2021 was the biggest Year for Crypto by far. Double-top all-time highs for both BTC and ETH, ATH tops for Alt-coins, Meme Coin Frenzy, NFT Craze, the MetaVerse, DeFi bugs, China’s mining crackdown, and Elon Musk’s Twitter rambles.
NFT Market
Defined as “Non-fungible Tokens”, where unique digital assets can be sold on the Blockchain. 2021 was the year that defined how Blockchain innovation can impact all industries. The total sales volume for the NFT Market reached a peak of $324.5B! Applications are primarily in digital art and gaming. Beeple, a digital artist, set a world record sale for the highest NFT Asset to ever be sold for $69.3 million! There are no limits on the applications of NFTS, further advancements of NFTs are still underway where they can be applied to real estate, data, music, or any industry.
DeFi Craze and Hacks
2021 Was the year for Decentralized Finance. With the Total Value Locked in decentralized finance protocols reaching a high of $100B dollars throughout various lending, liquidity pooling, and payments protocols. This posed an opportunity for hackers to exploit a vulnerability in those projects, with over $10B stolen in DeFi hacks and scams combined.
Regulatory & Institutional Adoption
This year, we saw institutions and governments alike embracing what Crypto has to offer. MicroStrategy, led by Michael Saylor amassed over ₿ 122,000! Worth around $6B as of now. Tesla, also announced that it had purchased BTC and is now sitting at around ₿ 43,200.
Ever since Bitcoin launched back in 2009, early adaptors and believers agreed that Bitcoin is a safe haven against inflation which is affected by central monetary policies. Due to Bitcoin’s decentralization and fixed supply, it does not face the inflationary pressure that affects fiat currencies worldwide. In September 2021, El Salvador is the first country to ever recognize Bitcoin as a legal tender!
2021 was a year full of achievements in terms of institutional adoption, especially in the traditional markets. Coinbase made history as the largest IPO for a digital asset company. Aside from Coinbase, a handful of Blockchain-based companies went public including; Coinshares, Bakkt, and Stronghold Digital Mining.
China’s Crypto Crackdown
China always had a “love/hate” relationship with Crypto-currency. Chinese miners accounted for a considerable share of the worldwide hash rate, as well as being one of the leading manufacturers of Bitcoin-focused ASIC mining equipment, like Bitmain. The Chinese government, on the other hand, has threatened to outlaw Crypto mining and trading and has imposed crypto restrictions, leading to an outright ban on crypto trading, mining, and exchanges. While the long-term consequences are yet to be witnessed, the short-term consequences are clear. Crypto miners have left the nation, and the worldwide mining market share quickly swung in favor of miners operating in the United States and outside of China’s jurisdiction. Since China’s Crypto exchanges and mining industry is facing obstacles, the US and other miners will face less competition and have a better chance of increasing their market share of the global hash rate.
Who Let the Dogs out?
Who let the dogs out you might ask? This year we have seen a surge in DOGE-inspired meme coins. Initially starting with DOGE, a meme coin which was a fork of Litecoin developed in 2013, it hit an ATH of $0.70, topping a $90B Market Cap! A new meme coin came onboard known as SHIBA INU, dubbed as the “DogeCoin killer”, reaching a top of $41B Market Cap. Lots of other meme coins were released throughout the year.
What’s Meta?
Facebook, officially rebranded to Meta in late October. Marking the historic change for the social media giant to shift their focus towards the MetaVerse. The decision sparked controversy in the Blockchain community citing that the main point of the MetaVerse is decentralization, and free data, something “Meta” does not align with. The decision also led to huge trading volumes and adoption for MetaVerse focused Blockchain projects like The Sandbox, Decentraland, Axie Infinity, Bloktopia, and many more, marking their all-time highs.
Ethereum 2021 Growth: Total Value of Transactions on the Ethereum Network
2021 is the biggest Year for Crypto and Smart-contracts, with countless innovations in the Ethereum ecosystem itself. We have witnessed the launch and adoption of lots of decentralized applications ranging from Art, Gaming, Financial Services, and many more!
iOWN Group – 2021 Highlight
We achieved and grew a lot in 2021, in hindsight, here’s our major highlights:-
- Launched iOWN Wallet 2.0
- Co-founded IN4X Global Crypto-currency Exchange
- Reached an ATH for the iOWN Token at the price of $0.09 and a Market Cap of $20 Million
- Signed Agreements with Centralized Exchange for listings
- Ongoing technical devlopments for the iOWN Token
- Binance Smart Chain Bridge
- Polygon Integration
- ERC Token Standard Change
- Developed iOWN Property
- A formal agreement with Amlak Digital for UAE Real Estate Market listings
- Hired 17 new team members, reaching our team count to 27 across all departments
To learn more about iOWN Group’s 2021 Highlights, refer to our blog post here! We wish you a prosperous 2022 ahead.