Crypto investors were heavily drawn to meme assets in 2024, according to a new study.

In a research paper, CoinGecko says that the majority of crypto interest in 2024 hit the memecoin sector, which saw an expansion from dog-themed tokens to other animal and personality-themed digital assets.

“The most popular crypto narrative in 2024 was by far the memecoin narrative, which captured a combined 30.67% of global investor interest across the main memecoin narrative and 25 memecoin trends.

In other words, almost a third of crypto narrative interest this year was focused on more speculative opportunities with less emphasis on fundamentals, as the market expanded rapidly from dog-related memecoins to other animal-and personality-themed memecoins.

Specifically, the main memecoin narrative ranked 1st with a 14.36% share of crypto narrative interest. This represents a 6.04 percentage point increase from the memecoin narrative’s 8.32% share of interest last year.”

CoinGecko also finds that smart contract platform Solana (SOL) – known for being rife with memecoin activity – also drew a significant amount of trader interest in 2024. Base, the blockchain of top US-based crypto exchange Coinbase, also drew notable interest.

“Solana-related narratives captured a combined 14.30% share of investor interest, putting it close behind the AI narrative in terms of popularity. While Solana memecoins drove almost half of attention towards the chain, investors continued to be interested in the broader Solana ecosystem, which ranked as the 5th most popular narrative with 5.78% of investor interest…

Meanwhile, two Base-related narratives also entered the top 20 rankings this year, on the back of the chain’s strengthening popularity. Altogether, the Base ecosystem and the Base memecoins narratives accounted for 4.87% of investor interest.”

SOL is trading at $199 at time of writing.