Author: Zoltan Vardai, CoinTelegraph; Translated by Wu Zhu, Golden Finance
Bitcoin's historic rise to the $100,000 milestone featured many major cryptocurrency stories this year, further legitimizing the industry's status.
This year's events have brought a revival to many well-known crypto projects that had faced difficulties, including Ripple Labs, which achieved significant legal victories amid strong growth projections from U.S. securities regulators.
In addition to reaching new historical highs, in 2024, some of the world's largest institutions (such as BlackRock) renewed their interest in blockchain, launching various cryptocurrency-based products.
Moreover, the election victory of President Donald Trump in 2024 boosted investor interest in risk assets like cryptocurrencies, as the improved environment is expected to bring more regulatory transparency, especially for tokens like XRP.
Ripple Labs and the XRP token are set to achieve victory in 2024.
Despite more than four years of regulatory battles between Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the XRP token has proven its resilience among a strong holder base.
XRP and BTC, 1-year chart. Source: Cointelegraph
Over the past year, the XRP token has risen by over 251%, more than double Bitcoin's return rate of 117%. Data from Cryptobubbles shows this makes XRP the second-best performing currency among the top ten cryptocurrencies.
Top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Source: Cryptobubbles
Alvin Kan, COO of Bitget Wallet, stated that aside from the financial returns of the XRP token, Ripple Labs has also achieved some milestones over the past year.
He noted:
In 2024, Ripple and XRP will become significant milestones in the cryptocurrency space. After overcoming legal challenges, Ripple has solidified its position in cross-border payments, collaborating with over 300 financial institutions and a market capitalization exceeding $30 billion.
Ripple achieved a significant legal victory in July 2023 when a federal judge ruled that XRP is not a security, concerning the programmatic sales involving digital asset exchanges.
This marks a significant victory for Ripple, as the SEC's lawsuit sought to force Ripple to stop offering its XRP token on the premise that it is a security and thus requires additional regulation.
However, the SEC also successfully achieved its victories, as a federal judge ruled that XRP is a security when sold to institutional investors, as it met the conditions set out in the Howey test.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Ripple in December 2020. In August 2024, a judge ruled that the company should pay a civil fine of $125 million. The commission appealed the ruling, and Ripple filed a cross-appeal, leaving the civil case ongoing at the time of publication.
On October 16, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission submitted a civil appeal of type C, requesting the court to review its decision regarding Ripple's sale of XRP on exchanges and the personal XRP sales by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen.
Trump's upcoming inauguration, along with his choice of Paul Atkins as the SEC chairman, has rekindled investor hopes that the SEC may drop its legal action against Ripple Labs under a more innovation-friendly crypto regulatory framework.
Memecoin revival: 1,600% increase for PEPE and 1,400% increase for WIF attracting more retail investors.
Memecoin has also seen a significant revival, becoming one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies this year and creating new crypto millionaires in the process.
Top cryptocurrencies so far this year.
So far this year, the Solana-based Dogwifhat meme token has risen by over 1,273%, becoming the second-best performing token among the top 100 cryptocurrencies. Following closely is Pepe, which rose by 1,229%, ranking third.
PEPE and WIF, 1-year chart.
Reports on December 14 indicated that a savvy memecoin trader benefited from the rebound of Pepe, turning a $27 investment into $52 million after holding these tokens for 600 days.
Writer and intergovernmental blockchain expert Andy Lian stated that while 2024 is a revolutionary year for the entire crypto industry, meme coins represent a significant development.
He stated:
Memecoin is often seen as speculative and boring, but by integrating humor, culture, and financial innovation, it found new relevance in 2024. Tokens like Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and Neiro have gained attention, with Dogecoin even influencing U.S. politics through Elon Musk's appointment to the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.).
Lian added that memecoins demonstrate that community-driven projects have great growth potential.
Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research, wrote that some cryptocurrency traders view Pepe as the Dogecoin of this cycle, gaining attention due to Musk's ongoing social media posts.
Dogecoin may be on the verge of a breakthrough, as Elon Musk's ongoing influence keeps Dogecoin in the spotlight, often triggering price surges. The positive sentiment in the broader cryptocurrency market, especially for meme coins, provides additional momentum.
Excerpt from Donald Trump's DOGE statement shared by Elon Musk on X.
On November 27, after Musk's involvement in creating the newly established Department of Government Efficiency, Dogecoin disrupted Porsche's market capitalization, further sparking interest.
RWA tokenization is expected to see trillions of dollars of growth by 2030.
The tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) has also seen significant developments, thanks to its promise of bringing traditional finance on-chain and creating more liquidity and accessibility for investment products.
RWA tokenization refers to the minting of financial and other tangible assets on an immutable blockchain ledger, increasing investor access to these assets and trading opportunities.
Edwin Mata, co-founder and CEO of Brickken, pointed out that the launch of BlackRock's institutional digital liquidity fund (BUIDL) is a key moment in the RWA tokenization space.
BlackRock's launch of BUIDL on Ethereum is a decisive moment, showcasing how blockchain can provide real and tangible value to the financial world. This is not just a technical experiment—it restores credibility and trust to the blockchain ecosystem.
BlackRock's tokenized treasury fund surpassed $500 million in market value, becoming the first fund to reach this milestone in July 2024.
BlackRock's BUIDL surpassed Franklin Templeton’s Online U.S. Government Money Fund (BENJI) at the end of April, becoming the world's largest tokenized treasury fund, less than six weeks after its launch on March 15. Since then, it has maintained its top position.
The price of BUIDL is pegged 1:1 to the dollar and pays investors monthly accrued dividends directly through its partnership with the real-world asset tokenization platform Securitize.
Tokenized funds bring more transparency, liquidity, and accessibility to already trusted financial products, Mata added.
The crypto industry has faced criticism for its speculative nature and lack of integration with the traditional financial system. The world's largest asset management company, BlackRock, proves that blockchain can enhance, rather than replace, traditional finance.
In other notable developments in the RWA space, Tezos launched the world's first uranium market on the blockchain, enabling retail investors for the first time to access tokenized uranium.
Additionally, with the launch of Nayms, RWA is releasing new investment opportunities in the $700 billion reinsurance sector, as Nayms is a crypto-native (re)insurance market that provides insurance risks to tokenized investors through RWA tokenization.
According to predictions from some of the largest financial institutions and business consulting firms in the Tren Finance research report, the RWA industry could grow more than 50 times by 2030.
Most companies predict that the RWA industry's market size could reach $4 trillion to $30 trillion.
RWA tokenization, market size forecast for 2030. Source: Train Finance
If the industry achieves an approximately $10 trillion median forecast, its current value would increase by over 54 times.
2024 marks a significant revival for the crypto industry in terms of valuation and mainstream trust. Ripple's legal victories and growing interest in memecoins and RWA demonstrate the industry's increasing legitimacy for global retail participants and regulators.
