Bitcoin has been fluctuating for the past two months, and it recently dropped below the 60,000 mark. This article will compare and analyze the returns of various cryptocurrency tracks in the first half of this year and explore the possible reasons behind their performance.
Table of Contents
How have different cryptocurrency tracks performed in terms of returns year to date?
Meme coins have become the most profitable track
The RWA track has a return rate of 213.5% from 2024 to date
The AI track closely follows with a return rate of 71.6%
DePIN and Layer1 have achieved steady growth
GameFi, DeFi, and Layer 2 are lagging in performance
Calculation method
With the first half of the year coming to a close, Bitcoin has not shown the same excitement as it did when it reached a new high of 70,000. The market has been fluctuating for the past few months, and the promising returns set at the beginning of the year are now wavering. However, the primary bullish trend has not yet arrived, indicating that there will still be plenty of opportunities. Therefore, this is an ideal time to reflect and review. This article provides a statistical and comparative analysis of the returns of different cryptocurrency tracks from 2024 to date. This is not the era of easy money anymore, so which track is the most profitable? After reading this article, you will find out.
Based on the average YTD (from January 1, 2024 to June 21, 2024) price return rate of the top 10 tokens from each track, the data is sourced from CoinGecko. The performance of the cryptocurrency tracks in the first half of 2024 is shown in the following table.
Recently, “value investing is empty, go all in on MEME and live in the palace” has become one of the mantras for this round of the bull market. Statistically, there is no doubt that Meme coins have been the most profitable track from 2024 to date, with the highest average return rate reaching 2405.1%. As of June 19, among the top 10 Meme coins by market capitalization, three coins were newly launched around March-April: Brett (BRETT), BOOK OF MEME (BOME), and DOG・GO・TO・THE・MOON (DOG). Among them, BRETT had the highest return rate, increasing by 14353.54% from its issue price; dogwifhat (WIF) increased by 933.93% from 2024 to date, triggering the Meme coin craze at that time. It is worth noting that the profitability of Meme coins is 8.6 times that of the second most profitable track, RWA, and 542.5 times that of the least profitable DeFi track.
Real World Assets (RWA) has been the subject of much discussion in recent months, with major institutional giants, including BlackRock Fund, laying out their strategies in this track. As a result, RWA briefly became the most profitable track in February, ranking first in terms of return rate, but was later surpassed by Meme coins and the AI track. However, it has shown good performance again since the end of March and early June. Among the top market cap RWA tokens, MANTRA (OM) and Ondo (ONDO) have seen the largest increases, reaching 1123.8% and 451.12% YTD, respectively, while XDC Network (XDC) has performed the worst, with a decrease of 44.38%. In addition to some established DeFi projects, the RWA projects are generally at an early stage, and it is worthwhile to keep an eye on them.
The AI track has been frequently mentioned in the annual outlooks of major investment institutions since the end of 2023. As Messari stated in its 2024 investment predictions, AI has become the new favorite in the field of technology. Indeed, the average return rate of the AI track from 2024 to date is 71.6%, ranking third. Among the tokens, Arkham (ARKM) has seen the highest increase at 215.50%, followed by AIOZ Network (AIOZ) at 192.19%. Tokens like Render (RNDR) and Fetch.ai (FET), which garnered a lot of attention in the first half of the year, have seen returns of 57.47% and 116.00%, respectively, demonstrating good performance.
DePIN had a negative return rate in the first half of the first quarter, but it has turned the tide since March, with a return rate of 58.7% to date. Among the top market cap DePIN tokens, JasmyCoin (JASMY) has performed the best with an increase of 323.42%, followed by Arweave (AR) and Livepeer (LPT) with YTD increases of 174.07% and 116.06%, respectively. Helium (HNT) has performed poorly and is the only major market cap DePIN token with a decrease of over 50%, with a return rate of -50.94%. DePIN is also one of the tracks that have attracted capital in this round of the bull market. If the total market cap of DeFi increases tenfold and the total market cap of DePIN reaches half of that of DeFi, then the total market cap of DePIN will reach 500 billion US dollars, at least a 20-fold increase.
The Layer 1 (L1) track has had a return rate of 43.0% from 2024 to date. Although Solana (SOL), as a public chain that has given birth to many high-potential Meme coins, has received a lot of attention, it has only seen an increase of 22.91% YTD, compared to a return rate of 85.05% in mid-March. The best-performing major market cap L1 cryptocurrencies are Toncoin (TON) and Binance Coin (BNB), with increases of 204.72% and 86.10%, respectively. In comparison, Bitcoin (BTC) has had an increase of 45.06% since the beginning of the year after reaching a new high, while Ethereum (ETH), despite high expectations through ETF applications, has only seen an increase of 49.65% YTD, which is similar to BTC.
The GameFi track has a return rate of 19.1% and is one of the tracks that has seen less market rotation from the beginning of the year to date. Although it has received considerable funding, it has not yet produced a breakout success. The best-performing major market cap GameFi tokens are FLOKI (FLOKI) with an increase of 362.79%, Ronin (RON) with 21.16%, and Echelon Prime (PRIME) with 5.27%. Other major market cap tokens have seen negative returns, including GALA (GALA) at -13.43% and Immutable (IMX) at -32.02%.
The DeFi track performed well in the first quarter, receiving a boost from the fee switch proposal of Uniswap (UNI) at the end of February, but it has not shown much momentum in the second quarter, with a return rate of 3.4% from the beginning of the year to date. The best-performing major market cap DeFi token is Maker (MKR), with a YTD increase of 49.88%.
The Layer 2 (L2) track has been the worst-performing, with a return rate of -40.59%, nearly halving the performance. Among the major market cap L2 tokens, AEVO (AEVO) and Starknet (STRK) have performed the worst, with return rates of -85.40% and -63.16%, respectively. The mainstream Ethereum L2 has also not performed well: Optimism (OP) has a return rate of -54.64%, while Arbitrum (ARB) has a return rate of -53.71%. Mantle (MNT) stands out with a YTD return rate of 26.09%.
This study analyzed the performance of the most popular cryptocurrency tracks from January 1, 2024 to June 21, 2024, based on the average daily price return rate of the top 10 tokens from each track and the comparison with the initial prices at the beginning of the quarter. For tokens launched during the quarter, their data was compared with their first-day prices. The representative tokens (top 10 market cap tokens) from each track were selected based on their market cap rankings on the last day of the quarter. In order to better meet the purpose of this study, certain tracks with specific chains, tracks with a small number of high market cap tokens, or tracks that highly overlap with other tracks were excluded. This study is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. When investing in any cryptocurrency or financial assets, it is important to conduct your own research and proceed with caution.
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