Bitcoin ETFs, halving, the WazirX fiasco and Trump trades: How crypto fared in 2024
2024-12-27
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The last few years have not been kind to the cryptocurrency market. In 2022, FTX, one of the largest global crypto exchanges, filed for bankruptcy, and token prices have seen wild swings in the past couple of years. But the crypto industry was in for a surprising upswing in 2024.
This year was marked by the institutionalisation of key tokens including Bitcoin and Ethereum as their exchange-traded funds (ETFs) got regulatory approval. Then there was the halving of Bitcoin in April, something that happens every four years or so and is intended to reduce the rewards and supply for mining Bitcoin.
Closer home, the industry was hit by its biggest crypto crisis of all time after India's largest crypto exchange WazirX faced a $230-million cyberattack, wiping off nearly 40 percent of its funds.
But globally, the highlight for the industry became Bitcoin crossing the six-figure dollar price point for the first time, driven by anticipation of pro-crypto US president-elect Donald Trump's return to power in the US.
As we enter 2025, here are the key themes that shaped the crypto industry landscape this year.
BTC-ETH ETFs approved
The year started with a bang when in January 2024 the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accepted the applications of 11 spot coin ETFs, including those by BlackRock, Vanguard, Franklin Templeton, Valkyrie, Fidelity and Invesco. This became a watershed moment for the industry and the token got institutionalised for investments, driving structural demand from traditional capital pools. As of December 26, the Bitcoin ETF market cap stood at $136.5 billion, according to market tracker Blockworks.
The Bitcoin ETF endorsement was followed by eight Ethereum ETFs getting approved later in 2024. And now more tokens such as Solana and XRP are expected to see ETFs getting approved and rolled out in 2025.
Bitcoin halving
The most valued crypto token had its fourth halving event in 2024, coming at a time when crypto prices were unstable amidst macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties. The run up to the halving led to Bitcoin prices moving up.
Halving over the long run leads to lower rewards and lower volumes that create lower supply, which will then put pressure and cause a price increase. This worked in the crypto token’s favour this year.
WazirX hack
This year India perhaps saw its biggest crypto headline till date, with the WazirX cyberattack in July. WazirX is India’s largest crypto exchange with nearly 33 percent of the country’s crypto users either actively trading or holding accounts with the platform.
The exchange lost over 45 percent of its crypto assets when one of its multisig wallets was hacked, creating panic among users. The platform had temporarily paused trading and is currently working on a business restructuring plan to bail out affected users. Industry insiders were concerned that this incident would further delay regulatory talks with the government.
Offshore crypto exchange bans
In December 2023, the finance ministry issued notices to nine offshore crypto exchanges that had not complied with the country’s local money-laundering laws. The nine entities were Binance, Kucoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global and Bitfinex.
In the following month, URLs and apps of all of these platforms were blocked in India.
While Binance and KuCoin eventually got registered in India and became compliant with the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, other platforms are yet to budge.
Both KuCoin and Binance had to pay fines to the Financial Intelligence Unit in India (FIU-IND). Binance was imposed a penalty of Rs 18.82 crore and KuCoin became operational after paying a penalty fee of Rs 34.5 lakh.
Trump trades
Bitcoin prices have soared over 100 percent year-to-date, with the peaks crossing $100,000 for the first time ever, thanks to the pro-crypto Donald Trump winning the recent US presidential election. The run-up to the election moved prices of not just Bitcoin but all other tokens quite a bit. This crypto rally got the name 'Trump trades', as the president promised to make US the “crypto capital of the planet”.
While Trump is to be sworn in on January 20, and had earlier planned to come up with policies around creating a “strategic bitcoin reserve”, industry players are hopeful that the ongoing crypto bull run will continue longer than usual.
Closer home, industry experts are hoping to see some movement in the crypto regulatory framework in 2025, following US’ suit. The Indian government, though, has largely remained aligned to its previous stance on being a part of a global regulatory framework rather than regulating crypto at the country level.
What’s next in 2025?
Dilip Chenoy, chairman of the crypto and Web3 industry body Bharat Web3 Association (BWA) is hoping that there will be some alignment on regulatory clarity as most Web3 founders from India have already moved out to other countries.
“A lot of the Indian crypto and Web3 founders are sadly located in Singapore or Dubai right now due to ease of working. They are very eager on regulations (being put in place). We need a level playing field here for Indian and global platforms,” he told Moneycontrol earlier this month.
Sidharth Sogani, CEO of Blue Aster Capital, a crypto-focused hedge fund and research platform, said that he sees Bitcoin prices rallying past $300,000 in 2025 with the floodgates of institutional funds opening up through ETFs and more payments happening through cryptos in the US.
“I see payments through crypto open in all the US states. All the payment gateways around cryptos will start integrating and there will be an increase in adoption. There will be more institutional investments coming in too as at least 50-60 tokens will come up with ETFs next year,” he told Moneycontrol.
Sogani is also bullish on regulations in India in 2025 as the US gets more clarity on its own regulations.“When the US SEC will have clarity on crypto regulations and crypto treasury gets allowed in the US—we will have all the announcements and plans by the beginning of February after the Trump swearing-in ceremony. India will have a benchmark to look up to. India might also bring in regulations. I expect regulations to be at the end of 2025 or beginning of 2026,” he added.