Crypto Market Recap: July 2024

Сalm Before the Storm

Bitcoin closed July in the green zone, gaining 3% in price. The month was relatively calm for Bitcoin, despite various events affecting the market. These included negative events such as geopolitical escalation, a slight rise in unemployment in the U.S., Bitcoin sales by the German government, and Bitcoin distributions to Mt. Gox customers. On the other hand, positive events included a favorable GDP growth report for the U.S. and endorsements of Bitcoin from all three major U.S. presidential candidates: Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Meme Coins Boom

Overall, July was a positive month for the cryptocurrency market, with meme coins exhibiting the best performance in terms of price growth. However, it is important to understand that the meme coin boom is speculative, and prices of meme coins are rarely stable.

In response to the meme coin boom, services have emerged that allow users to create their own meme coins simply by specifying a name, ticker, and uploading an image. Now, launching a meme coin can be done in as little as five minutes.

DEX Trading Gaining Popularity

The popularity of meme coin trading has also led to a rise in trading volumes on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), achieving a new historical high in the DEX-to-CEX trading ratio.

This record ratio of CEX-to-DEX trading was achieved due to the increase in trading volume on DEXs rather than a decrease in trading on CEXs, as the volume on CEXs remains stable.

More Projects, Less Capitalization

In July, no major Tier-1 projects were launched. Avail and Layer3 were among the most anticipated and recently launched tokens. While the market continues to expand, newly launched projects are receiving lower capitalization. This trend suggests that the market is gradually becoming more fair in evaluating projects.

This trend has also affected IDOs, leading to decreased returns, as confirmed by token sales in July. It is important to note that returns in other months have also been relatively lower compared to previous bull runs.

This, in turn, has led to a lower amount of capital being raised by IDO platforms. For instance, the $7.5 million raised by Jupiter LFG was enough to make it a leader, followed by Coinlist with $6.4 million and Kommunitas with $1.7 million.

Fundraising activity also slowed in July due to several funding rounds and has generally been on a downward trend since March. This suggests that major bets have already been made and that no new major projects are on the horizon anytime soon.

Although July appears to be a record month in terms of fundraising since November 2023, it is important to note that this figure includes two major rounds from mining companies: $413 million in a post-IPO by Iris Energy and $92.5 million for a Block Mining acquisition by Riot Blockchain. Excluding these two largest deals, July would be considered one of the worst months for fundraising in the past year.

The amount of money invested in the top 10 notable rounds is modest compared to previous months. Additionally, Tier-1 VC investments have become more cautious.

Market Liquidity Redistribution

Overall, the market's TVL remains at a plateau, shifting from one project to another. Active growth is observed in Symbiotic, followed by Pencils Protocol, Toros, and dHEDGE.

Among blockchains, most entered the top 10 for TVL growth in July due to the low base effect of TVL, except for Scroll and Aptos, which are actively developing their ecosystems. Core DAO, competing with other Bitcoin scaling solutions, also made it to the top in terms of TVL growth.

Tron’s Dominance by Daily Active Addresses

Tron continues to dominate in daily active addresses due to its high reliability, speed, and low transaction fees. These attributes have made Tron the preferred choice for stablecoin transactions. Additionally, Tron ranks as the third blockchain by total value locked (TVL) and is one of the most discussed chains on Twitter. For a deeper dive into the current state of the Tron blockchain, you can explore the following article.

Tron's popularity is driven not only by its reliability, speed, and total value locked (TVL) but also by its dynamic marketing strategies, the active Twitter presence of founder Justin Sun, and a range of compelling projects within the Tron ecosystem, such as BitTorrent. Although BitTorrent is a blockchain in its own right, it is also an integral part of the broader Tron ecosystem, which contributes to Tron's popularity. To learn more about BitTorrent, check out this research.

Nashville Crypto Conference: A Cornerstone Milestone in Crypto Recognition

The crypto conference, which took place in Nashville from July 25 to July 27, can be marked as a significant milestone in crypto adoption. For the first time, it was publicly discussed in such detail by presidential candidates. Both Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appealed to the crypto community and stood out as crypto enthusiasts, suggesting the creation of national crypto reserves. Even Kamala Harris, who did not attend the Nashville crypto conference, has expressed her support for crypto.

At least on a rhetorical level, the crypto community should benefit, which brings optimism to the sector in the long run. Perhaps July may seem like a calm month in retrospect, but it might eventually be regarded as the time when cryptocurrency became part of the American political agenda and when the future U.S. government began to recognize its merits and announced the first plans to create a cryptocurrency reserve.

Conclusion

July appears to be a very contradictory month for crypto. It may seem boring without significant volatility and major Tier-1 projects entering the market or announcing airdrops. However, it could also be a pivotal month for the industry, especially considering the Nashville crypto conference. News has also been contradictory, combining both negative and positive reports, which bring potential threats and new hopes. The further dynamics of the market remain a mystery and, for now, seem to depend more on macro events and politics than on internal development.