As the year comes to an end, let's look back at the top stories of 2024 — a year where Bitcoin and the overall market staged a remarkable recovery.
2024 was a historic year for the cryptocurrency industry, marked by groundbreaking regulatory approvals, landmark events, broken barriers and significant technological advancements.
From the approval of the first Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs in the United States to major legal proceedings that will shape the future of digital finance, the year has been packed with developments that have both challenged and expanded the boundaries of the crypto space.
With that said, let’s dive into your 2024 crypto recap!
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Bitcoin Spot ETF Approved in the United States
By far the most significant news story of the year was the approval of several Bitcoin Spot Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) in the United States.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved several spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 10, 2024.
For the first time, investors in the U.S. can gain exposure to Bitcoin through their traditional investment accounts, while institutional investors benefit from a simplified investment process and regulatory compliance.
As many expected, the Bitcoin Spot ETFs unlocked significant latent demand for the OG cryptocurrency.
To date, the 10 Bitcoin ETFs approved in the United States have accumulated over 1.13 million BTC — worth $110 billion at today’s prices. This is equivalent to 5.3% of the BTC supply.
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Bitcoin Complete Fourth Halving Event
Back in April, the Bitcoin network completed its fourth halving event, reducing the inflation of the BTC supply by 50%.
This occurred due to an intrinsic property of the Bitcoin protocol that sees the block reward paid out to Bitcoin miners slashed after every 210,000 blocks are mined.
Once the Bitcoin block height reaches the next multiple of 210,000 (approximately every four years), the reward is halved and miners need to rely increasingly on fees paid by users.
The Bitcoin block reward now stands at 3.125 BTC — down from an initial value of 50.
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Ethereum Spot ETF Approved in the United States
Just months after the approval of several Bitcoin spot ETFs in the US, the US Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the first spot Ethereum ETFs.
In July 2024, the SEC approved nine Ethereum spot ETFs in the US.
In the six months since its launch, the ETH spot ETFs have accumulated more than $12 billion in assets under management (AUM). This is equivalent to approximately 3% of the ETH supply.
Since then, numerous further Spot ETF applications have been filed with the SEC, including those for XRP, Hedera (HBAR), Solana (SOL), and Litecoin (LTC).
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Fartcoin Becomes a $1-Billion Asset
Launched in October 2024, Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) is a memecoin that rapidly gained attention by embracing its humorous theme, allowing participants to share jokes and memes, and including a "Gas Fee" feature that emits a digital fart sound during transactions.
Despite its comical nature, Fartcoin has achieved significant market value, surpassing the vast majority of more established memecoins to briefly occupy the spot of the 10th largest memecoin.
At its height, FARTCOIN reached a market cap of $1.3 billion, making it larger than more than 40% of listed US companies, clocking in more than $100 million in 24-hour trading volume.
As one of the first “AI-invented” memecoins, Fartcoin arguably helped to fuel the now dominant AI Agent meta — which involves autonomous AI-powered systems interacting with the blockchain, decentralized protocols and the crypto community.
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Bitcoin Breaks $100,000
Less than 16 years after its launch, Bitcoin (BTC) broke through the $100,000 price point — a significant psychological barrier and testament to the staying power of the original cryptocurrency.
On December 17, 2024, BTC hit its all-time highest (ATH) value of $108,268. This is a considerable step up from the previous local top of ~$74,000 seen back in March 2024 and any price before that even when adjusted for inflation.
Source: CompaniesMarketCap
At $100,000/BTC, the Bitcoin network is the 7th largest asset by market capitalization (mcap), but is still equivalent to just 11.2% of gold’s mcap.
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Sam Bankman Fried Sentenced to 25 Years
In March 2024, Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
This sentence followed his conviction on multiple charges of fraud and conspiracy related to the collapse of FTX. Alongside his prison term, he was also ordered to forfeit $11 billion — one of the largest forfeitures in history.
More recently, Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, pleaded guilty to fraud charges. She cooperated with prosecutors, providing evidence against Bankman-Fried
This legal action marks a significant moment in cryptocurrency regulation and enforcement, underscoring the severe consequences of fraudulent practices within the industry.
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The Rise of On-Chain Treasury Notes
2024 saw the dramatic proliferation of platforms that enable users to gain exposure to U.S. treasury bills via on-chain tokens.
Pioneered by early movers like OpenEden (TBills) and Hashnote (USDY), these platforms use smart contract vaults to tokenize various forms of treasury bills, before making these tokens available to end users — allowing users to earn a yield on their investment.
Unlike earlier generation stablecoins, these platforms provide relatively stable assets with baked-in yield.
Today, more than $2 billion worth of tokenized treasury funds are available on public blockchains, led by Hashnote’s USYC product.
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Donald Trump to Establish Bitcoin Strategic Reserve
On November 5, 2024, Donald Trump won the presidential election and is set to be inaugurated in January 2025.
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During his campaign, Donald Trump pledged to make the United States a frontrunner in the cryptocurrency sector by vowing to end the “Biden-Harris administration's repression of crypto and bitcoin” and ensure that Bitcoin would be “mined, minted and made in the USA”.
But perhaps most importantly, Donald Trump pledged to establish a strategic national bitcoin stockpile.
This was later followed by a proposal from Senator Cynthia Lummis, a prominent crypto advocate, who announced plans to introduce the "Bitcoin Act". This bill proposed that the U.S. would acquire up to 1 million bitcoins over five years, which would represent about 5% of the total Bitcoin supply at the time, to be held for at least 20 years.
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Ukraine Plans to Legalize Crypto in 2025
Ukraine is on track to legalize cryptocurrencies by early 2025, driven by its increasing reliance on digital assets during crises.
The legislation, crafted with guidance from the National Bank of Ukraine and the IMF, aims to regulate cryptocurrency similar to securities. This includes taxing profits from crypto only when converted into fiat, with no tax exemptions.
The bill is anticipated to reach its first parliamentary reading soon after the New Year, reflecting a cautious yet progressive approach to the emerging digital asset market.
Cryptocurrencies were not previously illegal in Ukraine, but they were not officially recognized or regulated by the government, forcing individuals and businesses to operate in a regulatory grey area.
Artificial SuperIntelligence Alliance Merger
In June 2024, Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol and SingularityNET finalized one of the most significant token mergers in recent history, combining three native tokens into a single ERC-20 token — known as the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI).
Officially announced on April 16, 2024, the merger was valued at $7.5 billion and was approved by the token holders of the involved projects.
The alliance aims to challenge the control of big tech companies over AI, promoting a more democratized and transparent AI ecosystem.
Source: Artificial Superintelligence Alliance Token Page
Following its launch, the ASI token grew to become one of the largest Big Data & AI tokens by mcap — briefly topping $5 billion.
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