The cryptocurrency market saw various narratives perform well in the first quarter of 2024, with meme coins, real-world assets, and AI tokens leading the way.

Narratives in the crypto industry focus on specific sectors and unique coins, showcasing different ways crypto operates.

Data from CoinGecko revealed that meme coins experienced an average return of 1,312% across top tokens on the platform.

New meme coins like Brett, BOOK OF MEME, and cat in a dogs world made significant gains, with Brett standing out with a 7,727% return by the end of the quarter. Another notable performer was dogwifhat, gaining 2,721% after going viral.

The RWA narrative, tied to physical assets or real-world utilities, saw a 285% return and regained momentum by late March after being overtaken by meme coins and AI narratives. MANTRA and TokenFi were among the leading RWA tokens.

AI tokens also performed well, with an average return of 222%. AIOZ Network and Fetch.ai led the pack with substantial gains.

Decentralized finance and DePIN narratives saw moderate gains, with Defi receiving a boost late in the quarter influenced by Uniswap's fee switch proposal. Ribbon Finance was the top defi token, gaining 430%. DePIN also ended positively, led by Arweave, Livepeer, and Theta Network.

L1, GameFi, and L2 narratives lagged behind in profitability, with Solana, Toncoin, and Bitcoin Cash outperforming in the L1 space. Established Ethereum L2s like Arbitrum, Polygon, and Optimism did not perform as well.

For more information, check out Wormhole unveils roadmap for W token debut on Solana.