In October 2024, the cryptocurrency market saw a 2.8% increase in total market capitalization, driven by significant BTC spot ETF inflows and positive U.S. job data. The market is also anticipating potential regulatory shifts from the U.S. presidential election. However, external challenges such as the Israel-Iran conflict and allegations against Tether for funding illegal activities have emerged.
Bitcoin’s correlation with the S&P 500 is nearing all-time highs, reflecting shifting sentiment as it’s increasingly viewed as both a risk-on asset and hedge against macro uncertainties. Historically, its correlation with equities has been weak, with brief spikes - often driven by liquidity or interest rate shifts - typically proving short-lived. Whether this trend will persist remains to be tested with time.
Revenues earned by on-chain applications have been increasing, potentially signaling an increase in user adoption. Currently, out of the 15 highest revenue earning chains and applications, 13 are applications. This could be an early indication that a significant proportion of industry-wide revenue will accrue to applications rather than the underlying infrastructure.
Solana has emerged as the leading blockchain for new token launches. The surge in popularity of memecoins and the launch of the memecoin launchpad pump.fun have significantly lowered barriers for token creation, driving a proliferation of new tokens on the Solana network. This ease of token creation has fueled a frenzy of speculative activity, with Solana capturing a record 90.6% of all token launches in the week ending on October 21.
Memecoins saw strong activity in October, with four out of the top five performing tokens over the last 30 days being memes. Memecoin share relative to the top 50 altcoins (by market capitalization) has also steadily increased, from ~6% in 2024 to upwards of 12% in 2024 so far. On certain days, this number has also exceeded 20%. In terms of underlying numbers, memecoins have averaged approximately US$5B in daily trading volume since February.
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