Crypto investors see 518% surge in gains in 2024, while ETH leads losses: CoinLedger

With the U.S. tax season well underway, the average crypto investor made gains of $5,482 in 2024, according to an annual report by cryptocurrency tax software platform CoinLedger shared with The Block.

The figure marks a significant increase from the average $887.60 realized gains made in 2023, with participants still recovering from a severe bear market the year before that saw them realize an average of $7,102 in losses.

“Cryptocurrency is in a bull market,” CoinLedger CEO David Kemmerer said. “It’s clear that the results of the 2024 presidential election have pushed enthusiasm for digital assets to new heights.”

The report's statistics were generated via CoinLedger’s proprietary user base of more than 500,000 crypto investors. Kemmerer previously told The Block that the majority (80%) of CoinLedger’s users are from the United States, with 6% from Australia, 5% from Canada and 9% from other countries.

SUPER, HYPE and BTC provide largest unrealized gains, ETH leads losses

SUPER — the cryptocurrency that powers the blockchain gaming ecosystem SuperVerse — led average unrealized gains by raw U.S. dollar amount, followed by Hyperliquid's native ecosystem token HYPE — demonstrating the appeal of newer crypto projects. Bitcoin, SHIB and RENDER made up the remainder of the top five, respectively, according to CoinLedger's user data.

On the flip side, ether led users' unrealized losses in 2024. "While ETH has been a popular cryptocurrency for years, it’s likely that increased competition from the Solana blockchain had an impact on its price action," CoinLedger said. ADA, POL, ATOM and CRO round out the top five unrealized losses for its clients.

Bitcoin continued to lead the pack as the longest-held cryptocurrency among the tax platform’s user base for the second year in a row — highlighting the loyalty of BTC holders, CoinLedger said. ETH, XRP and ADA represent the next longest held, respectively.

Ledger leads wallet imports, while Coinbase dominates exchange data

In terms of the most common wallets used for importing data to the tax platform, Ledger came out on top — showing that more investors are turning to hardware wallets for secure storage, CoinLedger said. 

However, web3 wallets MetaMask, Phantom, Coinbase and Trust Wallet made up the remainder of the top five, ahead of two other hardware wallets, Tangem and Trezor.

When it comes to centralized exchanges, Binance lost its top spot among the platform's user imports, overtaken by Coinbase and Crypto.com, falling to third place. CoinLedger said this was likely due to regulatory issues in various countries following its substantial $4.3 billion settlement with U.S. authorities in 2023. Kraken was the fourth most popular exchange import for CoinLedger users in 2024.

Despite U.S. dollar deposits and withdrawals being suspended on Binance.US in June 2023 after the Securities and Exchange Commission sued the platform, alleging violations of securities laws, it remained a top-five imported exchange in 2024. Binance.US announced the restoration of fiat functionality on Wednesday.

Robinhood and KuCoin were also among CoinLedger users' most commonly imported exchange data for last year.