2021 is sure to be a bull market with Bitcoin (BTC) rallying to all-time highs several times this year. But not all crypto assets work equally. There have been some losers alongside the majority of winners in terms of price gains.
Since the beginning of 2021, the total crypto market capitalization has grown by 190% from nearly $800 billion to over $2.3 trillion today. It hit an all-time high of around $3 trillion in early November.
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Top 3 Bullish Cryptocurrencies in 2021
The Top 10 Cryptocurrencies by Market Cap looked slightly different on January 1, 2021, as it contains Litecoin (LTC), Chainlink (LINK), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). These cryptocurrencies were phased out and made way for Solana (SOL), USDC, and Avalanche (AVAX) later this year.
Dogecoin (DOGE)
Dogecoin has skyrocketed this year, mainly driven by Elon Musk’s social media posts. On New Year’s Day, DOGE was priced at only $0.004 and was ignored by the majority of crypto traders. DOGE had its first spike in February after Elon Musk’s first pump.
The DOGE price actually spiked in April and May as it surged more than 1,100% to an all-time high of $0.731 on May 8, propelling it to fourth place on the cryptocurrency market cap chart. .
Musk touted the virtues of DOGE as a payments network in June, leading to another round of FOMO for the meme-coin.
DOGE has been down from that epic pump since May, both against Bitcoin and the USD. But still gives the Shiba Inu-inspired joke coin a significant 3,800% gain so far this year. In terms of BTC, DOGE is up 2,100% on the year from 168 satoshis to 3,696 sats in mid-December.
Starting position: 26 – Last position: 11
Solana (SOL)
The native token for the Solana blockchain has also had a bountiful year in terms of profits. At the beginning of 2021, SOL is priced at just $1.52, at the time of writing it is trading for a little over $150. This is a galloping increase of more than 9,800% in less than a year.
The SOL hit an all-time high of $260 in early November but retreated as the market began to correct later in the year. The big move has earned SOL a fifth place in the market cap rankings after peaking at number four. Compared to BTC, SOL is up 6,473% on the year.
Massive investments and increased adoption amid soaring transaction prices on Ethereum boosted momentum for Solana, which is also considered an “Ethereum killer.” In June, Solana Labs raised $314 million through a private token sale led by Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital.
Starting position: 112 – Last position: 5
Earth (MOON)
The native token for the decentralized financial payment network Terra has also entered the top 10 cryptocurrencies shortly. LUNA started trading for the year at around $0.65 and was barely known to mainstream retail traders.
Prices rallied in March and May, but they didn’t really explode until August when a massive pump took LUNA to an all-time high of $77.73 on Dec. 5. At time of writing Post, LUNA is trading with a whopping 8,515% gain since the start of the year. In terms of satoshi, LUNA is up 5.815% this year against BTC.
The rapid expansion of partners across the Terra ecosystem is the primary cause of the bullish price action.
Starting position: 62 – Last position: 10
A few others that are also worth mentioning for having posted impressive gains this year and they include Avalanche’s AVAX up 2,330% y/y, Polygon’s MATIC, up over 12,000%, and Binance Coin (BNB) making 1,271 % in this year.
Top 3 Failing Cryptocurrencies in 2021
Internet Computer (ICP)
Amidst a world of hype, Dfinity’s Internet Computer project exploded onto the scene this year after five years of secret development. It promises an internet revolution that replaces the trillion-dollar legacy internet and IT industry by allowing developers to install their code directly on the “public internet” without having to depend on the Internet. third party hosting company.
Speculators crazy for the next big thing in crypto jumped on ICP tokens when they were listed on major exchanges in mid-May sending prices skyrocketing to all-time highs. very fast is 700 USD on May 10th.
Since then, the ICP price has mostly collapsed, sinking to an all-time low of $24.29 on December 4, down 96% from its peak just seven months earlier. It has also lost 93% against Bitcoin.
Start / Top position: 8 – Last place: 37
EOS (EOS)
The one-time darling of the cryptocurrency that many touted would kill Ethereum has actually done little in terms of price movement this year while those around it have surged.
EOS fell out of the top 10 by market cap on January 1, and it continued to fall down the chart all year. EOS price is only up slightly 15% for the year as others see 4-digit gains, so we would consider it one of the biggest losers.
Block.one’s once inflated token is trading at $3.25 at press time, having dropped to 50th place by market cap. It is now down 86% from its April 2018 all-time high of $22.71 and has lost 22% against BTC for the year.
In early November, members of the EOS ecosystem expressed their dissatisfaction with the direction of the network.
Starting position: 15 – Last position: 50
Currency (XMR)
Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero has also plummeted across the market cap rankings this year as several major exchanges delist digital assets that offer anonymity.
The XMR price is up just 17% this year and has gone nowhere near its January 2018 all-time high of $524. Currently trading at around $183, XMR is down 66% from that peak, resulting in a drop to 49th in the cap table. Monero has lost 30% against Bitcoin since the start of the year.
Starting position: 16 – Last position: 49
To look at these gains and losses, Bitcoin is up 67.5% year-to-date (YTD) while Ethereum is up 440%.
