2024 crypto market top 20 predictions: L2 explosion, ecological integration, and the rise of emerging tracks

2025-07-30 03:13:01

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2024 Crypto Market Outlook: 20 Key Predictions

Layer 2 network ( L2) will continue to be one of the most important topics in 2024. With the implementation of Ethereum upgrades, the significant reduction in L2 transaction fees will drive explosive growth in the ecosystem. In addition to gaming, perpetual contracts, decentralized finance, and NFTs, areas like social and decentralized infrastructure will also experience rapid development.
Multiple L2 projects will engage in comprehensive competition with other public chains in various aspects. With the implementation of EIP-4844 and the evolution of data availability layers, L2 will match high-performance public chains in terms of costs and speed. The competition between the two major ecosystems will become an important focus in 2024.
A certain L2 project is expected to launch its economic mechanism in 2024, becoming an important force driving the explosion of L2.
If a certain full-chain game project makes a breakthrough, it will open up new narratives.
In 2024, it is possible that a Layer 2 (L2) project will have a diluted total market capitalization exceeding $100 billion; in an optimistic scenario, during the peak of the cycle, a Layer 2 project may have a diluted total market capitalization exceeding $300 billion. The final landscape of the L2 market cannot be determined yet in 2024, but it may take shape fundamentally after the end of this cycle.
The Bitcoin ecosystem has opened up new possibilities after the inscription craze. Multiple teams are exploring innovations in scalability, including decentralized indexing, the evolution of the inscription system, cross-chain technology, zero-knowledge proofs, and Layer 2 (L2) solutions. Once progress is made, it will promote the development of its own ecosystem and accelerate the integration with the Ethereum ecosystem. The exploration of the Bitcoin ecosystem will become one of the most notable evolutions in this cycle.
The Ethereum mainnet will gradually evolve into a B2B ( chain for enterprises. Most interactions of ordinary users will occur on L2/L3 and a few high-performance public chains, with Ethereum gradually becoming the underlying asset in the crypto field. At the same time, with the development of modular blockchains, Ethereum will become the most important settlement layer, while most execution layers and part of the data availability layers will be outsourced. However, due to underlying security requirements, Ethereum will still capture the value of the overall ecological growth.
Modularization will remain an important topic in 2024, especially with fierce competition at the data availability layer. The Ethereum restaking field will also enter the competition for data availability layers. In the modularization space, there is both competition and integration between different ecosystems. There will be competition between third-party data availability and native data availability, and before the full realization of sharding technology, the urgent market demand for L2 will create a certain scale of demand for third-party data availability.
In addition to the Ethereum and Bitcoin ecosystems, other ecosystems will continue to develop. Some ecosystems will make progress through modularization; others will achieve breakthroughs at the application level. Furthermore, as modular blockchains mature, some public chains may participate in a broader crypto market like other L2s, increasing their integration with Ethereum and thereby capturing greater value.
Web3 games are expected to achieve breakthroughs on L2/L3, and there may be a game with over a million users. A game chain based on a certain L2 may become the forefront of breakthroughs in Web3 games. With the introduction of interoperability among game chains and more games, important insights will be gained for the evolution of Web3 games.
In addition to integrating functions such as NFT exchanges and NFT lending, a certain NFT trading platform is expected to enter the NFT perpetual contract market this year, and even the NFT markets of L2, Bitcoin, and other ecosystems, with the opportunity to continue playing an important role as a transformative force in the industry.
In addition to the explosion of L2 projects, the Ethereum ecosystem is expected to generate a significant scale of deflation, thereby achieving value capture. Unlike other public chains that increase supply and distribute fees to miners, Ethereum returns all new additions and fees to stakers and holders, which will incentivize more users to stake/re-stake, further locking up the circulating ETH.
Perpetual contracts in decentralized finance may see massive growth in 2024, with multiple projects potentially generating at least 5 times the trading volume of 2023. While perpetual contracts may not necessarily be a key narrative in a bull market, they are likely to be one of the best fundamental tracks.
The advancement of modular blockchain and cross-chain technology will promote the integration between different ecosystems, and many currently unknown projects may emerge during this cycle. According to the current evolution trend of the Bitcoin ecosystem, one possible development path is for Ethereum to host Bitcoin's second-layer network. If realized, the degree of integration between Bitcoin and Ethereum will gradually increase. In any case, Bitcoin's expansion needs to follow its own native path, similar to how certain protocols could have a significant impact on the development of the Bitcoin ecosystem if they can implement virtual machines.
Decentralized Physical Infrastructure ) DePIN ( may achieve breakthroughs on certain public chains, this field is still in the early stages of construction, and more exploratory projects will emerge.
Although artificial intelligence is still a long way from practical application, it does not prevent it from becoming one of the important topics in 2024, and AI protocols based on L2 and high-performance public chains will gradually emerge.
The Ethereum re-staking track may become an important topic at some point this year.
NFTs, meme coins, and inscriptions may experience a resurgence at some point, driving an increase in trading volume on NFT exchanges and providing a market foundation for the launch of NFT perpetual contracts.
Some celebrities may enter the fields of NFTs, meme coins, inscriptions, etc.
With the development of L2 and the exploration of high-frequency applications, smart contract wallets have the opportunity to emerge in 2024.

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