Original article by Binance Research

overview:

Following a strong performance in 2023, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization continued to climb in the first half of 2024, ultimately reaching approximately $2.27 trillion, a year-to-date increase of 37.3%. The first quarter of this year saw an astonishing increase of 60.2%. The second quarter was a relatively mixed situation, with the cryptocurrency market reversing some of its gains and the market capitalization falling by 14.3%.

Layer-1 (“L1”) started the year strong, with Bitcoin still dominating after the fourth Bitcoin halving, the launch of the Runes protocol, and the approval of a US spot ETF (which has attracted over $14 billion in inflows to date). Restaking activity in Ethereum exploded with updates to EIP-4844, while BNB Chain continued to drive development of opBNB and Greenfield. Meanwhile, Solana performed well in the memecoin space and launched blockchain links (“Blinks”).