Inventory of the 7 major potential race tracks worth watching in the second half of 2024
In the first half of 2024, the dominance of Bitcoin, decentralized AI, the use of DePIN, the rise of Solana, and ETH staking became the main highlights of the market.
Various subfields of DeFi are also thriving under new sources of revenue, airdrop frenzy, and the promotion of meme coins.
Looking ahead to the second half of the year, there are 7 potential trends worth paying attention to. At the beginning of 2024, we predicted 12 key trends and ideas to welcome the new bull market wave. Most of them have become hot topics for top cryptocurrencies, with significant growth in price trends, active users, on-chain indicators, developers, and funding activities.
After 6 months, market sentiment and the macro environment have changed. It is now time to focus on the remaining time of this year and the new catalysts at the beginning of 2025.
First, you may need to prepare a cup of coffee and bookmark this article for later use, as it will be a journey full of fluctuations.
In the next six months, macroeconomic conditions and institutional adoption will be key to shaping the future development of cryptocurrencies.
U.S. macroeconomic conditions
After two years of record high interest rates, the first rate cut may take place in September. The November U.S. presidential election is expected to see Trump re-elected. Both of these factors could be favorable for the cryptocurrency market at the end of the year.
Continued institutional adoption
Following the approval of the U.S. spot BTC ETF, the SEC has also approved the listing of several spot ETH ETFs, setting the tone for the market trend for the whole year. We expect institutions to delve deeper into DeFi, infrastructure, AI, and consumer applications.
Considering these factors, here are 7 exciting areas we believe are worth watching in the remaining time of 2024 and the beginning of 2025.
1. Bitcoin scalability and DeFi
The Bitcoin market is expanding through native encryption methods such as ETFs and Ordinals, BRC-20s, and Runes. However, scalability issues are becoming increasingly prominent.
@Stacks
@citrea_xyz
@MerlinLayer2
@BitlayerLabs
@BSquaredNetwork
are working on layer-two solutions for BTC.
Early Bitcoin DeFi players include
@bounce_bit
@babylon_chain
@SolvProtocol
@MezoNetwork
.
2. Ownership economics applications
Blockchain technology allows users to reclaim sovereignty over personal data, creative content, and computing resources. These applications are highly synergistic with the rise of AI and machine learning. Two areas worth noting are:
DePin:
@AethirCloud
@ionet
@rendernetwork
@Hivemapper
DeSoc:
@farcaster_xyz
@LensProtocol
3. Real-world assets
Despite the imminent rate cut, we expect RWAs to benefit from a relatively higher interest rate environment. Projects focusing on tokenized national debt include:
@OndoFinance
,
@MountainUSDM
,
@tangibleDAO
,
@MakerDAO
Institutions and general lending:
@maplefinance
In addition to RWAs, support for infrastructure such as oracles (
@PythNetwork
,
@chainlink
), decentralized identity, interoperability (
@LayerZero_Labs
,
@wormhole
), and fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) for data privacy (
@mindnetwork_xyz
,
@zama_fhe
) are also expected to gain momentum.
4. Web3 Games
Web3 games are making a mark in various genres, from casual games like
@thenotcoin
to well-designed games like
@ParallelTCG
,
@pixels_online
,
@playSHRAPNEL
,
@PirateNation
.
A strong and sustainable in-game economy and fully on-chain games will be the next significant leap for Web3 games.
5. Abstracting user experience
Current crypto user experiences are decentralized and complex, involving over 100 multi-chain environments. Users face many challenges in managing wallets, interacting with dApps, and handling assets across blockchains.
Account abstraction and Paymaster have become new user onboarding standards.
But this is just the beginning.
Over the next 6-9 months, there are expected to be new developments in chain abstraction, including key management, gas abstraction, transaction abstraction, and cross-chain interoperability.
Please pay attention to the following key projects:
@ParticleNtwrk
,
@NEARProtocol
,
@EverclearOrg
,
@burnt_xion
,
@lifiprotocol
6. DeFi subfields
The widespread market rebound will bring a large influx of funds into DeFi. While we have not yet seen a significant event like the “Uniswap moment,” some DeFi subfields are showing strong growth momentum.
Re-staking/LR:
@eigenlayer
,
@symbioticfi
,
@solayer_labs
,
@Karak_Network
,
@ether_fi
Lending:
@MorphoLabs
,
@0xfluid
,
@aave
Derivatives of new market types:
@HyperliquidX
,
@SynFuturesDefi
,
@WhalesMarket
,
@DriftProtocol
Prediction markets:
@Polymarket
,
@azuroprotocol
Yield:
@pendle_fi
7. New infrastructure
The infrastructure sector has raised over $25.8 billion in capital, becoming the largest category in venture capital, showing strong interest in expanding solutions, interoperability, modularity, and new blockchain infrastructure.
Some top financing projects include:
@monad_xyz
,
@berachain
This article is a collaborative reprint from:
Deep Tide