2021, The Most Important Year Since The Inception Of Cryptocurrency
2021 is the most important year in the history of cryptocurrency. Almost every aspect of the crypto market has achieved some kind of breakthrough, including record highs, technological advancements, mainnet releases and mainstream media attention. Let's take a look at some major events in the crypto market in 2021.
First of all, I have to talk about the rapid rise of memecoins such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inucoin. At the beginning of 2021, a Dogecoin is worth 0.5 cents, with a market value of $600 million. dollars. At the peak of the bull market, the market value of Dogecoin almost reached $100 billion, and the price of each token was 73 cents, an increase of 146 times from the beginning of the year. Even Elon Musk, the world's richest man, is also promoting Dogecoin on Twitter, even calling it "the people's cryptocurrency." Although some people may think this is a huge setback for cryptocurrency because it makes the market look like a joke, there is no doubt that Dogecoin has attracted the public in a way that Bitcoin has never seen before.
Similar to Dogecoin, NFT mania has also swept the public and became a topic on its own. The first NFT series to gain a large number of followers is Crypto Punks, which is a set of pixelated images of different characters, and the base price now exceeds $100,000. The second and arguably more valuable NFT collection is Bored Ape Yacht Club, where celebrities such as Post Malone, Jimmy Fallon and Mark Cuban bought Apes for millions of dollars. These have also had a great impact on the public's perception of the cryptocurrency market, because the huge NFT bubble has not yet burst. In addition to the value of works of art, pictures with no actual value are being sold at extremely high prices. Nevertheless, the NFT boom shows no signs of slowing down. Companies such as Adidas, Pepsi and Budweiser have recently released their own NFT series, and each NFT is now priced at thousands of dollars. Crypto.com decided to buy the naming rights for one of the most famous arenas in the world, the Staples Center.
The hype from NFT and memecoins has also spread to the cryptocurrency market itself, as almost all top tokens have reached a record high in 2021. Most importantly, Bitcoin has reached a price of $65,000, Ethereum has reached more than $4,500, and the entire cryptocurrency market is valued at nearly $3 trillion. Other tokens include Solana, which has grown 100 times, and Terra has grown 114 times in the past year.
Although memecoins and NFT have received the most media attention, more significant events have occurred behind the scenes of the blockchain world. For example, Ethereum released their long-awaited EIP-1559 upgrade. A portion of each transaction fee is burned from the total supply, which makes it possible for Ethereum to become a deflationary asset. Similarly, Cardano released a mainnet with smart contract function, which has been developed for more than four years. Polkadot, which hopes to become a blockchain Internet, has also launched the mainnet and is adding cryptocurrency to its blockchain ecosystem through Parachain Launch Auctions.
In 2021, the adoption of cryptocurrencies is also increasing rapidly. El Salvador has decided to make Bitcoin legal tender and plans to create a Bitcoin-based city that uses the heat of the volcano to run Bitcoin mines. This can also be seen in Miami, the United States, whose Mayor Frances Suarez has been promoting Bitcoin and providing government workers with the option of payment in digital currency. In New York, the "financial capital of the world", the new mayor Eric Adams has always praised Bitcoin as the currency of the future and hopes to accelerate the popularity of Bitcoin in New York. In addition, on a global scale, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and other world-renowned banks have also released reports and analyses on digital currencies. Although not everyone is positive, the importance of cryptocurrency is enough to attract the attention of some of the largest financial institutions in the world. This is a step in the right direction.
2021 is undoubtedly the most important year since the inception of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Looking ahead to 2022, the adoption of large technology companies, the release of Ethereum 2.0, or the release of breakthrough dApps may allow cryptocurrencies to stay in the spotlight for a longer period of time.
