Writing: Biteye Core Contributor Viee

Editing: Biteye Core Contributor Crush

The first half of this year is almost over. Since BTC broke through the previous bull market high and surged to 70,000, there hasn't been any exciting brilliance.

In recent months, the market has been fluctuating back and forth, and the flag set at the beginning of the year to make money is also slightly wavering. Regardless, the main bull market wave has not yet arrived, and there will be plenty of opportunities. Don't be in a hurry.

At this point, it is very suitable for reflection and review. This article is a statistical and comparative analysis of the return rates of different cryptocurrency tracks from 2024 to the present. It's no longer the era of "picking money". Which track is the most profitable? After reading this article, you will know.

01 How have the returns of different cryptocurrency tracks been from the beginning of the year to the present?

Ranked by the average YTD (January 1, 2024, to June 21, 2024) price return rate of the top 10 tokens in each track, the data is from CoinGecko. The performance of the cryptocurrency tracks in the first half of 2024 is as shown in the following figure.

Meme coins have become the most profitable track

In recent months, "value investment is a waste, go all in on MEME and live in the palace" has gradually become one of the "coin trading scriptures" of this round of bull market.

According to statistics, there is no doubt that Meme coins have been the most profitable track in 2024, with the highest average return rate reaching 2405.1%. As of June 19, among the top 10 Meme coins by market value, 3 were newly launched tokens around March-April: Brett (BRETT), BOOK OF MEME (BOME), and DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON (DOG).

Among them, BRETT had the highest return rate, rising by 14353.54% from its issuance price; dogwifhat (WIF) rose by 933.93% from 2024 to the present (YTD), triggering a craze for Meme coins at that time.

It is worth noting that the profit potential 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.

The second most profitable track, RWA, has a return rate of 213.5% from 2024 to the present

The concept of RWA (Real World Assets) has been under constant discussion in recent months, and major institutional giants have laid out in this track, including BlackRock.

As a result, RWA briefly became the most profitable track in February, ranking first in return rate, but was later surpassed by Meme coins and the AI track, until it surpassed the AI narrative again at the end of March and performed well at the beginning of June.

Among the top market value RWA tokens, MANTRA (OM) and Ondo (ONDO) had the largest increases, with YTD increases of 1123.8% and 451.12% respectively, while XDC Network (XDC) performed the worst, falling by 44.38%. Apart from some established DeFi projects, RWA projects are generally in the early stages and are worth paying attention to.

The AI track closely follows, with a return rate of 71.6%

As early as the end of 2023, the AI track had frequently appeared in the annual outlooks of major investment institutions. As Messari stated in its 2024 investment forecast, AI has become the new favorite in the field of technology. Indeed, the average return rate of the AI track from 2024 to the present is 71.6%, ranking third.

Among them, Arkham (ARKM) had the highest increase, at 215.50%. Next is AIOZ Network (AIOZ), which rose by 192.19%. The tokens Render (RNDR) and Fetch.ai (FET), which received high attention in the first half of the year, had return rates of 57.47% and 116.00% respectively, with good performance.

DePIN and Layer1 achieved steady growth

DePIN had a basically negative return rate in the first half of the first quarter, but it began to reverse its decline since March, with a return rate of 58.7% to date.

Among the top market value DePIN tokens, JasmyCoin (JASMY) 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.

In contrast, Helium (HNT) performed poorly, being the only large market value DePIN token to fall by over 50%, with a return rate of -50.94%.

DePIN is also one of the tracks that capital is betting on in this round of bull market. If the total market value of DeFi grows by 10 times, and the total market value of DePIN reaches half of DeFi's, then the total market value of DePIN will reach 500 billion US dollars, with at least 20 times growth potential.

The return rate of the Layer 1 (L1) track from 2024 to the present is 43.0%. Although Solana (SOL) as a public chain for many high-potential Meme coins has received a lot of attention, its YTD increase is 22.91%, which is still a considerable drop from the 85.05% return rate in mid-March.

The best-performing large market value L1 cryptocurrencies are actually Toncoin (TON) and Binance Coin (BNB), with increases of 204.72% and 86.10% respectively.

In comparison, Bitcoin (BTC) has increased by 45.06% since reaching a new high, while Ethereum (ETH), despite the expected rise through ETF applications, has a YTD increase of only 49.65%, which is comparable to BTC.

GameFi, DeFi, and Layer 2 are lagging behind

The return rate of the GameFi track is 19.1%, belonging to a track with relatively little market rotation from the beginning of the year to the present, with a considerable amount of financing but no breakout success.

The best-performing large market value GameFi tokens are FLOKI (FLOKI), with an increase of 362.79%, Ronin (RON) with 21.16%, and Echelon Prime (PRIME) with 5.27% YTD, while the return rates of other large market value tokens are negative, 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 Uniswap (UNI) fee switch proposal at the end of February, but its return rate from the beginning of the year to the present has dropped to 3.4%. The large market value DeFi token with the highest return rate is Maker (MKR), with a YTD increase of 49.88%.

The Layer 2 (L2) track is the worst-performing, with a return rate of -40.59%, almost halved. Among the large market value L2 tokens, AEVO (AEVO) and Starknet (STRK) performed the worst, with return rates of -85.40% and -63.16% respectively.

The mainstream Ethereum L2 also performed poorly: Optimism (OP) had a return rate of -54.64%, and Arbitrum (ARB) had a return rate of -53.71%. It is worth noting that Mantle (MNT) stands out, with a YTD return rate of 26.09%.

02 Calculation method

This study, based on CoinGecko's data, researched 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 in each track compared to the price at the beginning of the quarter. For tokens launched during the quarter, their first-day price data was used for comparison.

The representative tokens (top 10 by market value) in each track were selected based on their market value rankings on the last day of the quarter.

In order to better meet the purpose of this study, tracks specific to certain chains, tracks with a small number of large market value tokens, or tracks highly overlapping with other tracks were excluded.

This study is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. When investing in any cryptocurrency or financial asset, be sure to conduct your own research and act prudently.

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