Original text: Coingecko
Translated by: Yuliya, PANews
(Top 10 leading projects in 2024: Highest increase over 230 times, with 7 Meme coins on the list) This analysis has attracted widespread attention. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the development trends in the cryptocurrency market, this study analyzes key narrative themes in the cryptocurrency market from January 1 to December 29, 2024, based on market data from CoinGecko. By tracking the performance of the top ten tokens for each theme, the relative average returns from the beginning of the year (or the first trading day) were calculated. The study selected representative tokens with high market capitalization rankings at the end of the period and excluded specific public chain ecosystems and areas with high overlap with other themes. The results show significant differences in annual returns across different narrative themes, ranging from -20.7% to +2,939.8%.
AI and Meme coins lead the market
The most outstanding cryptocurrency narrative theme in 2024 is the AI sector, with an average increase of 2,939.8% year-to-date (YTD). Following closely is the Meme coin sector, which achieved a return of 2,185.1% for the year. The returns from these two sectors far exceed those of other popular narrative themes by more than double.
The Meme coin sector began to lead significantly in March, with monthly returns soaring from 96.6% to 1,713.1%. Despite extreme volatility, the Meme coin sector maintained the highest returns for most of 2024. However, after reaching a historical high return of 3,211.4% on December 9, the sector experienced a correction as market interest waned.
In contrast, the AI sector experienced a strong rebound at the end of the year, with returns in December nearly doubling from 1,598.1% to 2,939.8%. This was mainly due to the explosive growth of the AI agency platform Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL), which also became the token with the largest increase in the cryptocurrency market this year. Ultimately, the AI sector surpassed Meme coins by the end of December to become the annual return champion.
The Real World Assets (RWA) sector ranks third with an annual average return of 819.5%. This sector performed steadily at the beginning of the year, with returns reaching 365.3% by April 12, followed by sideways consolidation over the next six months. In November, driven by the price surge of MANTRA (OM), the RWA sector resumed its upward trend.
Layer 1, DePIN, and DeFi sectors performed mediocrely
Layer 1, decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) and decentralized finance (DeFi) sectors performed similarly in 2024, recording returns of 142.5%, 135.4%, and 101.4% respectively. This means that Layer 1 and DePIN slightly outperformed Bitcoin's 125.5% increase during the same period, while the DeFi sector's performance was even below that of Bitcoin.
In other words, conservative investors holding only Bitcoin can achieve returns comparable to at least three major narrative themes.
The gaming and Layer 2 sectors performed poorly
GameFi and Layer 2 became the worst-performing sectors in 2024, even lower than Ethereum's 49.0% increase. Specifically, the GameFi sector only rose 14.7% over the year, with six of the top ten gaming tokens experiencing declines ranging from 3.1% to 32.9%.
Layer 2 is the only sector to record negative returns this year, down 20.7%. As projects seek to launch their own Layer 2 solutions, seven of the top ten Layer 2 tokens saw price declines ranging from 6.3% to 75.3%.
The most profitable crypto narratives
Performance of cryptocurrency narratives in 2024, ranked by the average annual price return of their top 10 tokens:
