The Annual Crypto Roundup

The world of crypto seems to be dominating the headlines more and more, with both highs and lows having seen the spotlight in the last 12 months. It’s clear that the crypto industry is set to be a hot topic well into 2022, but first we look at what happened during 2021.

You only have to do an online search to discover just how much information there is out there, from warnings being issued about cost and safety to just how much certain coins are increasing in value. If it’s something that you’ve been interested, it might be helpful to learn what’s been going on over the last 12 months or so.

All-time highs for crypto

You’ve no doubt heard of Bitcoin already, but you might not know that this year its price doubled, reaching record highs. Bitcoin increased more than 350%, reaching above $68,5000 for the first time in history. Similarly, Ethereum surpassed its record of $4,800 for the first time.

Overall, the crypto market is now close to $3 trillion. To put that into perspective, that’s more than the combined value of the world’s 12 biggest banks.

Speaking of banks, there are now more financial institutions than ever investing in this type of digital currency. Standard Chartered, BNY Mellon, Citibank, UBS and BNP Paribas are just some of the worldwide banks that are investing in crypto and blockchain technology.

Elon Musk strikes again

Elon Musk rears his head every few months and usually sends the crypto world into a meltdown. In 2020, Tesla bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, before quickly reversing its decision and pulled Bitcoin as a payment option. Both of these decisions had a major impact on the value of Bitcoin, creating a frenzy.

In December of this year, Musk tweeted that Tesla would start accepting Doge as payment for some of its merchandise, which naturally meant Doge experienced a huge spike. Although, if Musk’s Twitter feed is anything to go off, who knows what he’ll come out with next.

Hackers and safety

As recently as December this year, there have been some huge hacks and incidents within the crypto industry which has highlighted the importance of security. BitMart experienced a hack involving ETH and BSC hot wallets, with hackers withdrawing assets worth around $150 million.

Luckily, our CEO Ryan kept a close eye on it and after realising that one of the wallets affected contained around $1 million of GMR, he instructed the team to bring forward the migration and therefore protect our community.

The Poly Network also experienced a hack resulting in $600 million worth of tokens being taken, but in a strange twist, the hacker actually returned it all.

China’s next move

While China is one of the world’s largest crypto markets, this year it announced that all transactions of cryptocurrencies are now illegal. Trading cryptocurrency has been banned there snice 2019, but it continued through foreign exchanges.

Now China has made its next move to crack down on the practice, putting a ban on mining currencies and removing any protection for those who continue to trade.

In more positive news though, and to create the perfect juxtaposition, El Salvador will be using bitcoin as legal tender. Not only that, but the country is hoping to build the world’s first ‘Bitcoin City’, where there will be no taxes except VAT. Keep an eye out for this one unfolding!