jakiro
Author: Lim Yu Qian, Coingecko; Compiled by: Deng Tong, Bitchain Vision
Which cryptocurrency narrative has the highest rate of return?
The most profitable cryptocurrency narrative in 2024 is AI, with its most average price increase from year to year (YTD) at 2,939.8%, followed by meme, with a return of 2,185.1% from year to year.This makes AI and memecoin narratives more than twice as profitable as other popular cryptocurrency narratives.
In March, the meme coin narrative initially began to outperform other narratives, when its return rate soared from 96.6% to 1,713.1% in a month.Despite its volatility, Meme coins then continue to achieve the highest returns and become the most profitable narrative for most of 2024.However, after hitting a record high of 3,211.4% on December 9, the meme coin narrative price has fallen as interest in meme coin weakens.
By comparison,The AI narrative rebounded strongly at the end of the year, with nearly doubled its return, growing from 1,598.1% to 2,939.8% in December.This is mainly due to the soaring popularity of the AI proxy launchpad Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL), which is also the largest cryptocurrency gain this year.Therefore, the AI narrative eventually surpassed the meme narrative in late December.
at the same time,RWA is the third most profitable cryptocurrency with an average return of 819.5% this year.RWA’s return rose steadily at the beginning of the year to 365.3% by April 12, but has been in a sideways consolidation for the next six months.Subsequently, in November, RWA’s return rate returned to a rise, with MANTRA (OM) prices soaring.
Moderate benefits of Tier 1, DePIN and DeFi narratives
Layer 1, DePIN and DeFi narratives performed similarly in 2024, recording modest returns of 142.5%, 135.4% and 101.4% respectively.This means that the Layer 1 and DePIN narratives are only slightly better than Bitcoin itself, which rose 125.5% in the same period, while the DeFi narratives are less profitable than Bitcoin.
In other words, holding bitcoin alone will allow conservative investors to earn a profit comparable to at least three major cryptocurrency narratives this year.
The game and the 2nd Layer Narrative performed poorly
GameFi and Layer 2 narratives became the worst profitable narratives in 2024, and even performed poorly compared to Ethereum’s 49.0% return rate.
Specifically, GameFi narrative has had a return of just 14.7% this year, with six of the top 10 game tokens losing between 3.1% and 32.9%.
on the other hand,Layer 2 is the only narrative of losing money this year, with a negative return of 20.7%.With the trend of increasing number of projects seeking to launch their own Layer 2, seven of the top 10 largest Layer 2 tokens have seen prices drop, ranging from 6.3% to 75.3%.
Ranking of crypto narrative returns for 2024
Performance of cryptocurrency narratives in 2024, ranking by average annual return on investment for its 10 tokens with the largest market capitalization:
