This article covers the most important metrics about Bitcoin for the year 2024. It is a good starting point for those looking for keywords to search for to gain insight.
Bitcoin conquering the world
You can find this same retrospective for the year 2023 here: Bitcoin – 2023 in numbers.
This article is based on the annual paper of cypherpunk Jameson Lopp, the English version of which (with many supporting graphics) can be found here:
Here are the Top 5 countries where bitcoin is the most popular if we believe the number of Google searches in relation to the population:
1) El Salvador
2) Switzerland
3) Nigeria
4) Netherlands
5) Austria
El Salvador's first place will surprise no one, but let's note the entry of Switzerland into the ranking. Lugano's “Plan B Initiative” and the fact that there is no tax on capital gains probably have something to do with this. It is time for France to get in tune. Savings from a good father should not be taxed.
The popularity of bitcoin in Nigeria can be explained by inflation which reaches 34%. But there is nothing worse than inflation for people who do not own property. Bitcoin is revolutionary in that you don't need to be rich to buy it, unlike traditional anti-inflationary assets (prestigious real estate, works of art, S&P 500, etc.). It is the savings asset par excellence for the masses.
Another very interesting indicator is the number of tweets containing the word “bitcoin”. There were 140 million on X in 2024, an increase of 65% from one year to the next. At the same time, the number of people joining the popular Redit forum r/Bitcoin increased by 25%, with more than 7.47 million members.
Peer-to-peer Cash System
The Lightning Network has improved further in 2024 (e.g.: Bolt 12), but the most precise statistics remain “on-chain”. It appears that bitcoin has made it possible to exchange the equivalent of 9.3 billion dollars per day on average. This is NINE times more than in 2023.
The amounts have increased, but also the total number of transactions. We are currently around 18 million transactions. This is much more than the 8 million transactions that prevailed between 2017 and early 2023.
However, a good part of these transactions were linked to the circus of the registration of voluminous arbitrary and unwanted data (ordinals, etc.). We will come back to this in the “network security” section. The fashion for ordinals has been accompanied by an increase in transaction fees collected by miners and pools. These fees brought in an average of $2.5 million per day, an increase of 25%.
Note that we observed a record series of 104 blocks in a row whose transaction fees brought in more than the rewards provided by the protocol (3,125 BTC per block). The fees, however, only represented 5% of miners' total revenues in 2024.
By the way, miners achieved a turnover of $15 billion in 2024. This figure assumes that the BTC harvested is immediately converted into dollars.
Concerning the Lightning Network – which allows instant and almost free transactions – we observe a slight improvement. The network contains the equivalent of $500 million, a 148% rise largely tied to bitcoin's 120% rise. The number of channels, however, decreased by 1%. This sluggishness confirms that bitcoin is perceived more as a store of value rather than a means of payment.
Network Security
The number of (accessible) nodes increased by 19% to 20,367 nodes according to Bitnodes. This is a good indication of Bitcoin being adopted by more enthusiasts.
The number of (inaccessible) nodes increased by 50% (97,000 nodes). However, this colossal increase is not organic. Could an attack be in the making?…
By the way, an unreachable node is a node that refuses incoming connections from other nodes that for example need to download the latest blocks after a disconnection period.
Speaking of nodes, let's return to ordinals which already seem to be going out of fashion. These registrations caused spikes in demand for the limited block space. This resulted in an increase in transaction fees and the number of utxos, which did not fail to trigger heated debates on what should be considered “spam” and therefore “filtered”.
Should we remember that the fundamental decentralization of the bitcoin network is proportional to the possibility of installing a node inexpensively without it taking weeks?
As a result, the quantity of utxo exploded by 120%, compared to something closer to 30% in normal times. The problem being that these unnecessary utxos extend the installation time of a node which already takes many days in regions poorly served by broadband.
Bitcoin trading volumes and payments
Volumes have essentially stagnated on Coinbase, Binance, Bitstamp, Bitfinex, Kraken, Huobi, etc. However, a significant portion of volumes are now generated via ETFs. The volume there averages $3 billion per day. Bitcoin has become one of the most traded assets in the world.
The number of BTC on exchanges fell by 8%. This is good news. Around 2.8 million BTC are in the wallets of exchange platforms. That said, these figures are only unreliable estimates. According to Jameson Lopp, it may well be that the variation is actually 0%. Not to mention the ETFs which now hold more than a million BTC on behalf of their clients.
The number of operational bitcoin ATMs increased again in 2024 (+ 8%) to reach 38,744 ATMs around the world. We do not recommend the latter as the costs are generally gargantuan. But some have the advantage of being No-KYC…
Likewise, if the number of Lightning Network users seems to have decreased (fewer channels), the number of establishments that accept bitcoin has increased by 25% according to @btcmap.
Lots of good news in 2024. The only thing missing is that the capital gains tax will be abolished everywhere. This is the case in the Czech Republic after having held your bitcoins for at least three years. It is one year in Germany as well as in Portugal.
Just like in the United States, bitcoin will sooner or later enter the European political arena. As such, several important elections will take place in 2025 (Germany, Poland, Ireland). The former German Finance Minister has already started his seduction operation by pleading for the creation of a strategic reserve of bitcoins.
2025 could be a good year if the United States actually starts buying bitcoins to create a strategic reserve. $200,000 in sight.
Don’t miss our article: Bitcoin, Donald Trump's plan B.
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