2024 on-chain Data Annual Summary: Ten Key Points We Have Analyzed

Over the mountain, who is waiting.

Written by: ChandlerZ, Foresight News

In 2024, the cryptocurrency market reached a new peak with an unstoppable wave. Bitcoin, as the market’s benchmark, made a strong comeback and officially broke through the $100,000 mark, demonstrating its unique vitality. In this year, the cryptocurrency market experienced its fourth halving of Bitcoin, achieving historical highs in mining hash rate and market share. The launch of spot ETF accelerated the inflow of funds, and the on-chain ecosystem continued to evolve in the rise of DeFi, meme coins, and new public chains. Solana made a strong comeback, while the NFT market entered a phase of deflation. From the macro perspective to the micro data, the entire cryptocurrency market has shown new momentum and differentiation characteristics.

Standing at the crucial point of this cycle, on-chain data outlines the panoramic view of the crypto market, with accelerated capital inflow, diversified ecosystem expansion, and continuously emerging structural opportunities.

This annual summary will take you back to the 10 key points of the on-chain world in 2024, from macro trends to core indicators of segmented tracks, analyzing how the crypto market has crossed the hills and moved towards new heights in this year, providing data support and insights for future development.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin completes its fourth halving, mining difficulty and hash rate reach historic highs.

On April 20, 2024, Bitcoin successfully underwent its fourth halving at block height 840,000, reducing the mining reward from 6.25BTC to 3.125BTC. The inflation rate of Bitcoin dropped to 0.85%, lower than the previous period’s 1.7%. This change in data is an important milestone in the Bitcoin supply model, surpassing the stable issuance rate of gold (approximately 2.3%) in terms of scarcity for the first time, undoubtedly marking a milestone moment in its growth journey.

At the same time, the mining difficulty and the overall network hash rate of Bitcoin miners are steadily increasing. As of December 2nd, the mining difficulty of Bitcoin was increased by 1.59% at block height 872,928, reaching a historical high of 103.92 T, and the overall network hash rate also surged to 726.57 EH/s.

Data source: Foresight News, Glassnode

From the first halving of Bitcoin to the fourth halving today, each cycle has witnessed a double surge in price and computing power, reflecting the gradual maturity of the ecosystem. After the first halving, Bitcoin’s computing power increased by about 54400 times; the second halving brought an increase of 85 times; and despite the decreased return rate, the third halving still achieved a 409% increase. At the same time, the computing power has gradually entered a steady expansion from the exponential growth in the early cycles to a high base, and the current cycle has surpassed the threshold of 700 EH/s.

Despite the slowing growth of miners’ unit income due to the halving of Bitcoin rewards, the total income of miners in terms of US dollars is still expanding as the price of Bitcoin continues to rise. In the previous halving cycle, the cumulative income of miners exceeded 3 billion US dollars, showing an order of magnitude growth compared to the previous halving cycle. This performance further demonstrates that miners are participating in network operations in a more efficient manner while adapting to cost pressures.

Second, the halving effect is evident, and the current bull market is still far from over.

The “halving” has always been a key event in the Bitcoin market, representing a technical point where block rewards are reduced, and it is also an important catalyst for market sentiment and capital flow. The historical price trends starting from the halving day indicate significant differences in market performance during different halving cycles, reflecting the gradually mature trajectory of the market and the complex interaction of supply and demand dynamics and market expectations. In the first halving cycle, the Bitcoin price increased by 5315%, with a maximum drawdown of 85%; in the second halving cycle, it increased by 1336%, with a maximum drawdown of 83%; in the third halving cycle, the growth slowed to 569%, with a maximum drawdown reduced to 77%.

This gradually smooth fluctuation indicates that the expansion of the market size and the increase in capital flow are buffering the diminishing returns effect brought about by halving.

Data source: Foresight News, Glassnode

From the perspective of supply and demand, the halving market is not simply driven by a reduction in supply, but rather the result of a dynamic balance of supply and demand and the interplay of market expectations. The early entry of institutional funds and long-term layout have established new price support for the market, while retail FOMO sentiment has further amplified the gains.

It is worth noting that in this halving cycle, for the first time, it broke the all-time high (ATH) before the halving. Judging from the overall performance before and after the halving, the current market is still in an upward phase, and future growth may continue to find new balance points in the supply and demand game.

The pullback of this bull market is much smaller than previous cycles.

A significant feature of this round of the Bitcoin market is that the magnitude of the pullback has significantly decreased, demonstrating unprecedented buying power and market resilience. Compared to deep pullbacks of 30% or even over 50% in previous cycles, the deepest pullback in this round is only around 30%, which indirectly confirms the improvement in the overall supply-demand relationship in the market and also demonstrates the dual support of institutional funds and positive policy changes. In particular, the approval of the US Bitcoin spot ETF and positive changes in the related policy environment have injected long-term funds into the market and boosted investor confidence.

Data Source: Foresight News, Glassnode

This shallow pullback phenomenon can be seen as a sign of the gradual maturation of the market structure. With the deep participation of institutional investors, the Bitcoin market is transitioning from the early stage driven by retail investors with high volatility to a more stable development dominated by institutional funds. At the same time, the launch of spot ETFs has also provided a convenient entry channel for long-term funds, reducing the sharp pullbacks caused by short-term market sentiment fluctuations.

Bitcoin market dominance climbed to a multi-year high

The Bitcoin Dominance Index (BTC.D) is an important indicator that measures the proportion of Bitcoin’s market value to the entire cryptocurrency market. Since September 2022, Bitcoin’s market dominance has been on the rise, reaching over 60% at one point in 2024 with a yearly increase of over 10%, setting a new high since April 2021. This phenomenon can be observed throughout Bitcoin’s historical cycles and usually signifies the influx of capital in the early stages of a bull market.

According to the past patterns, the start of a bull market phase is often accompanied by the rise of Bitcoin’s market dominance, because more funds flow into Bitcoin as the core asset of the market at this stage, while the performance of other tokens lags behind. When Bitcoin’s market dominance reaches a peak, market liquidity and investment sentiment often approach a critical point. At this time, investors start to take profits, and Bitcoin’s market dominance begins to decline, gradually shifting funds to the market of altcoins, forming the so-called ‘Altcoin Season’.

Data Source: Foresight News, CoinMarketCap

However, the difference in the rise of Bitcoin’s market dominance in this round is that the deep involvement of institutional funds and the approval of spot ETFs further strengthen Bitcoin’s dominant position, making it significantly more attractive compared to other assets. This may mean that the peak of Bitcoin’s market dominance will be more sustainable in future bull markets, and the arrival of the ‘Altcoin Season’ may be postponed or weakened, and the market structure may gradually tend towards a more centralized pattern.

Market

Five, funds accelerate entry: Bitcoin spot ETF net inflows surged, stablecoin market value also climbed simultaneously

On January 11, 2024, the SEC announced the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF for trading in an expedited manner and authorized the simultaneous listing of 11 ETFs. This news quickly ignited market enthusiasm and triggered a massive influx of institutional funds. With the official launch of the Bitcoin spot ETF, the various Bitcoin spot ETFs have currently locked in holdings of over 1.316 million Bitcoins, accounting for 6.267% of the total supply, a significantly higher proportion than the 2.522% holdings of governments worldwide and the total holdings of private and listed companies.

Data Source: Foresight News, Glassnode, BitcoinTreasuries

As of the time of writing, the net asset value of the Bitcoin spot ETF is 1157.80 billion US dollars, with a total cumulative net inflow of 370.09 billion US dollars.

On the other hand, the continuous expansion of the stablecoin market, especially the large-scale issuance of Tether, has become another important driving force for external capital inflows. In November 2024 alone, Tether has issued more than 13 billion USDT, reaching the fastest issuance speed since 2021. According to DefiLlama data, the total market value of stablecoins has exceeded 200 billion US dollars, now reporting 204.13 billion US dollars, a new historical high.

Source of data: Foresight News, IntoTheBlock

Among them, the market value of USDT has risen to 140 billion U.S. dollars, once again refreshing the historical record, accounting for 68.96% of the total stablecoin market value. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in March 2023 became a turning point in the stablecoin market structure, leading to a significant shrinkage in the share of USDC, while the supply of USDT continued to grow steadily.

Top 20 Increases (Market Value within 200): The Rise of New Public Chains and Memes

In 2024, Meme tokens and new public chains show a distinct trend. In order to accurately depict the development of this year, we focus on the annual increase of the top 200 tokens by market value. The results show that Meme tokens and new public chains have become the most active tracks in the market. Among them, Meme tokens such as Popcat, SPX6900, and Mog Coin have increased by more than 5000%. From being initially derivatives of entertainment and topics to the current consensus and brand effect driven by the community, the Meme economy has attracted the participation of a large number of retail investors, thereby driving prices to rise rapidly and forming a unique market behavior pattern.

Data Source: Foresight News, CoinMarketCap (to be processed into a table)

The new public chain track has shown strong performance, and projects such as Mantra, AIOZ Network, and Sui have taken a place in the market with the dual drive of technological innovation and ecological expansion. These public chains do not rely solely on the advantage of general-purpose technology, but focus on unique track positioning and differentiated development.

For example, Mantra’s transformation to the RWA public chain further explores the connection between on-chain asset tokenization and the real-world financial market; AIOZ Network, with AI+DePIN as its core, creates a Layer 1 specifically designed for AI applications and decentralized infrastructure design; while SUI’s innovation is reflected in its SUI Move language, which enhances the development efficiency and security of smart contracts through a new programming language design, and also optimizes the user experience in on-chain interactions.

The emergence of Meme Launchpad is the key to the surge of new tokens.

In the early days, Ethereum became the primary choice for Meme tokens due to its mature smart contract standards, and in 2024, the rise of Meme Launchpad platforms such as Pump.fun further drove this trend.

According to data from The Block, as of September 30th this year, Solana accounted for 96,010 out of 110,180 new tokens issued on all tracked chains, representing over 87% of all new tokens appearing on DEX. The number of new tokens on the Solana blockchain soared from close to zero at the beginning of 2024 to consistently over 100,000 per month in the middle of the year. While Solana is in a leading position, Base has also performed well. Since April, these two chains together have accounted for over 80% of the new token issuance.

Data Source: Foresight News, The Block

The design of Pump.fun simplifies the issuance process of Meme coins, allowing users to quickly create their own tokens through simple operations. Its unique bonding curve pricing mechanism enables token prices to automatically adjust with changes in demand, while the liquidity injection function of smart contracts ensures the liquidity of new tokens in the early stages of trading. This innovative model, characterized by low thresholds and high liquidity, greatly stimulates community vitality and synchronously promotes the development of Solana.

The dying Solana DeFi will make a strong comeback in 2024

The distribution and dynamic changes of the total TVL from various ecosystems show that Ethereum still dominates in 2024, with a share of 64.06%, consolidating its core position as the main DeFi platform. Solana ranks second with a share of 8.83%, demonstrating its strong recovery in 2024.

At the same time, the market share of chains such as BSC and Tron remains relatively stable, while emerging chains like Arbitrum and Sui demonstrate rapid growth potential. From the area chart, it can be observed that Ethereum’s proportion has slightly decreased since 2022, contrasting with the rise of other chains, especially Solana’s significant rebound in 2023. This trend reflects the accelerating maturity of the multi-chain ecosystem and the dynamic changes in the competitive landscape, although Ethereum still dominates, market resources are diversifying and specializing across chains.

Data source: Foresight News, DeFiLlama

The recovery of Solana is closely related to the prosperity of its ecosystem, especially the significant growth brought by the rise of the Sol series Meme tokens in 2024 for its on-chain users. The popularity of Meme tokens not only attracts new users to the Solana network but also greatly enhances on-chain activity and trading volume. These tokens inject new vitality into the Solana ecosystem, allowing it to quickly recover from the state of ‘sinking ecosystem’.

According to the latest data, Solana’s TVL has reached $21.4 billion, with a total market capitalization of over $100.6 billion. According to Blockworks Research statistics, in October of this year, Solana’s on-chain daily fees exceeded Ethereum’s for multiple days, and on October 24th, the income even exceeded tens of millions of dollars. In November, Solana accounted for nearly 50% of the monthly DEX trading volume across all chains, which is 175% higher than Ethereum’s approximately 18% share.

Nine, CEX dominates the market, while DEX is emerging in long-tail assets and cross-chain transactions.

In 2024, the trading volume of DEX fluctuated significantly, hovering between 10% and 15% overall, without significantly breaking new highs. In February, the ratio of DEX/CEX trading volume reached a yearly low of 7.88%, and then gradually recovered as the market recovered and liquidity improved.

The dominant position of CEX in the current market landscape is still difficult to shake, despite the obvious advantages of DEX in areas such as long-tail assets and cross-chain transactions. However, its overall share is still limited by challenges in terms of liquidity, user experience, and compliance. At the same time, the volatility in 2024 shows that the usage of DEX is highly related to market sentiment, and its trading activity will be enhanced when market risk appetite increases.

Data Source: Foresight News, The Block

In addition, compared to traditional CEX, the future of on-chain derivative trading is also rapidly opening up. Decentralized trading platforms like Hyperliquid are attracting more and more traders and institutions with liquidity and execution efficiency comparable to centralized exchanges, transparent operating mechanisms, innovative token economic models. The success of Hyperliquid demonstrates that on-chain derivative trading is continuously narrowing the gap with traditional CEX in terms of efficiency and depth, and through unique incentive models and an open ecosystem, it showcases the enormous growth potential of the on-chain derivative market.

The NFT frenzy struggles to return to its peak: the stage of deflating the bubble

The NFT market has experienced a certain degree of recovery at the end of the year after a long period of decline. According to a report by Galaxy Research, since the US presidential election in November, NFT trading volume has gradually rebounded, with weekly transaction volume reaching $172 million in early December, the highest level since May this year. This recovery is mainly driven by the increased activity of top market platforms OpenSea, Blur, and Magic Eden, with Blur and OpenSea accounting for 60% and 27% of the market share in the past 30 days, respectively. At the same time, blue-chip NFTs represented by the Pudgy Penguins series have performed particularly well, with their floor prices rising by 206% and 265% respectively.

Data source: Foresight News, The Block

However, despite the increase in trading volume, the market as a whole is still in the process of de-bubbling. Compared with the NFT craze in 2021, the current rebound is more driven by top blue-chip projects and core user communities, rather than large-scale market enthusiasm or speculative behavior. The trading ecosystem of NFTs is also gradually adjusting, shifting from simply relying on high speculative returns to focusing more on the actual application scenarios of projects and community participation.

Summary

Overall, the cryptocurrency market ushered in a new highlight in 2024, demonstrating strong resilience and vitality. As a barometer of the market, Bitcoin attracted deep institutional participation with the promotion of spot ETFs, and its continued increase in market share solidified its position as a core asset.

The rise of new public chains and meme coins has created a unique prosperity on the edge of the market, demonstrating the strong potential of community-driven and innovative economies. Whether it is the continuous innovation of DeFi or the accelerated landing of RWA, the diversified development of the on-chain ecosystem and the gradual improvement of infrastructure in the past year have created more possibilities for future market growth.

The market performance in 2024 is not just a cyclical prosperity, but also a brewing of a new order. In the upcoming new stage, the cryptocurrency industry may further consolidate its important position in the global economic map, laying a solid foundation for the future development of digital finance and on-chain economy.

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