Are Meme Coins the Most Profitable Cryptocurrency Niche so far in 2024?

The first half of 2024 has ended, and on-chain experts have compiled data to determine the profitable sectors so far in the year.

According to coverage from independent crypto reporter Colin Wu, memecoins became the most profitable sector in H1 2024, followed by Real World Assets (RWA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Memecoins Emerges as Most Profitable

Wu analyzed the price return rate of the top ten tokens by market cap in each sector using data from CoinGecko by comparing their average daily price return with their prices at the beginning of the quarter. The tokens were selected based on their rankings on the last day of the quarter.

Memecoins have recorded an average return rate of 2405.1% in 2024. As of June 19, three of the top ten memecoins by market cap were tokens launched around March-April. They include Brett (BRETT), Book Of Meme (BOME), and DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON (DOG).

Brett had the highest return rate, surging 14353.54% from its issuance price, while dogwifhat (WIF), another notable project, rose 933.93%.

“In the past few months, the phrase ‘value investing is empty, go all-in on MEME to live in the palace’ has gradually become one of the mantras of this bull market,” said Wu.

DeFi and GameFi Lag Behind

The profitability of memecoins is 8.6x higher than that of the RWA sector, which had a return rate of 213.5%, and at least 500x more than the least profitable sectors, which include decentralized finance (DeFi), GameFi, and Layer 2.

RWA briefly became the most profitable sector in February as it was heavily discussed in the traditional finance space, with giants like asset manager BlackRock investing in it. The top RWA tokens by market value include Mantra (OM) and Ondo (ONDO), which recorded gains of 1123.8% and 451.12% respectively.

Furthermore, the AI sector saw an average return rate of 71.6%, with tokens like Arkham (ARKM) and AIOZ Network (AIOZ) recording gains of 215.5% and 192.19%, respectively.

Sectors like Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) and Layer 1 witnessed steady growth, reaching 58.7% and 43% return rates, respectively. Wu said DePIN has a huge growth potential and is one of the sectors capitalized on this bull market.