Crypto news: Most altcoins ‘crushed’ bitcoin (BTC) in 2021
Updated
This year bitcoin (BTC) saw mass adoption by institutional investors and grew by 73%, but 2021 has been “one long altcoin season, as most other cryptocurrencies have crushed bitcoin.”
“Throughout the first five months of the year, bitcoin saw a continuous loss of dominance, as traders rotated into altcoins while bitcoin pushed above former highs,” analysts from Arcane Research wrote.
This was due to “stupid pumps in meme-coins” as well as ethereum and decentralised finance gaining in strength. Bitcoin’s dominance has stabilised since May 21 in the 40-50% range, according to Arcane Research.
Types of coins that are currently seeing strong momentum are “ether killers” and metaverse coins, according to Arcane Research.
Ethereum is a decentralised, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality, and its native token - ether - is the second biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation. “Ether killers” is a term used to describe tokens of competing protocols, for example solana (SOL), cardano (ADA) and polkadot (DOT).
Metaverse tokens started trending this fall after Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook's venture in metaverse, sparking a surge in cryptocurrencies meant to be use as unit of exchange in the virtual world.
Some examples of metaverse coins include the Sandbox, “a virtual Metaverse built on the Ethereum blockchain, where players can build, own and monetise their gaming experience.” The token, sand, is “a utility token that is used for value transfers as well as staking and governance.”
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Other crypto news:
- ProShares filed applicatoin for a new Metaverse exchnage-traded fund with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Bloomberg reports. The fund would, if approved, “track the performance of the Solactive Metaverse Theme Index. The index consists of companies that provide or use technologies that offer products and services around the metaverse, like data processing and metaverse devices,” the report continued.
Chart of the day: Bitcoin (BTC) outperformed by altcoins in 2021
‘Ether killers’ solana (SOL), cardano (ADA) and metaverse coins sandbox (SAND) and decentraland (MANA) all outperformed bitcoin (BTC) in 2021 – Credit: TradingViewQuote of the day: Snoop Dog 'keepin it real' even in Sandbox metaverse
You know me and @KevinHart4Real are always keepin it real. ???????? I even gave him some game on the Metaverse!!! Stream #2021andDone on @PeacockTV now pic.twitter.com/sHI6w63wlX
— Snoop Dogg (@SnoopDogg) December 28, 2021
Round-up of coins by market capitalisation
As of 10:30 GMT:
- Bitcoin (BTC) lost 3.34% over the last 24 hours and is trading at $47,736.39
- Ether (ETH) was down 2.94% to $3,800.91
- Binance coin (BNB) decreased 2.08% to $538.26
Winners and losers
- Fantom (FTM) and near protocol (NEAR), 31st and 26th biggest cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation, gained 50.02% and 35.61% over the last seven days of trading
- Avalanche (AVAX), ripple (XRP) and terra (LUNA), which all saw major rallies in the recent weeks, were down 12.87%, 10.64% and 10.51% respectively over the last week
Read more: Crypto news: Three major coins that defied last week’s plunge
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