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Year after year we get more amazed at how much the cryptocurrency market and the community are growing. We’ve seen Bitcoin’s new records, an ever-changing top 10 cryptocurrency chart, a boom in decentralized finance, and more. Let’s remember what outstanding crypto events of 2021 we have witnessed.
Bitcoin’s Bull Run
Despite the fact that writer Nassim Taleb calls Bitcoin the Ponzi scheme, the first cryptocurrency has shown great growth again. Having started this year at $29,000, the coin peaked at $67,566 by November 8, setting a new ATH.
What has influenced Bitcoin’s growth this year?
Bitcoin ETFs: Denial, Anger, Acceptance
The SEC has long opposed the launch of digital asset-based ETFs. On October 15, 2021, the commission approved ProShares’ application to launch an exchange-traded fund based on CME’s settlement Bitcoin futures. On the first day, its turnover amounted to 24.4 million shares, reaching $1 billion. This was the catalyst for the growth of the Bitcoin price.
Legal Tender in Salvador
This event might not have influenced the BTC price boost; however, it’s quite an important milestone for the whole cryptocurrency community and sphere.
In early September 2021, a law granting the first cryptocurrency the status of legal tender on a par with the US dollar came into force in El Salvador. President Nayib Bukele announced the purchase of Bitcoins for the national treasury on his Twitter. The residents began to pay with Bitcoin for Big Macs and Happy Meals. Looks cool, right?
Meme Coins and Other Altcoins
Meme-based coins have taken the world by storm this year. Inspired by Dogecoin, other similar cryptocurrencies, such as Shiba Inu and Akita Inu, have appeared. After Mr. Elon Musk announced the name of his new dog, Flocky, the eponymous coin was created almost immediately.
2021 has really been about the meme coins obsession. However, one stood out, specifically SHIB. Despite the Shiba Inu cryptocurrency gaining about 43,000,000% in 2021, its price literally has crashed by the beginning of winter. If you hadn’t missed the moment and bought SHIB coins for $3 in January, then you would have had $3.5 million at the time of its ATH.
In general, this year has been a good time for altcoins. After all, many of them have updated their ATHs, and the top 10 by market cap has been constantly changing.
What other notable altcoins can we remember this year?
Solana (SOL), which started its major movement at $20 in August and made it to $250 in November. Cardano (ADA), which renewed its all-time high price at $3.10 in September. Avalanche (AVAX), which entered the top 10 by market capitalization in one year. Terra (LUNA), which shows impressive price growth even when the whole market turns red.
NFT Market Craze
This year, NFTs have become some kind of digital gold rush. According to the Guardian report, by the middle of December, the global market of non-fungible tokens has hit $22 billion. In 2020, it was only $100 million. The gap is huge.
The phenomenon became attractive not only for crypto veterans but also for novices of the crypto industry. Now, you can buy almost anything in the form of code, whether it’s the Weeknd’s song or an accessory for your character in a metaverse game.
from Beeple’s The First 5000 Days
A digital collage by Beeple named The First 5000 Days was the most valuable piece this year. It was sold for $69 million. Bored Ape Yacht Club, a collection of funny primates, which can be used as a profile picture, was another hit. By the way, Post Malone made one of the primates his Instagram profile picture.
Why have NFTs become so popular? The answer is simple. World companies entered the fray using NFTs as an advertising thing — namely, Coca-Cola raised about $600,000 just by selling customized jackets for characters of the Decentraland metaverse game. Well, the jacket is on sale on the OpenSea marketplace right now (for $2M!).
Now, we smoothly approached the next event of this year — GameFi.
GameFi: the New Golden Child of Cryptoverse
GameFi became a buzzword this year alongside the play-to-earn concept. According to DappRadar, nearly 50% of users’ wallets are connected to decentralized games. The gaming craze began with Axie Infinity, a battle and collectible game with lovely animals called Axies.
The evolution of blockchain games has been explicit this year. Just think, there are more than 80 million game transactions every day. Besides, the price of in-game tokens has grown significantly. For example, the AXS token cost only $0.5 in January 2021, yet in November, its price reached $160.
Axie Infinity (AXS) Price Change
This year, GameFi is not only about having fun and playing games. Many people consider it a source of income. In the case of poor countries, it became the main source of livelihood. In the Philippines, Axie Infinity made a splash amid growing unemployment due to the pandemic.
By the end of the year, the GameFi boom has become narrower, and metaverse games like Decentraland and the Sandbox stand out. Our social connections were hit hard during the pandemic. Perhaps that’s why people are trying to make up for the lack of communication through interaction in the metaverse games.
Next year, GameFi will continue to grow without any doubt. So, 2022 is poised to be the year of play-to-earn games.
The Biggest Heist in Crypto History
2021 was not only the year of the rise of cryptocurrencies. This August, Poly Network, a decentralized financial platform, was hit by a major attack. The hacker succeeded in stealing more than $600 million, which is the biggest amount in history.
The most absurd thing about this theft was that the hacker not only did not disappear but even returned all the funds to the platform. The intruder gave back all the funds, except for $33 million in USDT, which was frozen by the issuing company.
Poly Network called the hacker Mr. Whitehead and even offered him a job as chief security advisor. Despite such a happy ending, you should not rely on the kindness and decency of a hacker. They say that it would be simply unrealistic for them to launder such a large amount of money due to current security measures on crypto exchanges.
Changelly in 2021
Throughout this year, we have been striving to improve our project to make our users’ experience more delightful and less complicated. Recently, we’ve upgraded our main page and the blog. What other milestones have we reached?
Added a lot of new top-notch cryptocurrencies.Improved our Changelly Earn affiliate program so that the statistics are more transparent and the payouts are easier. Now the network fee is included and displayed in the final amount.Indicated the network type for every token so that you won’t get confused and added the Tron network type for the USDT exchange.Upgraded our mobile app with fiat purchase and better UX.
We have a million plans for 2022. Our team is convinced that nothing would have happened without you. Thank you for choosing Changelly. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you next year.
