Year-end sales: top crypto market winners in 2021

The cryptocurrency and blockchain markets experience explosive growth in 2021, especially in the areas of decentralized (DeFi) and non-fungible (NFT) financial tokens.

Features of this year include: regular price movements, cryptocurrency crashes, major experiences in Central America, an interest in organizing, and a faster increase in contracts - we've snapped the annual winners below the list .

Kazakhstan

When China shut down the entire bitcoin mining industry in May 2021, Kazakhstan was keen to fill the void and provide cheaper, more coal-fired electricity for miners and others. Many have established operations in Central Asian countries, including 5 cryptocurrency mining companies operated by BIT Mining.

In July 2021, Kazakhstan's average monthly power consumption was 18.1%, accounting for almost a fifth of global bitcoin mining production, just behind the United States (42.7%). This is an increase from 1.4% in September 2019, according to data from the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance.

It remains to be seen whether Kazakhstan will retain its share of global BTC mining in 2022, warning of power shortages in Kazakhstan as winter approaches.

coinbase

Coinbase Global, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, was listed on NASDAQ on April 14 and became the first listed cryptocurrency company in the United States. With a market cap of $ 86 billion and revenue of $ 32,828 at the time, it's a list comparable to the IPOs of Facebook and Airbnb. However, commodity prices returned to reality late last year, and as of December 18, they were $ 243.35 and the market cap was $ 52.37 billion.

The names of Coinbase are widely seen as another sign that cryptocurrencies have entered the mainstream and that there will be more IPOs going forward. “Coinbase will be a beacon for all blockchain communities in the open market,” Kavita Gupta, CEO of the Delta Growth Fund, told Cointelegraph.

Solana

In 2021, a new wave of smart contracts has emerged. One of the largest and fastest growing is Solana, a lightning-fast point-of-sale network that guarantees up to 50,000 transactions per second (TPS). In comparison, Ethereum's delivery rate is around 30 TPS.

As Messari's Ryan Selkis writes, "There could be no project in the history of crypto more popular and faster than Solana in 2021." This open source blockchain was hit by several DDoS attacks in 2021, but now holds several positions on NFT and DeFi. According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, as of December 20, foreign exchange cryptocurrency Solona (SOL) ranked 5th among all coins after BTC, ETH, BNB, and USDT.

Naive Bukele / Salvador

El Salvador became the first country to announce Bitcoin fiat in 2021. The country's powerful president, Nayib Bukele, attracted the crypto world with what he did. It uses volcanic energy to boost the national BTC mining industry, drops $ 30 BTC for seniors across the country, and eats 11. In May, Bitcoin City's announcement, the city of All operations taking place around Bitcoin, announced later this month, start at $ 1 billion in Bitcoin contracts.

While all of this could bring a 'winning' market for the people of El Salvador, it was not known until then, but it can be said that Bukele brought 21st century innovation to the people of El Salvador. . through BTC trading. . lights.

Mike Winkleman, who is Beeple

When auctioneer Christie's auctioned off the digital collage in February - the first department store to offer digital equipment with special NFT - at no cost. No one knows how to measure it. Mike Winkelmann's work on Beeple's "Daily: First 5000 Days" sold for $ 69.3 million. The art industry has changed forever since then.

The performance offers were passed by Georges Seurat, Paul Gauguin and Salvador Dali, freeing the unknown Beeple from some of the highest paid actors in the world, including David Hockney and Jeff Koons. He also warned cryptocurrency outsiders that NFTs would be a force that cannot be ignored. In 2021, NFT sales were on the rise, and finally, in November, publisher Collins picked "NFT" as "word of the year."

avalanche

Avalanche is another fast-paced contract that will fall into the top 10 by market value in 2021. CoinGecko announces that "Solana and Avalanche are the new stars of the DeFi multichain", with a stable total price (TVL) in the third quarter between 6% and 2% respectively. Ethereum accounted for almost all of DeFi TVL (99%) at the start of the year, but accounted for 76% at the end of the third quarter.

Avalanche Real Estate, AVAX, ranks 10th with a retail price of $ 27.3 billion at the end of December, which can be attributed to its deal with Deloitte to support the Federal Asset Management Agency partnership. emergencies (FEA) and business consultation.

Sam Bankman Fried / FTX

In 2021, Sam Bankman-Fried was declared the "richest man in cryptocurrency" due to his ownership of the FTX cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, which he established in 2019.

By the end of 2021, FTX will become the second largest cryptocurrency derivatives exchange after Binance (next), according to data from CoinGecko. Messari called FTX "the biggest company to date," warning that Bankman-Fried had created the company for $ 25 billion in less than three years with fewer than 100 employees.

FTX raised $ 900 million in July, and the exchange has risen in value to $ 18 billion from its previous $ 1.2 billion, with SoftBank, Sequoia Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin, VanEck, Paul Tudor, the Jones family, etc. Last June, FTX received long-term naming rights for the NBA basketball arena from the Miami Heat.

open sea

The emerging NFT is ideal for digital artists, where they can sell their work without agents or body art, yet still want digital marketing. OpenSea is the leader of the NFT art market and the biggest winner of the year.

According to a consulting firm Cointelegraph, OpenSea charges a small 2.5% discount on all platform sales, but that brought in significant revenue of $ 79 million in August, the age of the 2021 season. In November, revenues exceeded YTD $ 235 million. In December, little changed. “The main NFT industry in the world attracts money,” Messari said.

FNB ProShares

In mid-October, some impact was overcome with the announcement of the first Bitcoin exchange rate (ETF) approved by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The ProShares Bitcoin Strategic ETF (BITO) has become a hot topic on the New York Stock Exchange and has become the second largest open currency in terms of data volume.

In early 2013, the Winklevoss ETF was the first fund to be approved by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). But some think that this income is a term ETF. The prospect of not directly tracking Bitcoin prices. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission clearly approves two levels of regulatory protection: the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the merger by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Weeks later, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission rejected VanEck's application for a securities ETF, which further confirmed.