Meme Coins, RWAs, and AI Dominated the Crypto Market in Q2 2024

The second quarter of 2024 was all about meme coins, Real World Assets (RWA), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the crypto market.

Q2 crypto market trends: Meme coins, RWAs, and AI lead the way

According to CoinGecko’s latest State of the Crypto Q2 2024 report, meme coins, Real World Assets (RWAs), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) were the three hottest topics in the crypto market during the second quarter of 2024. These topics collectively accounted for 35.7% of the market’s attention, continuing a trend from Q1.

Solana and Base were the most popular blockchain ecosystems in Q2, capturing 22.9% of the market's attention. After flirting with all-time highs in Q1, the crypto market cap experienced a 14.4% decline in Q2, reaching $2.43 trillion by the end of June.

Bitcoin's fourth halving occurred without any technical difficulties, but the market did not respond as anticipated. The excitement generated by the approval of US spot Bitcoin ETFs in Q1 fizzled out, resulting in a volatile quarter for Bitcoin and the broader crypto market.

Bitcoin's rocky Q2

CoinGecko's report highlights that Bitcoin had a challenging quarter, ending Q2 at $62,734, down 11.9%. It fluctuated between $58,000 and $72,000 but failed to reach the all-time high of over $73,000 set in mid-March.

In other news, Bitcoin's mining hash rate decreased by 18.8%, marking its first decline since Q2 2022. The hash rate had reached an all-time high of 721 million terahashes per second on April 23rd.

Despite this, several companies, including BitDigital, Hive, Hut 8, Terawulf, and Core Scientific, continued to expand into AI. Tether announced a $500 million investment in mining, and Block completed the development of its 3nm mining chip.

Bitcoin's trading volume also declined, with the daily average dropping to $26.6 billion, a 21.6% decrease from Q1. This volatility was evident throughout the market, as Bitcoin's annualized volatility stood at 46.7%, while the total crypto market volatility was 48.2%.

Meme coins, AI steal the spotlight

Q2 saw meme coins, RWAs, and AI dominate the market narrative, collectively grabbing a significant portion of the market's attention. Meme coins led the way, accounting for 14.3% of the market on their own.

Four of the top 15 crypto narratives were meme coin-related, showcasing their growing popularity. Solana and Base led the way in blockchain ecosystems, capturing 22.9% of the market's attention.

The crypto community was also abuzz with talk about Ethereum. In Q2, Ethereum turned inflationary, adding 120,818 ETH to the circulating supply. Despite burning 107,725 ETH, the network emitted 228,543 ETH, making it inflationary.

The burn rate plummeted by 66.7% quarter-on-quarter due to lower network activity and falling gas fees. Only seven days in Q2 saw burns outpacing emissions, compared to 66 days in Q1.

Exchange volume shifts

Centralized exchanges had a rough quarter, with spot trading volume hitting $3.40 trillion, a 12.2% drop from Q1. Binance remained the top CEX, ending June with a 45% market share despite the overall decline.

Bybit, however, rose to become the second-largest spot CEX, overtaking Upbit and capturing a 12.6% market share. Gate had the most gain among the top 10 CEXs, with a 51.1% increase in trading volume to $85.2 billion.

Bitget and HTX also saw increases of 15.4% and 13.7%, respectively. This period also saw a surge in new listings and project launches on these exchanges.

On the decentralized exchange front, things were looking up. DEXs recorded $370.7 billion in spot trading volume, a 15.7% increase from the previous quarter. Uniswap dominated the DEX market with a 48% share.

Thruster, native to Blast, saw volumes skyrocket by 464.4%, ending June with a 3% market share. Aerodrome wasn't far behind, growing 297.4% and capturing a 3% market share as well. Meme coins and airdrops were a big reason behind the surge in DEX volumes.

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