In the context of early January 2025, the cryptocurrency market continues to witness a strong recovery with Bitcoin leading this race. Current market conditions, as indicated by JPMorgan, continue to drive the 'debasement trade' trend - that is, buying assets like Bitcoin and gold to protect wealth from the weakening of fiat currencies due to inflation and changing policies.
Although Bitcoin has seen a significant price increase and attracted large inflows into the cryptocurrency market, there are still potential challenges. In particular, high bond yields and the strength of the US dollar may hinder Bitcoin's short-term growth. Especially in the cryptocurrency space, ETH prices have also experienced significant shifts due to the influence of DeFi protocols along with upcoming token events. This emphasizes the importance of macroeconomic indicators and discussions about regulations that could impact the overall industry landscape.
In the coming weeks, a series of events and speeches about cryptocurrency are scheduled, indicating a vibrant market environment. Notably, the Solana network has surpassed Ethereum and Base in trading volume on decentralized exchanges (DEX) in 24 hours, reaching nearly 3.8 billion USD on January 6, compared to 1.7 billion USD for Ethereum and 1.2 billion USD for Base. This increase highlights the growing importance of Solana in decentralized finance (DeFi) and its competitiveness with Ethereum.
The price of Solana has experienced remarkable growth compared to Ether since 2023, and its total value locked (TVL) has increased fivefold, from 1.4 billion USD to over 9.5 billion USD. A report from Grayscale Research also noted an increase in interest from retail traders, particularly in memecoins and AI tokens on the Solana platform.
Additionally, Raydium, Solana's leading DEX, witnessed a strong increase in daily trading volume, surpassing 3 billion USD by the end of December, although there was a slight decline compared to Uniswap's 92 billion USD in the same month. The trading activity of memecoins has become one of the key factors contributing to Raydium's volume, especially through platforms like Pump.fun, which has generated significant trading volume recently.
These moves form part of a larger picture regarding the continued development of cryptocurrency and potential changes in the market in the first half of 2025.
