ket may not experience a sharp dropoutput: title: Review of the Crypto Industry in 2024 and Outlook for 2025: VCs Share Their Observations and Thoughts

As the New Year's bell is about to ring, the crypto industry has ushered in a new development node. In the past 2024, the market has experienced recovery

the market liquidity of Bitcoin is no longer as good as before. In addition, the halving event in April will also stimulate people's enthusiasm for buying and holding crypto assets. Therefore, it is difficult for us to see a large-scale market sell-off in the first half of the year.

output: As the New Year's bell is about to ring, the crypto industry has ushered in a new development node. In the past 2024, the market has experienced recovery, innovation and adjustment. The leading projects have continued to consolidate their positions, and emerging tracks have quietly emerged, laying the foundation for the future. In the ups and downs of this year, VC, as a weather vane for the development of the industry, has not only witnessed the changes in the market, but also shaped the direction of the industry at the intersection of capital, community and technology.

Standing at the starting point of 2025, PANews invited more than a dozen top VCs to share their observations and thoughts on the crypto industry. They reviewed the highlights of the past year, analyzed the opportunities and challenges of the current market, and made predictions on future development trends. In this rapidly changing field, which projects and tracks are becoming the focus of VCs? Let us walk into the perspective of VCs and explore the "yesterday, today and tomorrow" of the crypto industry.

The most impressive projects in 2024

In the past year, the crypto industry has ushered in a new wave of growth driven by the dual drive of market recovery and technological innovation. From infrastructure upgrades to breakthroughs in emerging tracks, countless projects have emerged this year, showing strong vitality and innovation potential. Some of these projects have not only attracted a lot of attention with their unique technical paths or business models, but also left a deep mark inside and outside the industry.

James Wo, founder and CEO of DFG (Digital Finance Group), pointed out that Hyperliquid started out as a high-performance perpetual contract decentralized exchange (perp DEX), attracting a large number of users while maintaining transaction execution speed and liquidity. In addition, the tokens launched by Hyperliquid have no VC or listing on centralized exchanges (CEX), becoming one of the most successful airdrops in crypto history. "The platform is expanding its products and launching its own HyperEVM ecosystem, which includes many native decentralized applications (dApps) to increase the practicality of its spot ecosystem. The platform earns a lot of fees through on-chain clearing and market making, gradually eroding the market share of the top DEX and CEX."

Web3Port co-founder Chris also spoke highly of Hyperliquid and was impressed by its market share, community airdrop and distribution mechanism, and wealth effect. In addition, he also mentioned Pump.fun, the most successful Meme coin launch platform this year. Compared with existing platforms on the market, Pump.fun successfully pushed the concept of "Meme launch platform" to the top narrative and ignited the craze in the Meme market. Chris said that the revelation of Pump.fun is that Web3 projects can succeed by building products that are truly practical, have high user experience, and have market fit.

Ryan Rodenbaugh, CEO and co-founder of Wallfacer Labs (vaults.fyi), said that the revival of mature lending protocols such as AAVE and Compound in the DeFi field, as well as the emergence of high-quality new entrants such as Morpho, Euler, and Ajna, are exciting. Although DeFi has not received the same attention as in the past in the current cycle, the low-key success of these protocols is still worth paying attention to and tracking.

Among the answers given by a number of VCs, Pudgy Penguin is one of the most frequently mentioned projects. Joanna, founder and CEO of Jsquare, highly praised Pudgy Penguin, believing that it has driven the revival of the entire NFT track on its own. "As a first-round investor and Pudgy NFT holder, I fully felt the powerful energy of Luca's Web2+Web3 fusion thinking as a representative of the new generation of entrepreneurs, which also made me firm in one of the first principles: Invest in next generation."

"Ethena has performed well in the DeFi field with its USDE stablecoin, profiting from high funding rates by establishing 1x long and 1x short positions on centralized exchanges (CEXs)." Jsquare partner Dinghan said that Ethena's cooperation with BlackRock BUIDL Fund ensures that USDE can maintain stable returns even when the funding rate is negative, further consolidating its long-term feasibility.

How will the Bitcoin market develop?

Bitcoin has shown amazing growth momentum in 2024. According to Coingecko data, as of December 31, 2024, the price of Bitcoin has risen by 119.1%. This increase is mainly due to the institutional adoption of spot ETFs, the halving event in April