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Bitcoin completed 2023 with strong performance, remaining at the heart of blockchain technology. The 2024 Bitcoin Outlook report published by OKX Ventures predicts the Bitcoin ecosystem, which finished the past year with new issuance protocols, scalability solutions, and reliability improvements, will continue to witness innovations in 2024.

TURKEY - Last year saw a 150% increase in Bitcoin, marking a period of robust growth, with expectations for 2024 beginning to crystallize. The approval of Bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) led to a volatile outlook for Bitcoin. Discussions on Bitcoin's performance in 2024 and developments within Bitcoin have accelerated with less than 100 days remaining until the halving event, which occurs every four years. OKX, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and a company in the Web3 technology sector, through its investment arm OKX Ventures, published the 2024 Bitcoin Outlook report to provide an overview of the trends in Bitcoin and expectations for the crypto ecosystem in 2024.

Bitcoin's data size has surpassed 540 gigabytes!

The report found that, as of January 16, the size of the Bitcoin blockchain has exceeded 540 gigabytes. This represents a 70% data growth compared to three years ago, highlighting the widespread adoption of Bitcoin, which remains the highest in market value among cryptocurrencies. Despite the rise of other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin continues to dominate the market, holding more than 50% of the total market value of crypto assets. Dora Yue, founder of OKX Ventures, emphasized, "Asset issuance protocols that emerged in 2023, such as Bitcoin Ordinals, became the locomotive of innovation in the ecosystem. This technology, which turns satoshis, considered the smallest unit of Bitcoin, into unique NFTs, was rapidly adopted. In 2023, the OKX Wallet saw over 120,000 wallets with more than 1 billion dollars in Ordinal transaction volume. Subsequently, various asset issuance protocols like BRC-20, RGB, Taproot Assets, Runes, Taro, Atomicals, TAP, PIPE, and more were introduced. The number of BRC-20 transfers exceeded 45.4 million. We predict that Bitcoin Ordinals will play a significant role in 2024."

Bitcoin gained 400% in value after halving

The report also mentioned the halving expected in April 2024, which anticipates a reduction in mining rewards by half. It's expected that the halving will bring additional benefits to the BTC ecosystem, with past data indicating that Bitcoin has gained over 400% in value in the 12 months following previous halvings. Moreover, the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs by the SEC is seen as recognition of Bitcoin's value, expected to attract significant capital into the crypto market.

Observing the dynamic growth and transformation of the Bitcoin ecosystem has been inspiring, said Dora Yue, "Innovations towards new issuance protocols have led to significant improvements in the feasibility and security of asset issuance standards. Layer 2 solutions offer scalability and usability enhancements to the Bitcoin network, while all these innovations strengthen Bitcoin liquidity, ensuring the ecosystem's continuous growth and development."

"We lead the BTC ecosystem with our Web3 sector leadership"

Believing wholeheartedly in the transformative power of developments and new technologies within the ecosystem, Dora Yue, founder of OKX Ventures, concluded her remarks with the following statements:

"OKX, besides being the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, positions itself as a Web3 technology company. In this regard, we consider it our duty to use our resources to support the Bitcoin ecosystem, synonymous with diversity and resilience. OKX Ventures, created by OKX to support innovative projects, has invested approximately 1 billion dollars in over 300 projects across five continents in the last two years. With our leadership in the Web3 sector, we will continue to support projects that we believe will unveil high quality, long-term value while transforming user needs into products and solutions through our OKX Web3 wallet."