The entire cryptocurrency market is currently experiencing growth and attracting increasing attention. It's a vast and fragmented space, with an ever-growing number of apps making significant strides toward mass adoption, while memecoins continue to make waves.

Binance Research recently released its Monthly Market Insights for October, offering a detailed analysis of the current trends. Although October has passed, these trends show no signs of slowing down, and the market seems to be moving past the uncertainty surrounding elections.

Binance Research is the research division of Binance, the leading cryptocurrency exchange in the world. You can read the full report here. Let's take a look at some of its findings that might interest you the most.

State of the Market

October 2024 marked a 2.8% growth in the cryptocurrency market’s total capitalization, reflecting its resilience to external pressures. Bitcoin (BTC) ended the month near its previous all-time high, driven by approximately $5.4 billion in spot ETF investments.

Market confidence was also boosted by September’s U.S. labor statistics, which revealed job growth and declining unemployment. Additionally, as the U.S. presidential election approached on November 5, optimism about possible regulatory reforms drove positive momentum, which extended into bullish trends following the election.

Let's take a closer look at BTC, ETH, and, due to continuously rising memecoin activity, SOL:

• Bitcoin (BTC) rose 7.4%, driven by $5.5 billion in ETF inflows and renewed interest from traditional finance. BTC approached its previous all-time highs, surpassing $73,000, as institutional demand grew. Positive sentiment around the U.S. presidential election and corporate moves, like MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin holdings and an upcoming Microsoft vote, further supported its rise.
• Ethereum (ETH) declined 3.7%, underperforming BTC due to concerns over its fee generation, with the rise of app chains with independent rollups leading to fears of value being diverted from the mainnet.
• Solana (SOL) surged 9.7%, fueled by a surge in memecoin activity and AI-themed memes launched through pump.fun. This sparked retail interest and boosted Solana's DeFi Total Value Locked (TVL), particularly in Liquid Staking, DEXs, and Lending sectors.

Apps Keep Getting Bigger

In recent months, application-based projects have seen a significant rise in revenue, now coming close to the top infrastructure solutions. Among the 15 highest-earning projects, 12 are applications, collectively generating $164 million during a 30-day period—almost matching the $182 million total from the three leading infrastructure projects. This trend suggests that applications could soon capture a larger share of the market’s revenue.

As more Layer 1 and Layer 2 projects emerge, there is growing focus on applications that achieve product-market fit. While infrastructure is still essential, successful user-oriented applications are increasingly seen as key to attracting new users to the space.

The shift towards application-driven revenue is likely to continue. Monitoring the evolving relationship between infrastructure and applications will provide insights into which assets are generating the most value in the crypto market.

NFTs

Turning to the NFT space, October saw a strong 15.8% increase in total sales volume, reaching US $350 million—marking the first sales growth since March 2024 after a six-month decline.

Within Ethereum’s blockchain, notable collections displayed mixed results. CryptoPunks saw a 39.8% drop in sales, while the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Pudgy Penguins showed growth, up 42.5% and 22.7%, respectively. Additionally, meme collections like Milady Maker, Project AEON, and Sproto Gremlin saw astonishing increases, with some reaching over 1000% growth.

In Bitcoin Ordinals, sales volumes also saw impressive rebounds, with Bitcoin Puppets up 72.1%, Ordinal Maxi Biz up 36.4%, and Based Angels soaring by 865.2%. These results suggest that, despite some volatility, optimism in the NFT market is building.

Memecoins Demonstrate Strong Value Growth

Memecoins had a strong showing in October, with four of the top five performing tokens over the 30-day period being memecoins. Their share of trading volume relative to the top 50 altcoins (by market capitalization) has steadily increased, from 6% to over 12%, occasionally surpassing 20%. Since February, memecoins have averaged $5 billion in daily trading volume, showcasing their growing market influence.

This success is driven by perceived fairness—memecoins have all their supply in circulation, unlike VC-backed tokens with insider allocations. Their accessibility, with themes like cute animals and viral memes, also appeals to a broader audience. It remains to be seen if memecoins can sustain or even grow their momentum as 2024 ends.