Memecoins Emerge as the Undeniable Champions of 2024's Crypto Landscape

Memecoins emerged as the undeniable champions of 2024's crypto landscape, seizing nearly 30.67% of global investor interest.

Memecoins had an undeniable triumph in 2024, capturing nearly 30.67% of global investor interest in cryptocurrencies. This interest was primarily driven by speculative tokens, many of which incorporated themes of animals, personalities, or pop culture references. The main narrative of meme coins accounted for 14.36% of the interest, which was higher by quite a margin compared to last year’s 8.32%.

CoinGecko's latest report highlighted the rapid growth of memecoins, with several sub-trends emerging within this broader category. Fourth came Solana meme coins, standing at 7.65%, then Base meme coins at a share of 2.13%, AI meme coins at 1.49%, and feline-flavored tokens at 1.19%.

These varying degrees of interest showcased how memecoins continued to be a major talking point in the crypto space. The broader trends also highlighted that the market had room for high-risk, high-reward opportunities as fundamental factors fell behind the scenes.

Artificial Intelligence was the second-strongest narrative in 2024, garnering a combined 15.67% of investor interest. The main AI narrative contributed 12.58%, showing consistent growth from last year despite lagging behind the explosive rise of memecoins. AI agents and AI meme coins also made an appearance in the top 20 crypto narratives.

In parallel, RWA and DePIN also gained traction. The RWA narrative climbed to third place with an 8.64% share, while DePIN went up to 8th with a 1.56 percentage point increase. Conversely, the GameFi sector saw a shrinkage from 10.49% to just 3.72% of investor interest.

The total interest of investors in Solana was 14.30% of accumulation. While memecoins drove the trend, engagement was strong for the entire Solana ecosystem narrative – it placed 5th with a 5.78% share. Pump.fun contributed to this another 0.61% with a rather small narrative.

Similarly, Base-related trends became more popular, with the Base ecosystem and Base meme coins narratives gathering 4.87% of interest altogether. Ethereum, Sui, and TON ecosystems also received a place in the top 20 narratives, stressing that the leading blockchain networks do not lose their role even when trends are changing.