Market capitalisation for cryptocurrency soars — Report
The market capitalisation for cryptocurrency soared by a staggering 96.2 per cent, making 2024 a game-changing year for the fast-developing industry.
This was primarily driven by strong gains in the first and fourth quarters of the year in review.
The launch of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs in January was pivotal, propelling market sentiment and attracting a fresh wave of capital.
Another was the favourable macro factors, including the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut and positive regulatory shifts after the U.S. presidential election.
This further fueled the surge according to the full-year report on the industry as authored by Binance, the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider.
The report serves as an essential resource for understanding the evolving crypto landscape and preparing for what’s ahead this year.
Bitcoin dominance
According to the report, Bitcoin dominated the spotlight, with futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs), contributing a whopping $35B in net inflows and over $105B in total assets.
The long-awaited $100K milestone for Bitcoin was finally breached in December, solidifying its dominance and fueling over 2,000 per cent rise in DeFi TVL.
Ethereum
Ethereum continued to lead the alt-L1s in metrics such as market cap, trading volume and decentralised finance total value locked (DeFi TVL), while activity metrics such as daily transactions and active addresses were dominated by Solana, offering the lowest average transaction fee.
“In 2025, the U.S. Ether ETFs, the potential for more Apps in launching their chain, the Pectra Upgrade and Ethereum's prioritisation dilemma are key stories to consider.
Although Solana had significant strides in 2024, stablecoins on the chain remained relatively low. Their new upcoming client, Firedancer, network extensions (i.e., Solana L2s), and SVM stack chains are important stories to follow,” the report said.
The report further revealed that; “BNB chain saw scalability progress with opBNB and data storage development with Greenfield. Sui outgrew Aptos, while Avalanche saw its largest update yet with Avalanche9000. Tron was strong in stablecoin transactions (although saw its position challenged).
TON, which slowed in H2 2024, remains important to watch, alongside the launches of Berachain and Monad.”
Token generation events
For layer two solutions (L2s), 2024 was earmarked by a plethora of token generation events across both the optimistic and zero knowledge types, with over nine major L2 token launches taking place over the year.
“It was, however, the Base L2 that stole the limelight in 2024. Despite its lack of a token, Base grew to capture 39 per cent and 67 per cent of the market in terms of total value locked (TVL) and daily active users respectively, making it the top L2 in both metrics. With many of the airdrop rewards now behind us, 2025 will tell which L2s can sustain user activity and capital without relying heavily on token incentives,” it added.
DeFi robust recovery
Driven by a substantial influx of capital that propelled total value locked up by 119.7 per cent year-to-date (YTD) to US$119.3B, the report said 2024 marked a robust recovery for DeFi.
This resurgence has sparked a renaissance across DeFi sub-sectors, with core areas like Money Markets and Decentralised Exchanges (DEXes) reaching new milestones.
The report said 2024 saw the emergence of previously inaccessible on-chain financial primitives, the narrowing gap between DeFi and Centralised Exchange (CEX)-like experiences, increased adoption by both consumers and institutions and heightened protocol competition.
Together, these developments are paving the way for DeFi to find product-market fit and deliver tangible impact in the real world.
Stablecoins
The report also revealed that, in the period under review, the stablecoins market experienced remarkable growth in 2024, reaching an all-time high market cap of US$205B, ending the year just slightly lower at US$204B, representing a 56.8 per cent YoY increase.
Consequently, it is projected that in 2025, stablecoins are poised to gain traction as yield-bearing assets.
This year
According to the report, this year, 2025, is set to build on this momentum. New ETF approvals, the growing maturity of Bitcoin's ecosystem, AI’s deeper integration and the expansion of Layer 2 solutions will drive the next wave of innovation.
Additionally, the rise of yield-bearing stablecoins, along with further developments in the Ethereum and Solana ecosystems, will redefine crypto’s potential.