NFT, ATH, memecoins and many more – the crypto buzzwords of 2021

Crypto assets and the blockchain have taken on an entirely new status and popularity in 2021 and have not missed an opportunity to be talked about. From Bitcoin becoming legal tender and its latest update, Taproot, to all-time highs and acclaimed updates (let’s think Ethereum 2.0 and Alonzo), from DeFi, NFT, and the Metaverse, to memecoins and infamous ones. scams, 2021 has not ceased to amaze us. Read on for the top crypto and blockchain topics of the year.

Bitcoin as legal tender

For the cryptocurrency par excellence, Bitcoin (BTC), 2021 has been a year of incredible milestones.

In a landmark decision, El Salvador began accepting Bitcoin as legal tender, giving Bitcoin the opportunity to challenge the power of fiat currencies in everyday life. The widespread adoption of Bitcoin remains a work in progress and, thanks to El Salvador, the world can now closely observe the evolution of this process.

Taproot

In November, Bitcoin hit an all-time high, trading at € 61,154 ($ 68,000). During the same month, the long-awaited Taproot update arrived. The Taproot update simplifies the processing of transactions and multiple signatures, making verification smoother and faster, but also increasing the efficiency of Bitcoin and paving the way for smart contracts. The Bitcoin network already had its own type of contracts on its blockchain and it was already possible to execute smart contracts on other layers, such as those that power the Lightning Network. However, implementing smart contracts on the blockchain prior to Taproot was difficult due to scalability issues. The latest update has tried to solve this problem and may be the missing piece for Bitcoin to soon become a protagonist of decentralized finance.

All-time highs

On November 10, Bitcoin reached its all-time high, trading at 61,154 euros ($ 68,000). Interestingly, this all-time high had to share the spotlight with Ethereum, which peaked at 4,320 euros ($ 4,859) on the same day.

Aside from the two crypto-asset giants, all-time highs have overwhelmed the crypto-asset market throughout the year. The cryptocurrencies that reached an all-time high in 2021 are:

  • Litecoin (LTC): 367,09 € (412,96 $)
  • Solana (SOL): € 231.15 ($ 260.06)
  • Avalanche (AVAX): 130,01 € (146,22 $)
  • Earth (MOON): 69.28 € (77.94 $)
  • Polkadot (DOT): 48,90 € (55,00 $)
  • Chainlink (LINK): 47,00 € (52,88 $)
  • Tezos (XTZ): 8,16 € (9,180 $)
  • Dogecoin (DOGE): 0,6557 € (0,7376 $)
  • Shiba Inu (SHIB): 00 0.0000003465 ($ 0.00008845)

Ethereum 2.0

This year, the largest altcoin for smart contracts and DeFi, Ethereum (ETH) introduced Ethereum 2.0: after the London hard fork, the blockchain launched the first phase of the update, or as it is called on the official website, “phase 0” or the Beacon Chain. A long-awaited feature of Ethereum 2.0 will be the change of the consensus algorithm from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake. This will greatly reduce the environmental impact of the network, while reducing network fees significantly as gas fees will be replaced.

Alonzo

Another of the big names in crypto assets in 2021 has been Cardano. In September, the blockchain announced the Alonzo update and hit an all-time high of € 2.76 ($ 3.10) shortly thereafter. Alonzo marked a milestone in the network’s roadmap, as it has allowed the implementation of smart contracts on the blockchain. This opened a wide range of possibilities in decentralized financial applications for admission to the ADA network, but only time will tell if Cardano can withstand the stiff competition from the many altcoins that participate in DApps and DeFi.

DeFi

This year we have seen how traditional financial institutions are fond of blockchain technology related to cryptocurrencies and everything that surrounds DeFi (decentralized finance). DeFi is a new kind of emerging financial reality that is made possible by blockchain technology. In fact, DeFi applications are able to offer the same services that traditional financial institutions offer (such as trades, loans, etc.), but running on a blockchain, thus ” cutting out the middle man .” DeFi tokens, which power the smart contracts on which DeFi projects are typically based, have risen in value since the summer of 2020, and the top 100 coins byMarket capitalization reached 153 billion euros ($ 173 billion) last November.

In 2021, institutions, especially traditional ones, began to show great interest in DeFi, and at times the interest was shared: various decentralized networks have also started opening up to institutions in order to bring DeFi to the masses. It wouldn’t be surprising if DeFi was still in the limelight in 2022.

Metaverse

Frequently mentioned in headlines and with an increasing presence in the mainstream media, the term “Metaverse” has been a topic that has given much to talk about in 2021, especially since the rebrand of the year: Facebook becomes Goal. Not only Meta, but also many other companies and tech giants are betting on the metaverse and are already working on their own, such as Apple *, Microsoft * and Nvidia *.

Perhaps surprisingly, the term “metaverse” dates back to 1992, when author Neal Stephenson coined it in his science fiction novel Snow Crash to describe a digital universe that users could access in virtual reality. Like the term “metaverse”, the idea of ​​an alternative virtual reality is also not new in the technological field: Second Life is considered one of the first virtual reality platforms, and was created around the year 2000. The most powerful difference between the era of the first virtual realities and the current one is found in technology, specifically in blockchain technology.

Blockchain technology allows metaverses to unfold as decentralized immersive realities with fully operational economies. In the metaverse, users can perform the virtual equivalent of everyday activities: they can socialize with other people, attend events, visit bars and restaurants, work, exercise, create and buy art, and also attend work meetings, visit museums and buy land. To keep economies running, blockchain-based metaverses often use native tokens as currencies; For example, Sandbox users need SAND for transactions, whileDecentraland requires MANA.

With many other releases on the way, we can look forward to the metaverse joining us for years to come.

NFT

“NFT”, an acronym for Non-Fungible Token, is not just a buzzword in 2021 for cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiasts – for the Collins dictionary, NFT is the word of the year. NFTs aren’t new to the digital world – they’ve been around for years, but 2021 has really been their milestone year.

Back in February, the NFTs garnered public attention after the NFT of a 10-second video of Beeple sold for $ 6.6 million. Not long after, the NFT of an alien smoking a pipe sold for 4,200 ETH, which at the time was worth about $ 7.5 million, and another piece of Beeple’s digital art was auctioned for $ 69 million. NFTs are also used in the metaverse, where users can buy, among other things, unique slippers for their avatar as NFTs.

For buyers, NFTs represent a new type of ownership: NFTs are chains of code that run on blockchains that support them, with Ethereum being the largest, there are also TRON, Solanaand others, so the property is integrated into the code itself and is completely transparent. The purchase of an NFT usually carries rights of use, which means that buyers have the right to use their NFT online however they want. However, the artists get the best of it: NFTs are not replicable, each code is unique, which makes plagiarism practically impossible and, if anything, they are easy to detect. What’s more, by selling an NFT, artists can earn rights and continue to profit from their art even when ownership changes.

The artists have taken over platforms NFT and famous singers and celebrities have sold digital pieces in them: for example, Doja Cat, John Legend and Charlie Puth have sold their NFT in oneof based platform Tezos.

Hound Coins: DOGE and SHIB

In the last year, the popularity of cryptocurrencies grew exponentially, and many new investors joined. In the public sphere and in the mainstream media, cryptocurrencies began to be something to know about, or at least something to watch with interest. Two cryptocurrencies that have helped fuel the excitement around this sector are Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB): cryptocurrencies based on highly volatile dog memes received wide media coverage and great attention this year, probably because of their roads so peculiar and unexpected.

The first to appear on the scene was DOGE, which surprised the markets with a rise of more than 800% in 24 hours at the beginning of January. This growth is said to be driven by Reddit users, much like what happened around the same time with GameStock. Not without bumps along the way, DOGE has managed to become the eleventh largest cryptoasset by market capitalization, reaching an all-time high of € 0.6557 ($ 0.7376). The growth of DOGE in the last year is the data that shows the most astonishing figure: more than +6,000%.

SHIB joined the party a little later in the year, rapidly climbing to its all-time high in late September. However, in a hard-to-believe turn of events, Shiba Inu managed to become the thirteenth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, beating out cryptocurrencies such as TRON and Litecoin.

The Squid Game token scam

The Squid Game token scam, a very thorny issue for many people, has also been widely discussed in 2021. While the Netflix series “The Squid Game” was at its peak, a mysterious crypto token from the Squid game. The token appeared to be inspired by the series, and was being traded as a cryptocurrency to play and win in a game inspired by the series. Suddenly, investors started pouring money into the project. Sadly, it turned out to be a scam and had nothing to do with the actual Netflix series. The creators of the token disappeared and investors lost about $ 3.38 million.

The Squid Game token has turned out to be a bitter experience for some, but it is exactly this type of scam that should remind all investors, newbies and experienced alike, to do their research before investing and inquire from sources. reliable.

2021 showed the world the potential of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. While the advancements in the industry over the past 12 months set the bar very high for the years to come, it also feels like it’s just the beginning. The industry is taking giant steps in the direction of mainstream adoption and is reaching an ever-expanding audience. With this in mind, we are very excited and excited to see what the crypto sector will look like a year from now. Who knows, maybe in 2022 this article could even be an NFT that you can buy in the metaverse.

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