The 10 cryptos that marked the year 2021

Magazine specializing inuniverse of the cryptocurrency, Decrypt has engaged in a perilous exercise: to manage to distinguish in the year 2021 the ten projects which were the most significant.

If the exercise was not simple, it is because 2021 was a year of intense upheavals in the matter. the Bitcoin, the pioneer currency but also theEthereum, have reached unexpected heights. The sector NFTs (works of art associated with an identity digital) has taken off. That of the Metaverse seemed so major that a company like Facebook renamed itself in Meta. And El Salvador set a precedent by being the first country to adopt Bitcoin as its national currency.

In the list of Decrypt (published under two different articles), we find currencies but also companies working in the field. And this list reveals many surprises.

The UST of Terra

For the record, under the name of ” stablecoin »Currencies whose price is matched to that of a traditional currency. Thus, the USDT or the USDC have a value which is permanently equal to one dollar.

TerraLabs was relatively unknown at the start of the year. However, his stablecoin, the Terra UST had a booming year. Its capitalization was less than $ 200 million at the start of the year. It is over 10 billion at the end of 2021. The Terra UST thus became the first stablecoin of the Challenge (decentralized finance).

OHM (OlympusDAO)

2021 saw the emergence of a new concept: the Challenge 2.0, or an attempt to open the applications innovative forms of decentralized finance (i.e. independent finance, parallel to the real economy) to a wider public. In this area, OlympusDAO has distinguished itself by an innovative mechanism to ensure the stability of its token OHM but also with initiatives such as Olympus Give which allows the return of this token to be redirected towards good causes. At present, based on site estimates Staking Rewards, the “staking” ofOHM (immobilization of these crypto-assets over a long duration) has such a high yield that one can still wonder if it can last: more than 5.000%!

Shib (Shiba)

First there was the Doge, a currency officially launched as a gag by its creator but whose price exploded following the announced support of Elon musk. The effigy of the Doge was a dog of shiba breed. And then, in August 2020, Shiba Inu started the Shib with, for vocation to be a Doge killer. However, even if its price was in billionths of dollars at the start of 2021, it still multiplied by 42.349.900% during the year. Of course, one can reasonably have doubts about the long-term potential of currencies like the Doge or the Shib.

Axis Infinity

Axie Infinity is a video game whose principle is similar to that of Pokémon. It quickly became the “play to earn” game (you earn AXS tokens by playing) with the most users: 2.5 million in December 2021. Axie Infinity has a large number of players in countries such as the Philippines and the United States. Indonesia where its practice has become the main source of income for many citizens!

Decentraland

The start of the 2021 school year highlighted the concept of the metaverse, i.e. virtual universes in which we can enjoy a life parallel to the present. Facebook has clearly positioned itself in this area, followed by Microsoft or Epic Games (creator of Fortnite). But, for now, Decentraland with its Mana token is leading the way. In November 2021, land was purchased there for $ 2.43 million. The buyer, Metaverse Group, intends to use it for fashion shows. And it can be noted that some stars such as rapper Snoop Dogg already have their home there.

stETH (Lido)

stETH makes it possible to “staker” (immobilize for a certain period of time) Ethereum in an original way: they are “mined” during the deposit and “burned” (destroyed) when they are sold. This original technology has won over many users: the capitalization of stETH rose from 12.3 million in January to 6 billion dollars in December.

SOL (Solana)

Without a doubt, Solana was the currency which experienced the most impressive growth of the year. Its strengths: ultra-fast processing of transactions with Lilliputian fees. Its rise has been spectacular: in record time, Solana has climbed into the Top 5 of cryptocurrencies!

Microstrategy

If the company Microstrategy stood out, it was by managing to hold a particularly impressive number of Bitcoins, i.e. 122,478 recorded on December 16. That is to say an asset of around 5.8 billion dollars (and which even exceeded 7 billion at the end of October).

NVIDIA

Video game fans are familiar with NVIDIA, whose graphics cards are found in many Pc specially designed for high-end games. Over the years, many cryptocurrency miners realized that these cards could be hijacked to perform complex cryptographic calculations. Due to this initially unforeseen use, NVIDIA had a remarkable year: its price rose 141% between January and December.

Digital Marathon

Located in Las Vegas, the company Marathon Digital has embarked on bitcoin mining in 2021 and it only took a few months to become the best performing company in the sector. Its stock market price climbed 252% over one year.