Introduction
In the 2024 cryptocurrency world, it is no longer a rollercoaster of daily highs and lows but resembles a gradually stable, somewhat dull textbook story.
This does not mean that 2024 is unimportant. This year, significant events that laid the foundation for the entire industry occurred in various aspects, including regulation, technological innovation, and applications. Even Taiwan has participated more than ever before.
This year is a crucial moment to redefine future development trends. (WEB3+) closely tracks global cryptocurrency dynamics and selects the 10 most influential events both domestically and internationally, outlining the core developments behind these events.
January - Cryptocurrency spot ETF approval
February - SOL meme craze
March - Ethereum Cancun upgrade
March - SBF conviction
April - Bitcoin halving
May - TON gaming wave
June - Taiwan Association establishment
June - Financial Supervisory Commission established RWA working group
September - Binance founder CZ released from prison
November - Bitcoin reaches new high
Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs approved
The U.S. approved a Bitcoin spot ETF on January 10, and about six months later, on July 23, it also approved an Ethereum spot ETF, marking a key step for cryptocurrencies entering the traditional financial market.
Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs refer to investment portfolios that track the prices of these two mainstream cryptocurrencies. Simply put, investors who want to enter the world of cryptocurrencies no longer need to deal with wallets or understand exchange rules; they can join through the stock market, significantly lowering technical and operational barriers.
On the other hand, this also reflects the trend of regulatory agencies gradually accepting cryptocurrency assets, injecting greater legitimacy and stability into cryptocurrencies, and attracting more institutional investors into the market, further driving the value growth of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
SOL meme craze
The meme craze has made Solana the most vibrant and discussed ecosystem this year. Due to its scalability, which can handle thousands of transactions per second, and low transaction fees, more and more developers are trying to create new tokens in this ecosystem, sparking waves of investment enthusiasm.
Various meme coins have emerged on the Solana chain since the end of 2023, igniting a wave where it is difficult to distinguish between investment and speculation. For example, since its launch on Thanksgiving 2023, Dog Hat Coin's price skyrocketed nearly 1,000% in just one month, triggering a 'Dog Hat Craze'. In March this year, Dog Hat Coin's market capitalization even set a record of $3 billion, being a coin that 'took off' alongside Solana.
Another representative meme coin, BOOK OF MEME (BOME), issued by Pepe the Frog meme artist Darkfarm, surged in price by 1,924% in just a few days after being listed on major exchanges like Binance. As the enthusiasm for $BOME has not yet waned, a new meme coin Sloth Coin ($SLERF) has emerged.
A variety of animals have become the protagonists of memes, including the 'cat series' meme coins such as '$SC', '$MEW', '$POPCAT', and '$WEN', which are also welcomed by the Solana ecosystem.
Ethereum Cancun upgrade
Ethereum's 'Cancun upgrade' was completed on March 13, 2024, making the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem faster and cheaper, thereby solidifying its dominant position in blockchain applications.
After this upgrade, the ability of Ethereum to process data significantly increases, allowing more transactions to be completed on Layer 2 solutions, relieving pressure on the main network, thus reducing transaction fees (Gas Fees) and enhancing overall network scalability.
Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin stated that after the Cancun upgrade, Layer 2 fees dropped significantly, sometimes by as much as 50 times, which is quite successful from a technical perspective.
When blockchain transaction fees decrease and speeds increase, it becomes more conducive to the development of decentralized applications (DApps) and global decentralized finance (DeFi) projects, allowing more developers and users to participate at lower costs and faster speeds.
These technological improvements not only enhance the competitiveness of the Ethereum network but also solidify its dominant position in DeFi and application ecosystems.
SBF convicted (girlfriend too)
32-year-old FTX founder SBF was sentenced to 25 years in prison for orchestrating a series of frauds and must pay up to $11 billion in fines and asset forfeiture. As the founder of FTX and Alameda Research, SBF is accused of misappropriating billions of dollars in customer funds, deceiving FTX investors out of over $1.7 billion, and defrauding Alameda's lending institutions of over $1.3 billion.
Additionally, SBF's ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison was sentenced to 2 years in prison in September 2024 and was ordered to forfeit $11 billion in criminal proceeds. As a close collaborator of SBF, her former boss and boyfriend, Ellison provided substantial favorable testimony during the FTX bankruptcy trial, aiding prosecutors in successfully convicting SBF. However, despite her cooperation with the prosecution, she still faced punishment and was ultimately sentenced to 2 years in prison.
U.S. Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan affirmed Ellison's cooperation with the word 'remarkable' during the sentencing but emphasized that this case is one of the 'most serious financial fraud cases' in U.S. history. The judge stated that the punishment for Ellison is necessary to deter others from engaging in similar behavior. He noted that cryptocurrency fraud is relatively easy to implement and has attracted many criminals.
Ellison admitted to multiple charges, including wire fraud and money laundering. Besides imprisonment, she was also required to pay $11 billion in criminal proceeds.
Both SBF and Ellison were sentenced this year, temporarily concluding the FTX bankruptcy case, while the other two core figures in the FTX incident, co-founder Gary Wang and former engineering director Nishad Singh, will also face trial this autumn.
Bitcoin Halving
Bitcoin halving (Bitcoin Halving) is a significant event that occurs approximately every four years on the Bitcoin blockchain, and its most important impact is that the mining rewards for miners will be halved.
As of 2024, Bitcoin has undergone three halving events, occurring in 2012, 2016, and 2020. These halving events have gradually reduced miners' rewards from the initial 50 Bitcoin to the current 6.25 Bitcoin. The fourth Bitcoin halving event was completed on April 20 this year, with miners' block rewards halving again to 3.125 Bitcoin.
The impact of Bitcoin halving on the market usually triggers significant volatility. Historically, halving events have often been associated with upward price trends for Bitcoin, as the reduction in supply alongside increased market demand may drive prices up. However, this is not an immediate phenomenon; market prices may reflect the effects of halving over time.
Additionally, due to the halving event causing miners' income to drop by half while total operating costs remain unchanged, it could lead to some smaller miners exiting the market, subsequently affecting the security and decentralization of the Bitcoin network.
Taiwan Association establishment
The Taiwan Virtual Asset Service Provider Association (VASP Association) was officially established on June 13, 2024, composed of 24 cryptocurrency companies to jointly promote self-regulatory standards for Taiwan's crypto industry.
According to a report by the chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission, Peng Jinlong, Taiwan will adopt a gradual regulatory approach for the crypto industry, which will be divided into four phases.
Phase one: Release 'Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Regulations for Virtual Currency Platforms and Trading Businesses' to start regulating VASPs.
Phase two: Promote the establishment of a VASP industry association and develop self-regulatory standards.
Phase three: Amend the Anti-Money Laundering Act to include VASP registration systems, clarify VASP definitions, and impose criminal liability on illegal operators to strengthen regulation, and consider differentiated management in subsidiary laws.
Phase four: Promote the legislation of specialized laws for virtual asset management to effectively regulate market behavior and foster the healthy development of financial technology and the VASP industry.
The establishment of the Taiwan VASP Association can be seen as an important milestone in the development of Taiwan's cryptocurrency and blockchain industry.
By cooperating with government agencies and financial regulatory departments, the association hopes to establish a more robust crypto industry ecosystem, attracting more domestic and foreign enterprises and investors to enter the Taiwanese market.
TON gaming wave
The 'play-to-earn' model on the TON ecosystem has sparked a trend on the messaging app Telegram. The concept of these games is straightforward: players can start the game directly on Telegram and then frantically click on the coins or icons in the center of the screen to earn points or game currency.
Notcoin is one of the early 'play-to-earn' games and conducted a large-scale token airdrop in May 2024. Another super popular click game is Hamster Kombat, which had over 300 million players by the end of July. Besides these two games, Musk Empire and Catizen are also popular play-to-earn games with millions of players participating in airdrops.
By launching tokens on TON, these games can reach Telegram's massive user base of over 900 million. Compared to most crypto games or applications, the user experience is much simpler, as these games often airdrop tokens later on, so users do not need to set up a crypto wallet before playing. As long as you have Telegram, you can directly enter the game, click, and earn.
Sébastien Borget, co-founder of the metaverse platform The Sandbox, believes that games like Hamster Kombat on the Telegram platform are growing rapidly, proving the speed of innovation, and these games are changing the way players earn income. At the same time, this also shows how Web3 can drive rapid industry expansion to incredible scales in a short time.
The Financial Supervisory Commission established the RWA working group
To explore the preparations needed to promote 'tokenization of real-world assets' in Taiwan, the Financial Supervisory Commission collaborated with the Fintech Co-Creation Platform's 'Regulatory Technology and Research Application Group' to gather the Taiwan Central Securities Depository (hereinafter referred to as the Depository) and six financial institutions to form the 'Real-World Asset Tokenization Working Group', which held its inaugural meeting on June 13, 2024.
Currently, there are many international cases regarding financial RWA products.
For instance, the well-known 'Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund' (FOBXX) is currently ranked among the top three in market value in the U.S. Treasury RWA category on the data analysis website rwa.xyz. This tokenized government money fund invests at least 99.5% of its total assets in U.S. government securities, cash, and fully collateralized repurchase agreements. FOBXX's transfer agent, Franklin Templeton Investor Services, maintains the official records of equity through a proprietary blockchain integration system.
Transactions on the blockchain occur year-round; FOBXX can be traded at any time, and users can purchase it through the Franklin's Benji Investments application. Additionally, asset management giant BlackRock, the world's largest ETF issuer, also entered the RWA space in March this year by launching the asset tokenization fund 'BlackRock Dollar Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund' on Ethereum, using a token named BUIDL as the fund representative.
RWA is changing traditional financial transaction models. Now that the Financial Supervisory Commission has established the RWA working group, it is even more exciting to anticipate what innovative applications will emerge in Taiwan's future financial transactions.
Binance founder CZ released from prison
In November 2023, Binance founder Zhao Changpeng (CZ) reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and other agencies, admitting to violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws and U.S. sanctions regulations, among other criminal charges, and aside from resigning, he also paid a hefty fine.
Binance is being sued because the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged Binance and Zhao Changpeng in June 2023 with violating U.S. securities laws, bringing 13 charges including 'illegally selling securities to U.S. investors' and requesting the Chicago federal court to confiscate Binance's illegal proceeds, impose fines, and permanently prohibit Binance from trading.
In September 2024, Zhao Changpeng officially completed his prison term after nearly four months of confinement, concluding the U.S. government's long-standing investigation into Binance.
Bitcoin reaches a new high
On March 14, the price of Bitcoin reached $73,737.94, breaking the historical high of $68,990 set on November 10, 2021, marking the first price record breakthrough of 2024.
Cryptanalysis firm Swissblock believes that the U.S. approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF in January this year drove up Bitcoin prices and stimulated more robust trading from Bitcoin spot ETFs, forming a positive cycle.
In November, close to the U.S. elections and after Donald Trump won the presidency, Bitcoin surged, reaching a peak of $99,655 according to price data from CoinMarketCap.
The U.S. elections are one of the main reasons for the return of this bullish market. Market experts believe that Trump's cryptocurrency-friendly stance has made investors more willing to support Bitcoin.
In addition to coin prices, investors are optimistic about the capital inflow into Bitcoin ETFs, with experts predicting more cryptocurrency ETFs will be launched as many issuers have made ample preparations for potential market changes due to the election results and are accelerating new product launches.
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