Review of 2021; The most important events at a glance
2021 was a dream year for digital currencies. Things happened this year that might have been impossible to predict. For example, no one thought Tesla would buy bitcoin this year or El Salvador would declare this digital currency as the official currency.
However, 2021 is not limited to good things; Strange and strange events did not happen less this year. From the sudden death of John McAfee to the SEC complaint about Ripple and the fringes that originated in China. 2021 was full of tears and smiles for digital currency lovers and investors; This year we had both extraordinary ups and downs. Maybe 2021 will be a year that we, the fans in this field, will never forget.
In this article, we take a look at the best and worst and perhaps the strangest things that have happened in the last 365 days. We start with the best and finally have an overview of the worst.
The best events of 2021
The year 2021 was full of times when tears of joy could be shed. Each of the good things that happened this year pushed the price of digital currencies to the brink of explosion and eventually led to the industry becoming trillion dollars.
Bitcoin ETF approved
In 2021, we saw the answer to one of Bitcoin’s perennial questions: Are tradable funds licensed on the Bitcoin exchange?
Prior to Valkyre’s US ETF approval, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which is responsible for licensing such funds, had repeatedly rejected applications from various companies; But it finally gave up, and in October we saw the first tradable fund on the Bitcoin exchange in the United States.
Read more: All about Bitcoin ETF in simple language
This is important in many ways. ETFs allow institutional investors to invest in bitcoin safely; This is because these funds are offered in a regulated context and will not cause legal problems for companies.
After Valkyrie, the stock exchange traded on ProShares also obtained its license from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Buy Tesla Bitcoin
Tesla officially announced in a statement in February that it had bought about $ 1.5 billion worth of bitcoins.
The company stated that its intention to buy Bitcoin was to diversify the company’s assets. Tesla said at the time that it would provide a platform for buying its cars using bitcoin; A decision that retreated shortly afterwards!
After Tesla bought Bitcoin, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said in an interview that the decision was a “new beginning” for Bitcoin.
The news of Tesla and Bitcoin pushed up the price of this digital currency, while the outlook for bitcoin prices at the time was largely down, at least in the short term.
A few months later, Tesla claimed in a report that it had lost about $ 23 million in bitcoin purchases in the second quarter of 2021.
El Salvador recognizes bitcoin
About six months ago, the South American country officially announced that it would recognize bitcoin as legal tender.
Following the adoption of bitcoin as a legal tender and currency, El Salvador became the first country to fully recognize this digital currency.
El Salvador’s acceptance of bitcoin has sparked a flurry of criticism. The World Bank later said in a statement that it did not recognize El Salvador’s decision.
Many world-renowned economists, including Steve Hanke, point to the disadvantages of bitcoin for the El Salvadorian economy, saying that it calls into question bitcoin’s performance in day-to-day transactions.
The digital currency industry became trillions of dollars
Shortly after the Bitcoin price crossed $ 53,000, the market value of digital currencies reached more than $ 1 trillion. This happened while a year earlier, the market value of digital currencies was only $ 178 billion.
This was not the end of the story; As digital currencies continued to grow, so did the market value of the field. Within a month, we saw $ 2 trillion cross the border.
The market value of digital currencies crossed the $ 3 trillion barrier a month and a half ago. The current market value of digital currencies is in the $ 2.5 billion range.
Bitcoin, meanwhile, has a 37.9 percent market share; Atrium, Binance Quinn, and Tetra are in second to fourth place, respectively.
IPO of Kevin Base
In 2021, Kevin Bass Exchange, the largest exchange office in the United States, became the first digital currency company to offer its shares in the public markets of this country. Kevin Base managed to sell his shares in Nasdaq market in April.
On the day of the offering, the value of each share of this company reached $ 328. This price is a significant number per share and can be compared to the first day of the listing of large companies such as Facebook and Airbnb.
The stock market value of Quinn Base at the time of writing is in the range of $ 52 billion, which shows the high acceptance of the Quinn brand in the financial markets.
The offering of Quinn Base shares is valuable because it allows companies active in this field to have a more prominent presence in the regulated markets. This more presence means more acceptance and more acceptance means more success.
Beeps and NFTs
It is no exaggeration to call 2021 the year of unparalleled tokens. This year, artists like Beeple rose to fame and became the headlines of many news agencies.
In 2021, Beeple sold the artwork “Every Day: The First 5000 Days” for $ 69.3 million; This amount was so large that it changed the field of art sales and NFTs in general.
After that, Beeple’s foot was opened to Christie’s auction house. Before Beeple, it hosted works such as Salvador Dali, Georges Soura and Gauguin that art lovers swear by.
The growth of NFTs, both in terms of price and number and volume of transactions, was such that Collins Publishing chose the word NFT as the word of the year. This means that the day when these tokens penetrate all aspects of our artistic life is not far off.
Web 3.0
The year 2021 showed us that the applications of the China Bloc go beyond investing and making a profit. The year 2021 proved that revolutionary systems could be established on the basis of the Chinese bloc. The rise of ubiquitous platforms such as Polkadat and Solana provided an opportunity to restore confidence in the Chinese bloc.
In fact, Web 3.0, as its name implies, is a new generation of the Internet based on decentralized technologies. In this new generation, dependence on traditional mechanisms disappears and everything can move to a decentralized context.
In Web 3.0 platforms, the cost of services and use of the platforms is paid in the form of tokens, and this will create an integrated ecosystem in the Internet space. Interactions on Web 3.0 are entering a new phase and users will be able to interact with each other in a free environment.
Acceptance and acceptance of digital currencies
Few experts and specialists in this field can be found who deny the increasing acceptance and acceptance of digital currencies and the Chinese block in 2021. Legislative advances and the attention of security agencies to improving the conditions for the operation of digital currencies have led to a significant increase in the acceptance and acceptance of these currencies.
Many of these same experts see 2021 as the first path to acceptance and believe that it will get better and better in the coming years.
In 2021, when Kevin Base arrived in Nasdaq, El Salvador recognized Bitcoin, and many legislators repeatedly talked about digital currencies, sending a flood of media coverage into the field.
On the other hand, it should not be forgotten that in today’s digital world, media coverage is the driving force behind the acceptance of any phenomenon.
The worst events of 2021
2021 is definitely one of the dream years for digital currencies; But bad things also happened this year that may have been hidden under the shadow of the joys of 2021.
Multimillion dollar hacks
Scams and hacks are not new to China’s digital currency and blockchain industry. In 2021, as in previous years, we saw multimillion-dollar hacks.
Cream Finance was hacked several times in 2021, and hackers managed to steal millions of dollars from this platform.
PancakeBunny, Spartan Protocol, Uranium Finance and Meerkat Finance were among the Smart China Bainance projects that fell victim to hacking and fraud.
Africarypt Exchange was one of the exchanges that was hacked in 2021. The operators of the exchange fled after the collapse of the company, and the court confiscated their assets for the benefit of customers.
Disorder in Solana
Maybe if you asked someone in early 2021 which project is more likely to be disrupted, Solana would not be on any list!
The first layer of Solana was disrupted in September. The disruption, which lasted 17 hours, disrupted the work of many exchanges, IDOs and protocols.
Read more:In an announcement, Velana explained the reason for the recent network outage
Solana’s price fell after the disruption to below $ 130. Eventually, Solana’s experts breathed new life into the network.
Solana is currently in full swing and more than 400 different projects are underway on this ecosystem. With a market value of $ 59 billion, Solana is currently the fifth largest digital currency in the market, after Tetra.
If you would like to read more about Solana and how it works, we suggest the article “What is Solana?” Read.
Atrium fees
Atrium fees also peaked in 2021; In May, a simple transaction on this network will cost you $ 80! Carrying out some transactions in defy protocols and decentralized exchanges cost a few hundred dollars.
The increase in fees made ordinary users less active in Defai; So Atrium developers came up with EIP plans to reduce commissions.
One of these schemes, implemented a few months ago in the form of London Hardfork, burns part of the transaction fees. Atrium’s average transaction fee is currently $ 2.5.
Many Chinese blockchain networks, such as Solana and Polkadat, have been able to establish their foothold in the market and become one of the main ecosystems in Difai, using this Atrium weakness.
Death of John McAfee
If we want to introduce the most marginalized people in the field of digital currencies, John McAfee is definitely at the top of this list, and even his death is one of the margins around this character!
John McAfee, founder of McAfee, a security and anti-virus software company, committed suicide in June while serving his sentence in a Spanish prison.
Read more: Grief for John McAfee; A man no one knew was right
He was wanted by the US government for tax evasion and non-payment of income tax between 2014 and 2018, and was eventually arrested and sent to prison.
He tweeted before his death:
If I had committed suicide, I would not have! They submerged my head!
He once predicted that the price of bitcoin would reach $ 500,000 by 2020. McAfee went on to say that if that did not happen, he would eat one of his organs!
China
“China”; One word is enough bad news for digital currency lovers and investors alike.
China has always been a nightmare for Bitcoin since the birth of Bitcoin.
In 2021, the news of the ban on Chinese miners and the introduction of new restrictions on digital currency traders became the headlines of the media.
If you would like to know more about China’s role in the fall in bitcoin prices, we suggest you read “China and Bitcoin’s 12-Year Enmity.”
Goodbye 2021, Hello 2022
Historical events in 2021 were not few. Some other important events were lost in the midst of all these significant events; For example, no one paid attention to Kazakhstan, which in the absence of China took over the digital currency extraction market.
Kazakhstan’s share of the monthly bitcoin hash rate reached 18% in 2021, compared to only 1.5% in 2019! Kazakhstan may be one of the winners of the marginal year 2021, and it can be considered one of the most important host countries for bitcoin miners, along with the United States.
Now that the last days of 2021 are over and 2022 is slowly beginning, we must prepare ourselves for more important events. Many experts believe that 2022 will be a year of more legislation, more adoption and more innovation.
We just have to wait and see what awaits us next year.