HTX Ventures recently released the 2024 annual report that discusses the key developments in five sectors: the Bitcoin ecosystem, blockchain infrastructure, memecoins, artificial intelligence and The Open Network (TON) ecosystem. The report examines the changes in these areas over the last 12 months. Its analysis is complemented by a macroeconomic overview and market projections.

Bitcoin as an epicenter of innovation

Bitcoin has been the foremost subject of discussion throughout 2024. The year started with the approval of Bitcoin ETFs and came to an end with Bitcoin breaking the psychological price level of $100K. In terms of market dominance, BTC rallied from 51.92% to 60.1% before dropping to 57.09% (Figure 1) most recently. The asset still holds most of the liquidity in the crypto market.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin scaling solutions have once again attracted interest and multiple layer-2 chains were launched in 2024. The layer-2 landscape for Bitcoin now involves technologies as diverse as spider-chains (Botanix), zk-Rollups (Nexio and Critea), EVM-compatible chains (BOB and BSquared) and Sidechains (Merlin, Element, RSK). The cumulative TVL (total value locked) of the 19 dominant Bitcoin layer-2 blockchains has surpassed $2.5 billion.

Bitcoin development has also seen increased discussion and activity on the main chain. New inscription protocols such as BRC-20, Ordinals and Runes were created in recent months. However, the true game-changer for Bitcoin-based assets is expected to happen next year if OP_CAT or some alternative covenant proposal is activated. For a deeper dive into what OP_CAT unlocks for the Bitcoin blockchain, read HTX Ventures’ detailed report. 

Memecoins drive retail crypto adoption

In 2024, the memecoin sector once again became a hotspot of the crypto market. Characterized by their accessibility and low barrier to entry, Meme projects have become attractive to new users. Solana was the epicenter of the memecoin boom this year. Pump.fun, a fair launch platform on Solana, provides simple and intuitive token creation tools and mechanisms for automated liquidity injection into decentralized exchanges. As of November 2024, over 40,000 projects have graduated from Pump.fun to Raydium. This activity generated a cumulative revenue of over 1.17 million Solana (SOL), equivalent to about $200 million. Other blockchains, such as Tron and Sui, have also quickly adopted meme strategies.

TON ecosystem witnesses exponential growth 

In 2024, The Open Network experienced a full-scale boom in both its ecosystem development and valuation (Figure 2). From decentralized finance and memecoins to non-fungible tokens and gaming, TON has attracted a user base in various sectors and pioneered the monetization of Web2 social applications through crypto.

TON has drawn in a large number of Web2 users via “tap-to-earn” games. Many of these games provided token airdrops after Telegram introduced Mini Apps. Notcoin, the first tap-to-earn project in Telegram, was launched in May 2024 and quickly gained popularity. Relying on its simple gameplay and Telegram’s vast user base, it almost instantly gained over 1 million monthly active users and was listed on major exchanges. Notcoin’s success marks the successful implementation of TON’s ecosystem gaming model and signifies that the gaming sector has entered a new era. Later, hundreds of projects tried to replicate its success with their own Telegram apps.

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