Binance released its ‘Half-Year Report’ for 2024, providing an in-depth analysis of crypto market performance in the first 6 months of the year. This comprehensive report, prepared by the Binance Research team, shows the fundamentals, technological advancements, and investment trends in various sectors such as DeFi, Web3 gaming, AI, and enterprise adoption.
The cryptocurrency market is growing
The total cryptocurrency market capitalisation reached approximately $2.27 trillion, a significant increase of 37.3% since the beginning of the year. This growth was supported by a solid first quarter, following a strong performance in 2023.
Bitcoin and Etherum outperformed traditional asset returns
Bitcoin dominance has risen significantly with important events such as the fourth halving and the approval of spot ETFs in the US. The approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs in the US led to a net inflow of more than $14.7 billion into these funds, giving Bitcoin a positive start to 2024. Compared to traditional financial investments, Ethereum and Bitcoin stand out with returns of 48% and 43% respectively since the beginning of the year, while gold gained 13% and crude oil gained nearly 14%.
The rise in DeFi value attracts attention
Decentralised finance (DeFi) saw a remarkable 72.8% increase in total locked value (TVL) to $94.1 billion. This influx of capital has benefited almost all DeFi sectors, enabling the emergence of new protocols that allow previously inaccessible financial instruments to become available on-chain.
Stablecoins are also on the rebound
The stablecoin market capitalisation reached a two-year high of $161 billion. This important peak is only 14.5% below the level in April 2022.
Market capitalisation of crypto gaming tokens reaches $32 billion
The web3 gaming sector has also seen solid user growth. The total market capitalisation of crypto gaming tokens peaked at around $32 billion in March and currently stands at around $17.8 billion. Web3 games, although still in its infancy, promises significant future growth and accounts for approximately 0.7% of the total crypto market cap. According to the Gaming Industry Report for the first quarter of 2024, venture investments in this area increased by 94% quarter-on-quarter.
Synergies between AI and crypto are growing
The convergence of AI and crypto technologies is becoming increasingly evident. By leveraging the permissionless and trustless features of cryptocurrencies, AI supports decentralised computing systems, AI domains that can perform complex tasks, and authentication solutions. AI-related tokens also accounted for $26 billion of the total market capitalisation.
Predictions for the second half of 2024
The report predicts several key themes for the second half of 2024, including continued institutional adoption, improving US macroeconomic conditions, increasing Bitcoin scalability, advances in DeFi growth, growth of property economy applications, tokenisation of real-world assets (RWA), and an increase in Web3 gaming.