ETFs, ETH Restocking, Solana Meme Coins
The crypto market boomed in the first quarter of 2024, with the total market capitalization exploding by 64.5 percent. Amid this expansion, detailed in CoinGecko's “2024 Q1 Crypto Industry Report,” certain altcoins have dramatically outperformed Bitcoin (BTC).
While Bitcoin set a new high of $73,737 in March, some popular altcoins posted even more impressive gains. This insight and other developments in the crypto market reveal potential hidden gems for investors looking for dynamic opportunities.
Altcoins Dazzle and Meme Coin Frenzy in Q1 2024
The approval of US spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January fueled the market. As of April 2, these ETFs accumulated more than $55 billion in assets under management (AUM).
Despite gains from ETFs, Bitcoin's price gains were only 69 percent in the first quarter. However, Solana (SOL) and Maker (MKR) have managed to steal the spotlight, rising 100% and 132% respectively.
Ethereum (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency, also showed a relatively modest price increase compared to Solana. Last quarter, ETH recorded only a 60% increase.
Read more: Which are the best Altcoins to invest in April 2024?
However, its layer-2 (L2) networks are enriched due to the gas charge reduction implemented by EIP-4844. As a result, these L2s handled more than $900 million in transactions during the reporting period.
In addition to the L2s boom, Ethereum has also made impressive strides in the blockchain sector. In Q1 2024, rescanning on EigenLayer saw a 36% increase, with a total of 4.3 million ETH recaptured. Most of the recaptured ETH was held by Liquid Recovery Protocols (LRTs), amounting to 2.28 million ETH.
EtherFi was the most popular LRT protocol in Q1, with a 21% market share. It saw a massive growth of 2,616% during the quarter and held 910,000 ETH at the end of March.
On the other hand, the boom in meme coins has had a huge impact on Solana's performance. During Q1, the market cap of the top 10 Solana meme coins rose over 800 percent. At the end of March, the total market value of these assets reached 9.36 billion dollars.
“Of the top 10 Solana memecoins, BONK (BONK) and Samoyedcoin (SAMO) were the only ones before Q4 2023. BONK, the number one meme coin on Solana since its launch in December 2022, was overthrown by dogwifhat (WIF) in early March. .launched in November 2023. Meanwhile, Book of Memes (BOME) launched on March 14, reaching a market cap of $1 billion in two days,” CoinGecko wrote.
In addition to the crypto market, the non-fungal token (NFT) sector made a comeback last quarter, buoyed by renewed attention to Bitcoin and Solana NFTs.
Ethereum has regained its position as the largest NFT chain, with over $2.2 billion in trading volume during that time. However, increasing interest in the Bitcoin and Solana ecosystem challenges Ethereum's dominance.
BeenCrypto previously reported that by April 2024, Bitcoin Ordinals, NFTs in Bitcoin's blockchain, had surpassed Ethereum NFTs several times in terms of sales value. Moreover, the upcoming halving of Bitcoin and the launch of the new Runes token standard may increase the competition.
Read more: Bitcoin Half Countdown
Investor enthusiasm is reflected in the volume of centralized exchange (CX) spot trading, which reached $4.29 trillion in Q1 2024. This marks the highest level since late 2021.
However, chains such as Arbitrum and Solana have been gaining attention as decentralized exchanges (DEXs) lose their share of Ethereum trading.
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