The world of cryptocurrency never fails to surprise, and 2024 has been no exception. From groundbreaking technological advancements to pivotal regulatory shifts and market-defining events, the crypto landscape has seen it all this year.
Whether you’re a seasoned investor, a blockchain enthusiast, or simply someone intrigued by the future of digital assets, 2024 has provided plenty of moments that demand attention.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the most significant happenings that shaped the crypto industry this year as covered by BitKE, unpacking their implications for the market and the broader financial world.
Buckle up as we dive into the stories that defined crypto in 2024.
1) Approval of Bitcoin ETFs (January 11)
The year began amid growing expectations that the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission would approve the listing of Bitcoin spot Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) after years of resistance.
The announcement finally came on January 11 2024, but not after some drama. Hours ahead of the announcement, the SEC released a tweet declaring the ETFs approved, only for Chairman, Gary Gensler, to claim the organization’s X (Twitter) account had been hacked.
MILESTONE | ‘We Do not Approve Nor Endorse Bitcoin,’ Says United States SEC as it Approves 11 Spot #Bitcoin ETFs
This development represents a historic milestone in the integration of Bitcoin into traditional financial markets.
Below are the 11 approved products.… pic.twitter.com/Zn41cG9Ji0
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) January 11, 2024
When the approval was announced, it came via a notice by SEC Secretary, Vanessa Countryman.
“While we approved the listing and trading of certain spot Bitcoin ETP shares today, we did not approve or endorse Bitcoin.
Investors should remain cautious about the myriad risks associated with Bitcoin and products whose value is tied to crypto,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler in a statement.
Below are the 11 approved Bitcoin ETF products:
Blackrock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT)
ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB)
WisdomTree Bitcoin Fund (BTCW)
Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF (BTCO)
Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB)
VanEck Bitcoin Trust (HODL)
Franklin Bitcoin ETF (EZBC)
Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust (FBTC)
Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund (BRRR)
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC)
Hashdex Bitcoin ETF (DEFI)
As of December 27 2024, the cumulative net inflow of funds into the products is $35.66 billion, according to SoSo value. Altogether the ETFs hold $106.8 billion in total net assets, which equates to 5.70% of the Bitcoin market cap.
2) The 4th Bitcoin Halving (April 20)
Bitcoin’s 4th halving event was the second biggest moment in crypto in 2024.
BITCOIN | #Bitcoin Completes its 4th Halving, Miner Rewards Slashed from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC
Despite this reduction, miners still earn transaction fees for each block they mine as usual.https://t.co/l6WX2PYd15 pic.twitter.com/JxhoBkRXYp
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) April 20, 2024
The halvings are designed to happen automatically every 210,000 blocks, which translates to approximately every four years. When a halving occurs, miners see a 50% reduction in the number of bitcoins they receive as a reward for mining and adding blocks to the blockchain.
Bitcoin had experienced three halving events before:
The first halving occurred in 2012, decreasing the subsidy from 50 BTC to 25 BTC
Subsequently, in 2016, the subsidy was further reduced to 12.5 BTC.
The most recent halving took place on May 11, 2020, bringing the subsidy down to 6.25 BTC.
On the same day, Bitcoin witnessed more innovation with the introduction of Runes protocol, a second standard used for creating NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain.
INTRODUCING | Runes Protocol, ‘Built for Degens and MemeCoins,’ Goes Live on #Bitcoin Blockchain Following the Halving
The excitement surrounding Runes originates from the success of Rodarmor’s prior project, the Ordinals protocol. Ordinals brought NFT-like ‘inscriptions’ to… pic.twitter.com/XReMRXcxgI
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) April 20, 2024
Introduced by Casey Rodarmor, the founder of the Ordinal Protocol, Runes proposes a new token standard that simplifies the process of creating fungible (replaceable by an identical item) tokens that can be used and managed on the Bitcoin network.
Prior to that, ordinal inscriptions based on the Ordinal Protocol, had become popular among some Bitcoin users with Yuga Labs revealing in March that they made over $16 million (735.7 bitcoin) from the auction of 300 bitcoin NFTs.
[EXPLAINER] What Are Bitcoin Ordinals (NFTs on the Bitcoin Blockchain) and How Do They Work
Are #Bitcoin Ordinals an upgrade to #NFTs on the Ethereum Network due to their true on-chain nature?https://t.co/WnKUyasPm0 pic.twitter.com/71rT3Vekhz
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) March 12, 2023
3) Approval of ETH ETFs (May 23)
The United States Securities Exchange Commission granted accelerated approval to stock exchanges to list and trade shares of Ether ETFs late on May 23 2024 (American time).
The announcement set the stage for the listing of Ether ETF products by applicant institutions, most of whom had a few months earlier launched Bitcoin ETFs.
MILESTONE | United States Securities Regulator Approves Listing of Ether ETFs on Major Stock Exchangeshttps://t.co/GAFc3UxcIK
— Cryptolid.io (@Cryptolid_io) May 24, 2024
The institutional products include the following:
The converted Grayscale Ethereum Trust
Bitwise Ethereum ETF
iShares Ethereum Trust
VanEck Ethereum Trust
ARK/21 Shares Ethereum ETF
Invesco Galaxy Ethereum ETF
Fidelity Ethereum Fund
Franklin Ethereum ETF
As of December 27 2024, the cumulative net inflow of funds into the products is $2.68 billion, according to SoSo value. The ETFs hold $12.11 billion in total net assets, which equates to 3.01% of the Ether market cap.
5) Nigeria, South Africa Approve Crypto Exchanges (August 29)
Africa’s foremost crypto markets have introduced regulations to govern the activities of Virtual Asset Service Providers (2024).
On August 29 2024, Nigeria’s Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that two Digital Asset Exchanges received ‘Approval-in-Principle’ to begin operations under the Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Program (ARIP) introduced in June 2024.
REGULATION | Nigeria SEC Issues a Notice for Onboarding VASPs in 30 Days Due to ‘Current Realities’
Following the 30-day-period, the Commission indicated that it would commence enforcement action against any operating VASP that fails to comply with the directives.… pic.twitter.com/ThvMC4MwFQ
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) June 22, 2024
The ‘Approval-in-Principle’ is a preliminary step toward full registration by the SEC, ensuring that appropriate protection and transparency measures are in place for each product or service.
Additionally, five firms were admitted to test their models and technologies under the SEC’s Regulatory Incubation (RI) Program.
Meanwhile, South Africa which was the first country to introduce a crypto regulatory framework on the continent in 2022, has so far issued 248 crypto asset service provider licences as of December 16 2024.
REGULATION | South Africa Has Now Approved 248 Crypto Providers Out of 420 Received So Far, Only 9 Applications Rejected
This post identifies two key areas that resulted from applications getting rejected by the FSCA.https://t.co/9osgvhErjt @fscasouthafrica pic.twitter.com/2fvVgBZoty
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) December 16, 2024
4) Election of President Trump (November 6)
The impending victory of Republic candidate President-Elect Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election held on November 5 2024 represented one of the biggest moments for crypto this year for the hope and enthusiasm it elicited among crypto adherents in the U.S, and across the world.
Bitcoin rose above $75,000 on November 6 2024 when it became clear that Trump was going to defeat Democrat candidate Vice President, Kamala Harris, kick-starting a series of new ATHs for Bitcoin ahead of its current ATH of $108,135 achieved on December 17 2024.
DogeCoin, the popular meme cryptocurrency related to Trump supporter, Elon Musk, recorded the highest increase on the day, surging nearly 20%.
MARKET ANALYSIS | DogeCoin Searches Surge Over 700%
Over the course of just one day, searches for “Dogecoin” exploded, rising from an average of 76,141 daily searches to over 667,000 – a massive 776.55% increase.https://t.co/Y9oaTaFYAz @dogecoin pic.twitter.com/6n6z1PFneL
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) November 14, 2024
The biggest milestone came exactly a month later when the leading cryptocurrency finally crossed $100,000.
MILESTONE | #Bitcoin Surpasses the $100,000 Mark for the First Time in History
Since the start of 2024, Bitcoin is up by over 120% and by over 50% in the last one month since the election victory of U.S. President Donald Trump.https://t.co/Zc1PC4lDbM #Bitcoin100K pic.twitter.com/GnJYFtHqS4
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) December 5, 2024
Trump has said that crypto is essential to his vision of America in the future and pledged to ensure that the U.S. government never sells off its Bitcoin holdings and creates a Bitcoin ‘strategic reserve’. His election is widely expected to usher in a pro-crypto regulatory regime.
POLITICS | Trump to Unveil Plan to Make U.S. Crypto Capital of the Planet
“I’m laying out my plan to ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet.” – Donald Trumphttps://t.co/1xLHrrdre9 @realDonaldTrump @worldlibertyfi pic.twitter.com/sjQFxKxjZP
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) August 30, 2024
His other pledge to fire Securities Exchange Commission Chairman, Gary Gensler, was roundly celebrated by the crypto community. The agency revealed that Gensler will leave on Jan. 20.
The post-election optimism sparked record inflows into U.S Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) which received over $6.5 billion in November 2024 alone surpassing the $6 billion record achieved in February 2024.
MILESTONE | #Bitcoin ETFs Set a New Monthly Inflows Record in November 2024 – Now Account for Almost 6% of Total BTC Supply
The new record surpasses the February 2024 record.
Currently, all Bitcoin ETFs now hold around 1.128 million BTC.https://t.co/OYdtVhHF1U pic.twitter.com/AhL6P5YQpG
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) December 2, 2024
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