the same time, XRP grew its share by 2 percentage points to 3.5%.
Dogecoin (DOGE) broke into the top seven by market capitalisation, displacing USDC. Ethereum (ETH) continued to slide, with its share down to 11.8% — the lowest since April 2021.
Bitcoin versus TradFi
Bitcoin outperformed all major asset classes both in the fourth quarter and in 2024 as a whole.
For much of the year bitcoin only slightly outpaced rivals by returns, but after Donald Trump’s victory in the US election it set a new high of $108,000, up 121.5% year to date.
Traditional indices, government bonds and gold did worse. In the fourth quarter the Nasdaq 100 added 8%, the S&P 500 rose 3%, and the US dollar index gained 7%.
AI agents
The market capitalisation of AI-agent tokens jumped 322.2% in the fourth quarter, from $4.8 billion to $15.5 billion.
This category emerged in early October after the launch of GOAT. For now, notable AI agents exist only on Solana and Base, with the latter beginning to gain the upper hand.
L2 growth
Transaction counts across the ten largest Ethereum layer-2 networks nearly quadrupled in 2024 and rose 48% in the past quarter.
By transaction count the leading L2 was Base, accounting for 48.3% of the total. The network’s average daily figure in the fourth quarter was 7.2 million. Taiko was second by activity, ahead of Arbitrum.
Spot volumes
Spot trading volume on centralised exchanges reached $6.45 trillion in the fourth quarter, up 111.7% on the previous quarter and setting a new record.
For all of 2024, the figure was $17.4 trillion, compared with $7.2 trillion in 2023.
Binance remains the market leader, though its share fell to 34.7%. The fastest-growing exchange was Upbit, whose volume rose 314.8% from $135.5 billion to $561.9 billion quarter on quarter.
On-chain trading
In the fourth quarter Solana became the dominant blockchain by DEX volume ($220 billion). Its market share averaged 30%.
On Ethereum, the figure was $184 billion, with its dominance ranging from 25% to 28%.
Over the year, however, Ethereum edged out Solana — 33.5% versus 25.2%.
ForkLog has compiled its traditional New Year feature on the main trends and events of 2024.