2024 marked an inflection point for digital assets, with remarkable developments ranging from technological developments to strong market adoption. In its 2024 year-in-review report, HTX Ventures, the global investment arm of HTX, highlights five key sectors that showed exceptional growth.
The firm cited the Bitcoin ecosystem, infrastructure, meme coins, AI, and TON ecosystem — and outlined their prospects heading into 2025. Notably, analysts anticipate that a Donald Trump administration, beginning in January 2025, could provide additional regulatory and institutional tailwinds, further strengthening these sectors.
The Bitcoin Ecosystem
The HTX Ventures report highlights Bitcoin’s strong performance in 2024, with spot ETFs accounting for 5.3% of the total BTC supply. The report also points to the success of US-listed companies like MicroStrategy (MSTR), reflecting Bitcoin’s increasing institutional adoption as a dollar-denominated liquidity vehicle.
Trump is expected repeal of SAB 121 after his inauguration on January 20, 2025, could further solidify Bitcoin’s position. By allowing traditional financial (TradFi) institutions to hold crypto on their balance sheets, analysts expect a surge in Bitcoin demand as institutional adoption accelerates.
“This regulatory shift may position Bitcoin alongside AI as a core asset in dollar-driven economic cycles,” HTX Ventures stated.
Amid this trend, HTX Ventures stresses the growing need to develop Bitcoin’s Layer 2 (L2) ecosystem to enhance capital efficiency and scalability. Infrastructure projects targeting execution layers, interoperability, and improved security are gaining traction, unlocking new opportunities for Bitcoin’s utility.
Crypto Infrastructure
The report identifies crypto infrastructure as a key investment sector throughout 2024. Significant advancements occurred across Layer-1, Layer-2, and middleware projects, fueled by the adoption of new technologies and increased capital inflows.
For starters, Ethereum’s ecosystem improved Layer-2 (L2) performance, significantly reducing network fees and expanding user activity. At the same time, Layer-1s like Solana and TRON recorded soaring on-chain transactions, fueled by meme coin development and infrastructure innovations such as Pump.fun and SunPump.
Breakthroughs in cross-chain middleware further expanded interoperability across blockchain ecosystems. Modular public blockchains, like Celestia and Monad, introduced flexibility and scalability, attracting diverse, decentralized applications (dApps). Meanwhile, restaking protocols emerged to enhance network security and capital efficiency.
Looking ahead, HTX Ventures identifies infrastructure as a cornerstone of crypto’s evolution. L1 solutions, in particular, are expected to remain the focal point of both technical development and capital investment in 2025.
“Layer 1 now represents the most concentrated areas of technical development and exploration in the crypto space. It is expected to remain a key sector for development resources and capital investment in the future,” the report said.
Meme Coins as Retail Gateway
HTX’s venture arm also acknowledges that the meme coin sector exploded in 2024, offering novel ways to foster community consensus and integrate with fields like DeFi and GameFi. Solana’s support of meme projects injected fresh energy into its ecosystem, attracting substantial market attention.
Platforms like Pump.fun and SunPump emerged as leading infrastructure tools for meme coin fair launch, creating new avenues for capital inflows. They effectively lower launch costs and barriers, boost the market and community confidence, and drive increased participation. As a result, Meme projects have sustained their popularity throughout the year.
As crypto market conditions become more favorable, HTX Ventures anticipates increased retail investor participation in 2025, with meme coins serving as accessible entry points into the crypto market.
“Meme projects may become more diversified and practical in the future, with infrastructure potentially offering greater product functionalities, incorporating features tailored to specific use cases, such as gaming, NFTs, and social networking. As multi-chain ecosystems mature and real-world use cases expand meme coin infrastructure will continue injecting more vitality into this sector,” an excerpt in the report read.
The Crypto-AI Convergence
Additionally, the convergence of crypto and AI was a standout theme in 2024. Segmented fields like ZK/OPML, decentralized computing, AI data trading, and AI-powered games gained significant momentum. Of particular note is the rise of AI agents, which leverage blockchain’s token economy to incentivize behaviors such as trading, smart contract interactions, and automated queries.
HTX Ventures envisions AI agents growing into comprehensive personal assistants capable of independent asset management, viral marketing campaigns, and DAO formation. Over time, these AI-powered agents could even develop distinct cultures and behavioral ecosystems, a level of evolution unattainable in traditional Web2 systems.
TON Ecosystem and Telegram’s Potential
TON (The Open Network) ecosystem experienced a full-scale boom in 2024, leveraging Telegram’s massive user base to drive adoption across DeFi, NFTs, gaming, and meme coins. Meanwhile, novel models like “tap-to-earn” gaming with token incentives onboarded millions of Web2 users, bridging the gap between traditional applications and crypto.
HTX Ventures highlights projects like Notcoin and Catizen, which drew in a large number of Web2 users to the Telegram ecosystem. Nevertheless, it cites the need for TON to explore new business models in 2025 to sustain user retention and identify the next growth curve.
Indeed, this is true, considering user interest shifting away from tap-to-earn games. TON blockchain’s ability to monetize Web2 social applications through blockchain technology positions it as a key player in crypto’s mainstream adoption.
Outlook for 2025: Trump Administration Sparks Optimism
Looking ahead to 2025, analysts and market experts expect the Trump administration to serve as a bullish catalyst for crypto. Trump’s plans to repeal SAB 121 are widely viewed as a turning point for institutional adoption, opening the door for traditional financial institutions to hold crypto assets directly. This regulatory easing would accelerate the institutionalization of Bitcoin and other digital assets, providing new avenues for liquidity and financing.
With Bitcoin positioned as a core institutional asset, AI driving novel use cases, and infrastructure advancing fast, HTX Ventures remains optimistic about the industry’s long-term growth potential.
