2024 is a pivotal year for the crypto industry, characterized by a combination of regulatory shifts, technological innovations, and market milestones. Trump’s re-election, Bitcoin’s price reaching all-time highs, and the approval of crypto ETFs mark a major turning point in mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies. At the same time, significant progress has been made in areas such as Layer-2 expansion, DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure network) and artificial intelligence integration, demonstrating the vitality of the industry's continued development. However, challenges such as regulatory pressure, quantum computing threats, and market volatility will also continue to affect the future of the crypto industry.

The top ten influential events in the encryption industry in 2024:

1. Trump’s re-election and encryption transformation

Background:

Donald Trump in 2024 The re-election of the U.S. President in 2016 has rekindled people’s optimistic expectations for an improvement in the regulatory environment for cryptocurrency. Trump has made it clear that he intends to make the United States the "global crypto capital" and criticized the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for excessive regulation. He also proposed to give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) more regulatory powers, including Bitcoin and Digital commodity spot market including Ethereum.

Impact:

Regulatory Clarity: Trump is expected to ease restrictions, reversing the SEC's harsh enforcement stance under Gary Gensler.

Institutional adoption: A clearer regulatory framework will increase the confidence of institutional investors and drive capital inflows into the market. For example, the market value of BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) holdings exceeded $54 billion.

Geographical competition: The United States will take measures to compete globally with Asia, Europe and other regions for the dominance of the encryption industry. Bitcoin strategic reserve has become one of the topics.

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2. Bitcoin price breaks through 100,000 US dollars

Background:

Driven by inflationary pressure, large-scale institutional adoption, and Bitcoin spot ETFs, the price of Bitcoin exceeds 10 for the first time in 2024 The $10,000 mark reached a record high.

Impact:

Mainstream recognition: Breaking through this psychological barrier further established Bitcoin’s status as “digital gold” and highlighted its anti-inflation and store-of-value characteristics. However, during the same period, Bitcoin It also shows correlation with the trend of US stocks.

Capital influx: A large influx of institutional investors and retail traders, and the rise in Bitcoin prices have driven the market prosperity of major altcoins such as Ethereum, Solana, and Cardano.

Network security: High valuations will attract miners to increase investment in the Bitcoin network and improve network security and decentralization.

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3. Bitcoin spot ETF approved

Background: After several years of gaming, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally approved the first Bitcoin spot ETFs in early 2024, giving investors direct exposure to Bitcoin through regulated financial products.

Impact:

Market Liquidity: ETFs bring billions of dollars of funds to Bitcoin, improving liquidity and price stability.

Institutional adoption: Pensions, hedge funds and traditional investors have legal channels to allocate Bitcoin assets.

Industry Validation: The approval demonstrates the growing acceptance of Bitcoin as a legitimate asset class.

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Bloomberg: Large funds continue to enter the market, and Bitcoin ETF will attract a net investment of US$17 billion during the year. Inflow

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4. Ethereum ETFs and Post-Merger Upgrades

Background: Following the success of Bitcoin, Ethereum ETFs are also growing in popularity. At the same time, the Ethereum development team continues to promote upgrades such as proto-danksharding (EIP-4844), aiming to improve network scalability and reduce costs.

Impact:

Scalability: Proto-danksharding will reduce Layer-2 transaction costs and increase Ethereum’s throughput, enhancing its competitive advantage.

Institutional interest: Ethereum ETF will accelerate institutional adoption of ETH and decentralized finance (DeFi).

DeFi Growth: Lower gas fees will boost the adoption of decentralized applications (dApps) on Ethereum.

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5. MEME mania and PumpFun outbreak

Background: MEME coins, represented by DOGE and SHIB, will rise again in 2024 driven by social media hype and community culture, especially during the US election. Hot spot for speculation. The PumpFun trading platform has further boosted this trend. It has successfully attracted a large number of young investors through its threshold-free MEME currency issuance and trading mechanism, as well as its entertainment-based and game-based trading model. Since its launch, PumpFun has generated nearly $300 million in revenue.

Impact:

Expansion of user base: The craze for MEME coins and the rise of the PumpFun platform have lowered the threshold for retail investors to enter the crypto market and accelerated the growth of the market user base.

Community Impact: MEME successfully highlights the grassroots community driving cryptoThe power of adoption.

Volatility risk: The speculative nature of MEME currency causes violent market fluctuations and increases investors' potential risks.

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6. The rise of DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure network)

Background: The DePIN project demonstrates the potential of blockchain technology in the field of physical infrastructure, building decentralized networks such as data storage and computing resources through incentive mechanisms.

Impact:

Practical application: DePIN connects the blockchain with the physical world and extends it to cloud computing, energy networks and other fields.

Capital influx: Decentralized infrastructure attracts the attention of a large amount of venture capital and institutional capital.

Cost optimization: DePIN network reduces the cost of data transmission, storage and energy supply, and improves economic efficiency.

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7. Layer-2 Scaling and the “Rollup War”

Background: Ethereum Layer-2 solutions such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and ZK-Rollups compete fiercely for market share, providing low-cost and efficient solutions. Blockchain experience.

Impact:

User growth: Layer-2 technology makes transactions faster and cheaper, promoting the widespread adoption of DeFi and NFT ecosystems.

Interoperability: Layer-2 solutions bridge with other chains, enhancing the overall usability of the blockchain.

Innovation acceleration: Competitive pressure promotes technological innovation and further reduces user costs.

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8. Regulatory crackdowns in Europe and Asia

Background: Europe's MiCA (Crypto Asset Market Supervision) regulations have officially come into effect, and Asia has gradually strengthened encryption market supervision and introduced stricter compliance requirements.

Impact:

Compliance costs: Projects need to face high compliance costs, and some small companies may withdraw from the market.

Market integration: Regulatory pressure will accelerate market integration, and the strong will always be strong.

Global arbitrage: Crypto projects may move to areas with loose regulations, highlighting the competition in the global environment

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9. Artificial intelligence is integrated into the encryption field

Background: In 2024, AI technology has made breakthroughs in areas such as trading algorithms, security audits, and decentralized governance (DAO), improving the practicality of blockchain technology.

Impact:

Trading automation: AI-driven trading algorithms improve market efficiency and accuracy.

Security enhancement: AI tools help detect and prevent smart contract vulnerabilities.

DAO optimization: The application of AI in DAO governance improves decision-making transparency and execution efficiency, such as ai16z.

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10. Binance settles with the United States

Background: Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) was prosecuted and sentenced by the U.S. Department of Justice for violating anti-money laundering laws and failing to fulfill compliance obligations. In the end, Binance reached a settlement with the United States and paid a fine of more than 4 billion US dollars. CZ resigned as CEO and was released from prison after serving four months.

Impact:

Regulatory compliance becomes mainstream: The CZ incident prompted encryption companies to proactively cooperate with regulatory agencies to improve transparency and compliance standards.

Rising compliance costs: Leading exchanges (such as Coinbase, OKX, Kraken) will face more stringent anti-money laundering (AML) and customer identification (KYC) reviews, and operating costs will increase significantly.

Market integration is accelerating: Small and medium-sized exchanges may face bankruptcy or be acquired by industry giants because they are unable to bear the cost of compliance.

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