TL;DR yes, there is still opportunities; and no, it’s not the same playbook as before

2024 has been a bull run for crypto, but a hard mode one for crypto investors. A lot of projects have emerged, most of them busted, some survived and very few thrived. Some people are saying that they don’t feel it’s very bullish, some are putting money in with nothing more than a contract address, while others are declaring we are close to the end of the bull run.

I think the bull market is here, it’s just not evenly distributed.

2024 is a crypto bull run by all the metrics — Bitcoin price crossed $100k USD for the first time, a 2.5x increase from the beginning of the year; highest trading volume on centralized exchanges trading volume recorded over 70 trillion USD in 2024, surpassing the previous record in 2021; decentralized exchanges have also taken off with the hype of memecoins, taking up more than 10% of centralized exchange spot trading volume.

On the other hand, numbers are less encouraging given the context of a bull market. New token listings on CEX have generated much worse return compared to 2021 — take Binance for example, majority of the new tokens listed on 2024 are currently generating negative ROI today, with several launchpool projects down by over 50%; the situation is similar if not worse on other centralized exchanges; VC fundraising has retreated back to the level of 2020, which also led to a decrease in deal number and size; Ethereum, once the favor of crypto investors, are now mockingly called “a stablecoin at $3,000” due to its poor price performance in competition with Solana, which housed the most popular memecoins including $TRUMP.

What happened in 2024

Looking back on crypto 2024, there are several observations that we think are worth noting, as they might have defined the changing point of crypto industry going forward.

1. The ETFs

2. New models emerged in 2024

3. VCs (and VC coins) having a hard time

Looking forward

You cannot be trading memecoins all day and claiming that you are building a new financial system.

People who work in crypto generally believe that we are building a new financial system on chain, offering more accessible financial services to the unbanked, as well as an alternative to the pubic to fight against fiat money printers. Although I feel the above statement has its merit, it is two (or more) different groups in crypto. The meme traders, who don’t really care about fundamental technology or product, cannot claim that they are contributing to the new financial system. And the actual builders who believe in the vision, might not be in the spotlight of CT, and might not be rewarded for what they’ve built since not every product can find PMF. I’m not against memecoin - it might offer a way for more people to be aware of crypto and to attract more capital into crypto space in general. But for crypto to flourish and to be taken seriously as the potential new financial system, we would need more than memes.

What will be left from 2024 bull market?

1. More advancement in regulations, spurring more opportunities in financial services

2. Continued improvement on the proven tracks like infrastructure and DeFi

3. Decentralized exchange (DEX) is the new centralized exchange (CEX)

And how do we prepare for 2025?

The best is yet to come, better be well positioned for it

1. The abundance of code thanks to AI

2. Hold on to certainties while embrace uncertainties

3. Keep an open mind

It’s still early.