2024 marks a strong resurgence of the crypto market following a two-year-long bear market. So, which blockchains/projects stand out this year?

The recovery of the crypto market after 2023 paved the way for a positive 2024, with Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high and many on-chain metrics continuing to improve.
From the remarkable first year of Bitcoin spot ETFs in the U.S., the record supply of stablecoins, the revival of DeFi, the rise and fall of SocialFi, to the surge of predictions on Polymarket related to the U.S. elections, the crypto industry has experienced significant changes.
Here are 5 charts that highlight how the crypto industry has evolved in 2024, compiled by The Block:
Bitcoin Spot ETFs Completing Their First Year of Trading
On January 11, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved proposals for 11 Bitcoin spot ETFs on an accelerated basis.
These ETFs, including Ark Invest/21Shares, Bitwise, BlackRock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Grayscale, Invesco, Valkyrie (now part of CoinShares), VanEck, and WisdomTree, began trading the very next day.
Additionally, Hashdex launched its Bitcoin spot ETF in March, and Grayscale released a mini Bitcoin ETF in July.

These Bitcoin spot ETFs have achieved the most successful debut in history across various aspects, competing with long-established ETFs like the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) and Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) Nasdaq-100 Index.
The Bitcoin spot ETFs attracted over 35 billion USD in net inflows, with Total Assets Under Management (AUM) reaching around 103 billion USD. This surge was driven by Bitcoin's sharp price increase from 42,000 USD on January 1, 2024, to nearly 100,000 USD.
The IBIT Bitcoin spot ETF from BlackRock dominated most of the metrics, with over 37 billion USD in net inflows and only 10 negative trading days throughout the year. Along with Bitcoin's price growth, the IBIT ETF reached 52 billion USD in AUM, capturing around 70% of the market share for Bitcoin ETFs.
However, the Ethereum spot ETFs launched in the U.S. in July did not replicate this success, garnering only about 2.6 billion USD in net inflows.
Stablecoin Supply Reaches Record High
The supply of stablecoins across blockchains and issuers has rebounded strongly, reaching a record high of over 200 billion USD in 2024. This figure surpasses the previous peak in April 2022, before the market entered a bearish trend following the collapse of companies and ecosystems like Terra, Celsius, and FTX.
With over 5.1 trillion USD in global trading volume in the first half of the year, stablecoins continue to maintain their position as the crypto asset with the highest trading volume in the world. This figure is nearly equivalent to 6.5 trillion USD in Visa’s trading volume during the same period. In Q3 2024, stablecoins generated an additional 3.1 trillion USD in trading volume.

In 2024, many large corporations, such as PayPal, have launched their own stablecoins, while others like Ripple, Revolut, and Robinhood are also making efforts to enter this space.
The technology is now being discussed at the highest levels of government, as stablecoins have emerged as a significant player in the market, holding U.S. government bonds, ranking as the 18th largest holder globally alongside sovereign nations.
Recently, Stripe confirmed its acquisition of the stablecoin API company Bridge for 1.1 billion USD, marking the largest deal in crypto history. Analysts from Bernstein suggest that Stripe’s acquisition signals the growing development and applicability of stablecoins as a legitimate use case for public blockchain.
As of now, Tether (USDT) continues to dominate the USD-pegged stablecoin market, with a supply of approximately 140 billion USD, representing 66% of the total supply. USDC by Circle holds the second position with over 43 billion USD (20%), while USDe by Ethena ranks third with around 6 billion USD (3%).
Regarding blockchain support, Ethereum leads in USDT supply, followed by Tron, while Ethereum also leads in USDC supply, with Solana, Arbitrum, and Base ranking second, third, and fourth, respectively.
Solana Leads DeFi Revival
Transaction fees within the DeFi sector saw a strong resurgence toward the end of 2024, reaching a peak of over 53 million USD per day and 881 million USD per month in November 2024. This trend continued into December, with daily fees rising to 55 million USD and monthly fees setting a new record at 893 million USD.
The Solana ecosystem has been the primary beneficiary of this increase, with trading volumes on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) surpassing 100 billion USD in November, more than double the 55 billion USD on Ethereum’s mainnet.
Solana’s native token SOL also reached a new all-time high of 263 USD, marking its first record since 2021.
This significant growth reflects the increasing adoption and expansion of stablecoin technology and decentralized finance, positioning these sectors as key drivers in the crypto industry for 2024.

The Solana-based platforms like Raydium, Jito, and Pump.fun recorded all-time high fees of $211 million, $199 million, and $93 million respectively in November 2024, as the number of active addresses on the blockchain surged.
Meanwhile, Uniswap on Ethereum also reached its largest DeFi fee in the network's history, totaling $97 million in November 2024, increasing to over $152 million in December.
Eden Au, Research Director at The Block, attributes the surge in activity to the memecoin craze, coupled with Solana's low transaction fees and user-friendly design. Au predicts that Solana will continue to attract retail users in the coming years.
As we approach a potential bull market in 2025, retail investors seeking higher returns are likely to flock to the memecoin space, with liquidity spreading from larger crypto markets. Memecoins have historically attracted significant attention during market upswings, driven by the combination of lower entry barriers and the allure of rapid, high-risk gains.

-- Eden Au, Research Director at The Block, commented. --

The rise and fall of SocialFi
SocialFi is a term that combines "social" and "finance," integrating blockchain technology into social networks to reward users for posting high-quality content and allow them to have better control over their personal data.
The platform Friend.tech, backed by Paradigm, once surpassed Ethereum in daily revenue in 2023. However, it couldn't sustain its surge in 2024 as transaction volume dramatically declined.
Friend.tech operates on Base, a Layer 2 chain developed by Coinbase, and uses "keys" to represent tokenized versions of user profiles, linked to their X accounts.
Owning a "key" of a user on Friend.tech grants access to their content and the ability to message them directly.

This platform experienced a brief growth spurt in May before token prices dropped by 20% after co-founder Racer hinted at leaving Base. The number of transactions nearly disappeared completely after this incident.
Eventually, the development team abandoned the project and declared it would relinquish control of the smart contract in September. While the platform could continue to operate, this made it impossible to deploy new features unless the protocol was forked to create a different version.
Meanwhile, the decentralized social network protocol Farcaster, co-founded by former Coinbase executives Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan, had a more successful year.
The platform peaked at 75,000 daily active users in May, thanks to features like Frames, which turn posts into interactive mini-apps, attracting many prominent figures from the Ethereum community.
However, Farcaster also saw a drop in activity, with about a 70% decrease from its May 2024 peak to the end of the year.
Polymarket surged ahead of the U.S. elections
Polymarket, a decentralized prediction platform based on Polygon, had one of the most successful years in the crypto industry.
Bets made using USDC on the platform surged ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November, attracting many international traders who placed bets on the winner.
In theory, U.S. residents are restricted from using Polymarket, but they can bypass geoblocks by using a VPN.

After gradually attracting attention throughout 2024, Polymarket's monthly trading volume reached $5 billion in October and November. This was during the intense race between Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
Among the many prediction markets related to the U.S. elections, including results in battleground states and which party will control Congress, the presidential race was the most popular market, accounting for over $3 billion in trading volume leading up to the election day.
The number of active traders on the platform also surged, peaking at over 300,000 in November and continuing to rise to more than 346,000 in December.
Polymarket's open interest (total value of unsettled contracts) reached a record high of $569 million on November 6, with the presidential election prediction market alone accounting for $287 million. After the election, activity slowed down, and open interest decreased to about $200-300 million.

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