Crypto’s rocket-ship year commanded attention from Wall Street to the White House

Makin’ Satoshi proud… Crypto’s EOY holiday card is packed. The launch of spot bitcoin ETFs helped cryptocurrency gain Wall Street acceptance and hit fresh records. And while April’s “halving” brought growing pains, most miners overcame ’em: MARA Holdings, Riot Platforms, and Hut 8 all reported soaring Q3 revenues. Bitcoin soared past the $100K milestone this month, and companies like MicroStrategy have scooped up billions in coins. Meantime, Trump has talked about creating a strategic bitcoin reserve.

But this year wasn’t just BTC’s show. Solana, XRP, and dogecoin all saw mega gains, and 4M+ meme coins were launched on Pump.fun. Elsewhere, traders wagered $3.6B+ on the US presidential election on blockchain-based Polymarket as prediction markets hit the mainstream. With an incoming industry-friendly White House and turnover at the SEC, 2024 has teed up the crypto industry for what it hopes will be another banner year.