In December 2024, the cryptocurrency market initially surged to a record US$3.91TB. This was fueled by regulatory optimism, institutional adoption, and Bitcoin's new all-time high of US$108k which was driven by MicroStrategy’s inclusion in the Nasdaq 100 as well as continued BTC acquisitions. The rally faltered in late December when the Federal Reserve reduced its planned 2025 rate cuts from four to two, despite a modest 0.25% cut during the month, triggering a sharp market correction that wiped over US$0.5TB from the cryptocurrency market capitalization.
After a stellar year, including multiple all-time highs, Bitcoin closed the year with a ~123.4% year-to-date (YTD) market cap growth. This achievement ranks it as the 7th largest global asset by market cap, ahead of Saudi Aramco and Silver. Among the top 10 global assets, Bitcoin is one of the best performers this year, second only to Nvidia. Key drivers included wider market resurgence coinciding with catalysts like spot ETF approvals, Bitcoin Halving, monetary policy shifts, and expectations of a more supportive regulatory environment. If this growth continues into 2025, Bitcoin could rise further in the rankings, strengthening its position as a leading asset class.
Ethena's USDe has rapidly scaled its market cap to around US$5.9B, surpassing DAI as the 3rd largest stablecoin by market capitalization. Its success has been driven by the high yield behind staked USDe, as well as the addition of sUSDe as a collateral asset on Aave in November.
Decentralized spot and perpetuals volumes reached all-time highs of US$326B and US$356B, respectively, in December. Decentralized perpetuals trading surged over 370% year-to-date, largely driven by Hyperliquid. Additionally, lending and liquid staking protocols achieved new TVL highs of US$55B and US$71B, respectively. The DeFi sector may be primed to experience further growth with the incoming pro-crypto Trump administration.
AI Agents are starting to become an increasingly visible part of the crypto world and growing in mindshare. In fact, the top AI agent tokens now command multi-billion dollar valuations and around 100K daily impressions. In general, we can consider two types of AI agent plays: platforms and individual agents. The top platforms include Virtuals and ai16z (the team behind the Eliza framework to launch your own agent). The most notable individual agent is aixbt, which provides daily market analysis on a range of crypto topics. While many other agents are focused on a similar use case, we also have a growing number of entertainment agents, with other types like trading-agents being built out.
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