According to a recent report by CoinGecko, AI tokens and meme coins emerged as the highest-grossing cryptocurrency stories of 2024. AI-related cryptocurrencies recorded an incredible profit of 2,939.8% year-to-date (YTD), while meme coins followed with a profit of 2,185.1%. These figures position AI and meme coins as double the profit compared to other major cryptocurrency stories.
Meme Coin Lag Behind AI in 2024
Meme coins witnessed explosive growth early in the year, with profits skyrocketing from 96.6% to 1,713.1% in March. Despite significant volatility, meme coins maintained their position as the top-performing story for most of 2024, even reaching a record profit of 3,211.4% on December 9. However, interest gradually declined by the end of the year, leading to a price drop.
Conversely, the story of AI drew attention in December, doubling profits from 1,598.1% to 2,939.8%. This surge was driven by the growing popularity of Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL), a cryptocurrency platform supporting AI that became the best-performing asset of 2024. By the end of December, AI tokens had surpassed meme coins to become the highest-grossing cryptocurrency story of the year.
RWA: The Third Profitable Story
Real World Asset (RWA) tokens secured the third position, providing an average YTD profit of 819.5%. RWA's growth was steady in early the year, reaching a profit of 365.3% by April 12. After several months of stagnation, momentum regained growth in November, thanks to the performance of MANTRA (OM).
Modest Growth for DeFi, DePIN, and Layer-1
Other stories, such as Layer-1, DePIN, and DeFi, announced modest profits in 2024. Layer-1 tokens recorded a profit of 142.5%, while DePIN and DeFi followed with 135.4% and 101.4%, respectively. Interestingly, Bitcoin's profit of 125.5% slightly outperformed Layer-1 and DePIN, proving that merely holding Bitcoin could match the gains of some top stories.
Poor Performance from Layer-2 and GameFi
Layer-2 and GameFi tokens performed significantly poorly. GameFi assets yielded only a 14.7% profit, with six of the top ten gaming tokens reporting losses ranging from 3.1% to 32.9%. Meanwhile, Layer-2 projects recorded a negative profit of 20.7%, marking the only losing story of 2024. Seven of the top ten Layer-2 tokens suffered price declines ranging from 6.3% to 75.3%.
In Summary
The cryptocurrency landscape of 2024 was shaped by the dominance of AI tokens and meme coins, with AI emerging as the clear winner by year-end. While Real World Asset tokens yielded high profits, traditional stories like DeFi and Layer-1 only showed modest increases. The poor performance of Layer-2 and GameFi tokens highlighted the challenges these sectors faced.
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