How Ethereum and Solana will power the crypto industry in 2024

Author: Kazu Umemoto Source: Bankless Translation: Shan Oba, Golden Finance

In 2024, the Ethereum and Solana communities blaze new trails in crypto.

In many ways, 2024 delivered the story of Bitcoin’s value to the world—Bitcoin broke through $100,000 and ushered in an epic rebound. However, the focus of the crypto industry in 2024 goes far beyond Bitcoin, with the Ethereum and Solana communities achieving great results during the year.

Although there is still a lot of infighting between the two top smart contract platforms at certain points in time, 2024 truly showcases the unique strengths of their respective communities. These advantages not only attract more people to pay attention to the encryption field, but also pave the way for glory in 2025.

Today, we’ll dive into the biggest moments Ethereum and Solana will have driving the industry in 2024, as well as three key trends for both ecosystems.

Three major trends in Ethereum

1. Ethereum developers fight for the future of crypto industry

In 2024, Ethereum developers will bravely fight for the future of encryption and DeFi. Faced with aggressive regulators, the Ethereum community has spearheaded tough rhetoric and targeted lawsuits in an attempt to fight back against a long-running crackdown on crypto companies.

Institutions such as Uniswap, Consensys and Coinbase took the initiative. Early Ethereum KOLs stood up to defend the core values ​​of the crypto industry, challenged Gary Gensler (U.S. SEC Chairman), and funded political leaders who supported cryptocurrencies in an effort to reshape the political landscape.

In 2024, encryption giants won key battles and accumulated important political capital to ensure that the values ​​of the encryption industry will no longer be easily trampled on.

2. Stablecoin growth highlights the value of cryptocurrencies

In 2024, stablecoins made significant progress in the Ethereum ecosystem. Ethena launched the USDe stablecoin, which minted nearly $6 billion in one year. The supply of USDC has almost doubled, and the supply of USDT has also increased by more than 50% .

This growth shows that stablecoins are increasingly being viewed as reliable financial instruments and stores of value. Institutions such as BlackRock have entered the stablecoin field, and its BUIDL fund supports Ethena's USDtb stablecoin. With BlackRock on board, more companies are likely to explore the potential of stablecoins in reducing day-to-day transaction costs .

3. Ethereum starts the expansion of “responsible expansion”

Due to the poor price performance of ETH, the community began to deeply analyze the strengths and weaknesses of Ethereum. The community has had a heated discussion around the expansion roadmap, with both criticism and defense.

At Bankless, we have held several discussions on scaling:

• Max Resnick shares the scaling dilemma,

• Justin Drake showed the development direction of Beam Chain that is consistent with the roadmap.

But this year is not limited to discussions - the Dencun hard fork has reduced L2 transaction costs by introducing Blob transactions . Blobs allow L2 to store large amounts of data at low cost on the Ethereum main network, making transaction fees cheaper and attracting more users.

Solana’s top three trends

1. Memecoin craze attracts a large number of users

In 2024, the memecoin craze attracted millions of users to the Solana chain, with many hoping to get a share of the next 1000x coin. Pump.fun became a key player in the memecoin craze, issuing over 5 million tokens in 2024 and accounting for 50% of Solana DEX trading volume. The total trading volume of Solana DEX reaches US$990 billion , and memecoin contributes significantly.

Of course, memecoin is not always full of halo: project collapses, insider trading, and celebrities cutting leeks are common. The short-lived live broadcast function of Pump.fun also exposed the problem of user misconduct.

Despite this, Pump.fun remains one of Solana’s flagship projects. If the memecoin craze continues in 2025, Solana is expected to attract more users than in 2024.

2. Developers flock to the Solana ecosystem

In 2024, Solana will not only attract new users, but also a large number of new developers willing to join Solana. According to the 2024 Electric Capital Developer Report , Solana ranks second in global developer share, second only to Ethereum. Although Ethereum still dominates the total number of developers, Solana has 1,000 more new developers than Ethereum this year, putting it far ahead in attracting developers. This shows that a new wave of innovation may emerge in the Solana ecosystem, bringing more vitality to 2025.

3. Increased institutional interest

SOL prices have soared more than 1,700% over the past two years, and this growth, coupled with the launch of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, has fueled speculation about the Solana ETF .

Grayscale has filed to convert its Solana trust into a spot ETF. Considering Grayscale has successfully converted Bitcoin and Ethereum trusts into ETFs this year, the Solana ETF is only a matter of time. If the Solana ETF is approved, it will provide large institutional and retail investors with convenient investment channels, change Solana's image as a mere "memecoin chain" in the crypto industry, and become an ecosystem trusted by millions of users .

Looking ahead to 2025: a new narrative in the new year

In 2024, the crypto industry will usher in a new narrative.

During this year, Ethereum and Solana demonstrated their own unique development trends, which not only strengthened their market positioning, but also jointly promoted the grand narrative of "cryptocurrency subverting traditional finance (TradFi)".

Solana rode on the memecoin craze to solidify its position in the hearts of retail users and attract a large number of users who were exposed to cryptocurrencies for the first time. Ethereum continues to be the mainstay of DeFi (decentralized finance), emphasizing stability and institutional adoption, and actively defending the core values ​​of decentralization within the industry and on the political stage.

Looking forward to 2025, as the anti-encryption forces in American politics gradually lose power and regulations gradually become clearer, the encryption field is expected to usher in explosive growth. The value of Bitcoin as "digital gold" has been accepted by global investors, and the opportunity for Ethereum and Solana is coming. It is the critical moment for them to show the world "how Internet currency can truly drive the global economy."