The year 2020 has definitely been a year that most of us will never forget; not only in terms worldwide events, but also with cryptocurrency as well. With the year quickly coming to an end I thought it would be fun to review what I felt to be some of the biggest stories or trends that happened in crypto during 2020.
As I was writing this article I was impressed with just how much actually happened this year and this made me even more excited to see what will happen next year as well. And even more hopeful for what can be accomplished after a few years. There is a famous quote that reflects this kind of thinking; “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year, and underestimate what they can do in five.”
So without further ado, let’s go through some of the biggest things to happen this year.
8) Ethereum 2.0 Phase 0 Launch
The long-delayed upgrade finally happened; taking ethereum from a proof-of-work chain to a proof-of-stake chain. This of course brought with it the ability to sake your Ethereum to gain a passive income. While in most years this would would be the biggest story; it wasn’t the case this year even though it does make my list. The reason for this is the fact this is only phase 0 of the Ethereum 2.0 launch and the rest of the upgrade could take many years. For many this has simmered the excited that they had. The feeling seemed to be more of a relief that it finally happened, rather than sheer excitement that the next generation of ethereum was finally beginning. Personally I was very excited and have already locked up a decent portion of my ETH to stake and I couldn’t be more excited to have the next upgrades be coming hopefully sooner than later.
7) Bitcoin Halving
Oh how this year has gone so differently than we all expected. At the beginning of the year the upcoming bitcoin halving was perhaps the most highly anticipated event of the year. The action that would potentially be the catalyst for the next bull run. This halving was mostly a highly anticipated hype cycle in that with the even itself; not too much happened actually. While the price was quite volatile before and shortly after, nothing of too much significance actually happened. But if you’ve been in the market long enough you will know that this was completely expected. In-fact; with the halving the effect doesn’t begin to be felt until months after the fact and we have finally now just reached that point in time. With institutional purchasing, everyday purchasing; and the fact that the new btc supply has been cut in half has already began a supply shock that will send the price upwards. It will be very exciting to see how this supply strain continues to develop into 2021.
6) Summer DeFi Season - Uniswap Airdrop
This was the summer where many riches were made. With the rising popularity of the decentralized exchange, Uniswap, helped to blast off a mini-DeFi altcoin season. On a daily basis new coins were launching onto the platform and it was race to find the next coin that was about to explode in value and hype. Just a few of these newly launched hype coins were YFI (and its copies) Yam, Sushi, and also Uniswap. Then, if you had actually used Uniswap before they launched the coin, you were awardee with an airdrop of 400 Uniswap coins, which at one point was equal to more than $3,000. While currently the DeFi hype has cooled down; I do remain confident it will comeback and have another hype cycle in the not so distant future.
5) PayPal Begins Selling Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency
This story was long-rumored but finally came into fruition in late 2020. This news alone catapulted the price of btc up several thousands of dollars and helped to propel the price towards new highs. They also offered ethereum, bitcoin cash, and litecoin for purchase as well. This news story was huge because of the large user base that PayPal has; over 300 million people that would now be able to purchase cryptocurrency. I thought this was great news that it made it much easier for many people around the world to purchase cryptocurrency. But at the same time I was disappointed that they weren’t allowing deposits and withdrawals at this point in time. Either way, there is no denying how big this news was. Just PayPal users alone have been purchasing btc equal or more than the amount of btc that is mined each day.
4) New All Time High Bitcoin Price
While in most years a new all-time high price for bitcoin would be the biggest story of the year; but this year is not like most years. Starting the year around the $7,000 mark and performing a 3x to go over $20,000 was nothing short of impressive. The entire crypto market was watching and waiting with anticipation to see if it would be able to reach the mark and what would happen after it did. For those of us who have been in the market quite awhile and have gone through at least one full bear-market; this reaffirmed our own beliefs that we had to continue investing into BTC while a majority of people had been telling us that bitcoin’s time in the sun had set, and how sweet did that feel! But at the same time the level of excitement or new coverage still wasn’t the same as it has been in 2017. Perhaps it was with the other issues happening this year, or perhaps that hype cycle won’t come until we continue to surge in price and make several new highs. Either way I can’t wait to watch and see it happen.
3) March 12th Price Dump
This was the day that many fortunes were lost and also many were made as well. In a short span the time had dropped by more than 50% and it was the largest liquidation day at the time in the history of Bitcoin. While I admit it was a very scary day for not just my portfolio and many others as well. But this day gave me a greater confidence in the future of the market as well. If this even had happened during bitcoin younger market when the network was weaker, when the demand wasn’t quite what it is today; perhaps bitcoin could have been hit even worse. In the past this might have been an unrecoverable blow to bitcoin. But hit the mid $3,000s in price and very quickly saw a bounce back up, and since this point the price has seen a constant rise. Up 7-8x since that moment. A strength of a coin isn’t so much how it reacts to good times, but what happens during the difficult times. And I grew a lot of confidence in the bitcoin community during this time.
2) COVID Virus and Crypto
While for many the corona virus and how it changed the world and also crypto would be the no brainer #1 story; I will be honest I debated this for a very long time. My #1 and #2 are more like 1a, and 1b where you could argue for either one to top the list. Like I just said, Covid changed the world and perhaps also the way the world looks at bitcoin and other cryptocurrency. Fiat money was dirty, being printed by the trillions all-the-while your money was being devalued at a unprecedented rate. This led people to began searching out other avenues to protect their wealth; which led to bitcoin. The sad thing is that the government printing, your money being devalued were all things that were happening pre-Covid, but this just sped up the process and possibly the knowledge of this fact from the average person. Possibly this situation has forever changed the image of bitcoin being that bubble-Internet craze that people don’t understand; to being an asset that is better respected, having an image that not only can it preserve you’re wealth, but give you wealth.
1) Bitcoin Institutional Investing
This was the moment when I realized that all my crazy future bitcoin price predictions were perhaps not that crazy after-all. It was at this time that I knew the future success of bitcoin was guaranteed. In the beginning of the year we kept hearing about this company called Grayscale that was buying up a very high amount of coins. I thought this was great, but felt this wasn’t quite a mainstream kind of thing yet. But when MicroStrategy, and Square began putting a portion of their cash reserves into bitcoin; two public-traded companies and one very well known company. This was when things just got real. There is a famous quote that applies well here; “slowly, then suddenly.” Since that moment we have seen some of the largest hedge funds in the world come out in favor of bitcoin. Even the banks have turned their tune on the coin. While I feel Covid was perhaps the biggest story this year; the institutional buying of bitcoin is what will be the biggest story of the next decade. It is what will propel the price of bitcoin to several hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So as you can see; this was quite the event filled year for cryptocurrency and I know that there are several things that didn’t make it to my list.
I would love to hear what you thought were some of the biggest cryptocurrency stories or events this year!?
As always, thank you for reading!
