2022 is here, and it’s time to take a look at how the market has performed not just over the past month, but also in the 4th quarter of 2021, and during the full year behind us. And to summarize it all in one sentence: 2021 was mostly a good year for the crypto market, although it certainly saw its fair share of volatility.
Starting with the first half of 2021, market participants would probably say that the most memorable about this period was the epic rise in the price of both bitcoin (BTC) and many altcoins, which was followed by a crash in BTC of more than 50% between April and May.
However, a number of important events also took place during the first half of the year. Among these was the craze surrounding dogecoin (DOGE), which entered a parabolic rally to an all-time high of USD 0.74 in May, Tesla chief Elon Musk announcing that his company added USD 1.5bn worth of BTC to its balance sheet, and the beginning of “the great migration” of bitcoin miners out of China.
Moving forward and into the second half of 2021, July barely managed to end up in the green zone after most coins had fallen early in the month. At this point, however, the party had already ended for DOGE holders, who saw their favorite meme coin fall by 14% for the month (as the only coin in the top 10 that was down that month).
In August, decentralized finance (DeFi)-related tokens and smart contract platforms that aim to compete with Ethereum (ETH) stood out as the biggest winners. Cardano (ADA) and polkadot (DOT) both roughly doubled in price this month, while solana (SOL) saw a 250% rally.
Next, September was marked by two of the biggest stories of the entire year — namely the implementation of the law that made bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador, and China banning nearly all things crypto once again.
October, dubbed “Uptober” by the community, was – as the name suggests – a good month for the crypto market. Bitcoin holders could watch their coin touch the USD 67,000 mark for the first time, while the “dogecoin killer” shiba inu (SHIB) for the first time entered the top 10 list of the largest coins by market capitalization.
November was the month when both BTC and ETH reached their all-time highs, with BTC hitting USD 69,000 and ETH reaching close to USD 4,870. However, November was also the month when the meme coin craze ended (for now), with DOGE and SHIB down by 21% and 34%, respectively, for the month.
Lastly, the month of December saw mostly lower prices for major cryptocurrencies, with BTC and ETH both down by close to 20% for the month. The month was further marked by the confirmed failure of many of the most bullish BTC price predictions for 2021. Among these, bitcoin analyst PlanB’s “worst case” bitcoin price target for the end of 2021 of USD 135,000 is perhaps the best-known example.