The digital asset industry broke records and reached major milestones in 2024, catapulting Bitcoin past $100,000 to a new all-time record.
But the world’s oldest cryptocurrency isn’t the only thing on the rise this year. Several newcomers to the industry also saw their stars rise.
From rolling out beloved meme coin launch pads to unveiling new trading platforms and stirring up drama on Crypto Twitter, here are our picks for 2024’s rising stars in crypto and Web3:
Sasha Plotvinov: NOTCOIN founder
Sasha Plotvinov Notcoin, a play-to-earn (P2E) game on Telegram, has contributed to the stunning resurgence of crypto-based gaming this year.
Notcoin had around 35 million users at its peak, bringing large numbers of new people into the world of Web3. It also had one of the largest crypto gaming token is launched of 2024, with the market cap of its digital assets reaching $1.5 billion on launch day, or almost double that of Pixel’s token.
Notcoin co-creator Sasha Plotvinov (left) speaks with Sander Lutz of Decrypt at Token 2049 Dubai. Image: decrypt
However, Notcoin’s impact does not stop there.
Notcoin’s early success set the stage for the success of the later, more popular Telegram tap-to-earcrypto games. One Notcoin successor, Hamster Combat, has gathered 300 million players.
Dylan Abruscato: Founder of Crypto the Game
Dylan Abruscato has breathed new life into crypto-based gaming.
In February 2024, the founder released Crypto: The Game, a winner-take-all digital asset survival game where players vote each other out of the gameplay during a series of challenges.
The project attracted around 350 players in its first ‘season’ and generated a lot of buzz on social media. That early success allowed the project to return with a second season, Crypto: The Game (Anon Island)just a few months later, this time with more players.
The DeFi protocol Uniswap will be released in June bought Crypto: The Game for an undisclosed price – a testament to its fast-growing popularity.
Ansem: trader and influencer
Crypto Twitter celebrity Ansem’s star skyrocketed this year, with the influencer amassing around 600,000 followers on X.
The twenty-year-old trader has seen his following grow, partly due to his talent for spotting altcoin trends and providing key insights into the crypto market.
However, his willingness to serve controversial comment about events in the crypto industry, as well as his tongue-in-cheek interactions with other crypto influencers, have also earned him many fans (and a fair share of haters).
Alon: co-founder of Pump.fun
Alon shot to fame earlier this year when his Solana-based meme coin launch platform Pump.fun reignited an altcoin trading craze.
The market cap of meme coins is worth over $150 million at the time of publication, with a large portion of that market driven by Pump.fun token launches, Showing CoinGecko data.
From last August to November, Pump.fun meme coins made up more than 50% of all monthly transactions on Solana, the most widely used network for altcoin trading.
The meme coin craze is fueled by Pump.fun’s unique livestream platform, where staged kidnapping and explicit content have been commonplace.
The platform’s bizarre content has become a favorite topic of the crypto community, with heavyweights in the digital asset industry such as Binance’s founder, weigh in about its crazy culture.
Jack Booth: co-founder of the Ton Society
Jack Booth is another figure who contributed to Telegram’s 2024 crypto gaming trend.
The founder’s Telegram Open Network (TON) Society has done just that led community building efforts in the TON ecosystemwhich spearheads hackathons and other programs that provide mentorship opportunities and incentives to aspiring builders.
These efforts, in turn, have fueled the explosive growth of Telegram’s decentralized network.
Jack Lu: CEO of Magic Eden
Jack Lu is driving a potential NFT revival at Magic Eden, a Solana-based platform where users can maintain a cross-chain wallet for their NFTs.
The multi-chain platform accounts for 80% of the trading volume for Bitcoin Runes and Ordinals, two types of tokens that were buzzing earlier this year. Meanwhile, Magic Eden recorded $60 million in daily volume this summer, according to on-chain data, making the project a leader in the revival of NFT trading.
The platform airdrop has also created a buzz among traderswith over $300 million worth of Magic Eden’s own token to go to its loyalists.
Iggy Azalea: $MOTHER Founder
Iggy Azalea has ridden her 15 minutes of fame to the final frontier of internet fame: creating a meme coin.
But unlike many of her famous companions – and even some long-time Web3 developers – the unlikely shitcoin queen has achieved some success.
Iggy Azalea launched her Mother Iggy ($MOTHER) meme coin in June, with the token’s value tripling to nearly $0.15 at its peak, CoinGecko facts shows. The singer’s token has a market cap of almost $74 million, making it more widely traded than Rekt (REKT) and Own the Doge (DOG).
The token’s relative success is likely a product of Azalea’s dedication to building a Web3 community.
At Token 2049 in Singapore in September, Azalea promoted its meme coin in what was perhaps the most talked about spot. side event of the conference– a flashy Wild West themed party, complete with strippers and lots of cringe-worthy antics.
Although the event was heavily criticized on crypto Twitter, it certainly accomplished its task of putting the singer and her token on the meme coin map.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
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