Token Dispatch's 2024 Wrapped 🕛
Dear Dispatchers,
Crypto has an on-chain US President - Donald Trump.
Not quite the promises like Hello Bitcoiners, but a contemplative look back at 2024 - which might go down as one of the pivotal years for crypto’s future.
It wasn’t any different for us.
This year marked several significant milestones for Token Dispatch.
All of it made possible by you - the readers.
In 2024, we hit the gas.
We punched out total of 350+ editions, have grown into a strong community of 200,000+ subscribers and close to 2 million monthly views.
Our consistency in delivering daily newsletters from Monday to Friday along with high-quality deep-dives (Wormhole on Saturdays) and insightful explainers (Rabbit hole on Sundays) has driven our growth.
We thank you for trusting our insights.
It feels validation of our vision to make the blockchain and crypto world easily understandable for everyone.
Today, we take you through some of the defining moments of crypto in 2024.
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Crypto 2024 Wrapped
It’s been a big, big year for crypto and multiple perspectives have driven the dream run.
The single biggest game-changer for the ecosystem has got to be the launch of Exchange Traded Funds, or ETFs, hands down.
January’s Bitcoin ETFs launch brought one thing the industry desperately needed: mass adoption.
Today, these tradeable vehicles hold over 1.12 million BTC, surpassing even founder Satoshi's estimated holdings of 1.1 million BTC.
Our coverage tracked this transformation from approval to implementation, analysing its impact on market dynamics and institutional participation.
Read: Are ETFs Driving Bitcoin in 2024? 🚗
By mid-year crypto scored another milestone with the US SEC's approval of spot Ethereum ETFs, triggering a surge in institutional interest.
Establishing the narrative of Ethereum as the rails for the modern finance.
Read: Ethereum ETFs: All You Need To Know 🛎️
The launch of ETFs in the US had an immediate domino effect on the adoption of Bitcoin not just in the country but across the globe.
We are talking small nation states such as El Salvador and Bhutan building Bitcoin treasuries.
Read: Thunder Dragon's $1B Bitcoin Stack 🇧🇹
ETFs and governments were not the only ones stacking Bitcoin. The gold-competitor also lured corporates with established businesses.
Led by Michael Saylor’s ongoing Bitcoin piling exercise at MicroStrategy.
While at it, they explored a unique way to pile up the sats: issue zero-interest convertible bonds, use the funds to buy Bitcoin, drive up the BTC price and, with it, the premium of its shares at the Wall Street.
Don’t understand?
We wrote about that too: Saylor Strategy: 0️⃣ Interest, ♾️ Bitcoin?
And MSTR inspired a bunch of other corporates to mimic them. Such was the promise of the strategy.
Read: Corporates Opt Debt To Buy Bitcoin 🛒
The strategy shot in popularity to a point where even the shareholders of tech giant Microsoft asked their Board to consider investing in Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation.
Read: Will Microsoft Take The Leap of Bitcoin? 🤸♀️
If all this wasn’t enough evidence that the strategy worked, it even inspired Bitcoin miners to join the club.
Earlier this year, Bitcoin miners were scampering in search of an alternative viable business model, other than mining.
Why? Dwindling revenue and profits in Bitcoin mining. Some of them moved their primary business to AI-driven high-computing processing.
Read: The Bitcoin Mining Dilemma ⛏️
In 2024, miners reinvented themselves and started stacking the sats to benefit from Bitcoin price hikes instead of selling them in the open market.
While ETFs and treasury-holding corporates gave measured Bitcoin exposure to retail investors, mainstreaming of overall crypto ecosystem was also needed.
You ask it, 2024 gave it.
Solana’s memecoin project pump.fun made launching a memecoin as easy as opening an email account.
Read: The Memecoin Takeover of 2024 💥
With memecoins came the drama, humour, community hood, rug pulls and err …violence, too.
At Token Dispatch, we covered all of it.
The euthanising of a pet squirrel brought together a community to donate for the cause.
Read: The P'Nut Story 🐿️
A fart joke made a billion in market cap.
Read: The Billion-Dollar Fartcoin 💨
The community backlash at the very memecoin creation platform - pump.fun - when things got a bit too ugly.
Read: When Pump.fun Is No Longer Fun 🥵
These phenomena kept up the retail sentiment, while raising crucial questions about utility of crypto projects and market maturity.
Not all projects were without utility.
This Christmas, crypto found its heart to create something that might change just help change lives.
Read: Crypto’s $MIRA Christmas Magic 🪄
What happens when two of the greatest of all time (GOAT) in the tech world - AI and crypto - come together?
Integration of AI into crypto protocols stood out as another dominant theme across 2024.
Truth Terminal (AI bot) and Goatseus Maximus (memecoin) happen.
Projects like Goatseus Maximus signalled the start of something that we expect to only get bigger in 2025.
We wrote all about it in The Goatse Singularity 🐐
AI agents carrying out transactions, engaging in trading at the bourses and automating workflows … all of it now are part of reality.
Read: Inside the AI Agent Revolution 🤖
Crypto in 2024 also showed us how it doesn’t have to be as sophisticated as AI agents to carry utility.
Justin Sun’s successful bid for an artwork of $6-million worth banana duct-taped to a wall swung not only heads but also markets.
Pure genius and top-level understanding of the attention economy.
Read that here: The $6M Banana That Moved Markets 🍌
The NFT market also saw quite a rollercoaster of a year.
Just when the crypto world was busy writing their obituary, they made a comeback by moving beyond digital art to embrace utility-focused applications.
Read: NFTs: Back From the Dead? 💀
Trading volume surged to record highs with some of the blue-chip collections seeing collections that were in several multiples over their floor price.
The most notable success story was Pudgy Penguins, whose floor price remarkably crossed Bitcoin's $100K milestone, showcasing the enduring appeal of premium NFT collections.
Read: Pudgy Costs More Than Bitcoin? 🐧
This NFT revival coincided with broader discussions about how Web3 technology could address traditional scientific challenges, from peer review to research funding.
The intersection of decentralised systems and academic infrastructure opened new possibilities for innovation.
Read: Web3's Answer to Science Woes 🧬
There’s no way we can talk about the hits of crypto in 2024 without mentioning the ecosystem that makes the transition from TradFi to DeFi smooth and easy: stablecoins.
While governments across the globe did their part to resist stablecoins with their CBDC plans, they were just too hot to handle.
Read: Stablecoins: Too Big To Ignore? ☝️
Tether’s USDT currently maintains its market supremacy with almost $140 billion worth USDT in circulation.
Read: Stablecoin That Conquered Crypto 👑
As we moved towards the close of the year, the stablecoin space is more crowded than ever before. It’s intensified dramatically, with USDT, USDC competing with the new entrants including Ripple’s RLUSD.
Read: Ripple Goes Stable 🎯
The stablecoin landscape faces a concerning challenge: traditional banks severing ties with crypto companies.
The debanking phenomenon highlighted the industry's ongoing challenges with traditional finance integration, even as crypto solutions gained mainstream acceptance.
Read: When Banks Can't Bank 🖐🏾
A lot awaits in 2025 as a draft stablecoin regulation bill is being mooted.
Speaking of regulations, one of the most contentious crypto issues in 2024 had to do with regulatory body and oversight.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) - regulation by enforcement.
The regulatory body led by its chair Gary Gensler slapped crypto firms and individuals with more than $4.7 billion in fines in 2024, which accounted for 63% of the total fines SEC collected in the last decade.
Read: Crypto Wars: Gensler's SEC v Digital Asset Industry ⚔️
But all that is set to change - Trump in, Gensler out.
Donald Trump’s reelection to the White House came with more than one happy news for the crypto ecosystem.
It catapulted Bitcoin towards the historic $100K figure, gave the prediction markets their moment of fame in predicting the outcome of what was the first crypto elections in the history of the US.
Read: 5,815 Days 💯
It was also crypto that led the narrative for the US elections.
Read: Can Polymarket Whales Sway US Voter Sentiment? 🐋 |
The crypto world basked in the post-election euphoria that lasted for more than a month.
But that is changing now.
Sense is being restored in the markets as we move closer to the end of the year. Market will consider a fresh set of factors before deciding which way crypto will move.
A lot will depend on how the President-elect will walk his talk after his inauguration …because in crypto, promises alone don’t take you too far.
Read: Dear Mr President-Elect: About Those Crypto Promises … 📝
It’s important to look at the broader market and acknowledge the year that was.
The crypto market cap surpassed $3 trillion, with several assets recording extraordinary returns.
Where do we go from here?
We're continuously looking at enhancing our coverage with insights on various domains at the intersection of crypto.
In 2025, we will explore other formats of storytelling to expand our engagement with our audience.
None of this would be possible without our dedicated readers, partners, and the broader crypto community.
Your engagement, feedback, and trust drive us to maintain the highest standards of crypto market analysis and reporting.
As we move into 2025, we remain committed to our mission: delivering clear, actionable insights that help you navigate the complex world of crypto assets and blockchain technology.
Here's to another year of innovation, growth, and shared success.
We wish you a great New Year’s Eve and a Happy New Year.
#WAGMI
Token Dispatch Team
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