2021 has been a bull year. Since the beginning of the year, the total capitalization of the cryptocurrency market has increased by 190% from just under $800 million to over $2.3 trillion today. At the beginning of November, that value was as much as $3 trillion. Which projects did the best and which ones did the worst?
The biggest winners
Dogecoin (DOGE)
Dogecoin this year, it has skyrocketed, fueled largely by Elon Musk’s social media posts. In early January, DOGE was worth just $0.004. In the spring, it was as high as $0.731.
Musk also praised the advantages of DOGE as an innovative payment network, and almost everyone has probably heard of this meme cryptocurrency.
Brine (SOL)
The native token for the enterprise blockchain Solana has also seen a record price jump this year. At the beginning of 2021, SOL was trading at just $1.52, at the time of writing it is over $150.
SOL reached a record high of $260 in early November. Solana calls itself an “Ethereum killer.” In June, Solana Labs raised a whopping $314 million for its development.
Terra (LUNA)
Native token for decentralized financial payments network Terra also briefly entered the top ten largest cryptocurrencies by capitalization. LUNA initially traded at $0.65. The price began to rise in the spring. It currently sits at around $100.
Other cryptocurrencies
It is worth mentioning several other assets that have also seen impressive growth this year. These include: AVAX Avalanchewhich increased by 2330% in a year, MATIC Polygonwhich has gone up in price by over 12,000%, and Binance Coin (BNB), which has grown by 1,271% this year.
The three biggest losers
Internet Computer Infinity (ICP)
Internet Computer Dfinity promised a revolution in the web. It would replace the outdated internet and computing industry by allowing programmers to install their code directly onto the “public internet” without having to rely on third-party hosting companies.
Speculators have been investing in ICP tokens in the background. A single ICP cost around $700 in mid-May. Since then, the token’s price has fallen to $24.29. That’s a 96% drop from its peak.
EOS (EOS)
Once a cryptocurrency that was supposed to beat ether on the chart, and its technology would make Ethereum creators feel inferior. However, EOS fell out of the top ten projects with the largest market capitalization in January. The price of EOS gained only a paltry 15% in a year.
Previously token Block.one was promoted as a potential investment hit. It is now 86% cheaper than it was in spring 2018.
Monero (XMR)
Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero has also fallen sharply on the market cap charts this year, as many major exchanges have delisted digital assets that offer anonymity.
The price of XMR is up just 17% this year and hasn’t even come close to its all-time high from January 2018. The price of XMR is down 66% since that peak.
To put these gains and losses into perspective, Bitcoin is up 67.5% year to date, while Ethereum is up 440%.