During the 2021 bull run, not all digital assets have had positive price rises.
Bitcoin (BTC) has raised the all-time high price bar many times this year, indicating that 2021 will surely be a bull market. However, not all crypto assets have fared equally well. In terms of price gains, there have been a few losers in addition to the majority of winners.
Total crypto market capitalisation has increased by 190 percent since the beginning of 2021, from just under $800 million to over $2.3 trillion today. In early November, it reached an all-time high of little over $3 trillion.
Top 3 crypto gainers in 2021
On January 1, 2021, the crypto top-ten in terms of market value was a little different, as it included Litecoin (LTC), Chainlink (LINK), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). By the end of the year, these had faded away, giving place to Solana (SOL), USDC, and Avalanche (AVAX).
Dogecoin (DOGE)
Dogecoin’s value has soared this year, thanks largely to Elon Musk’s shady social media statements. DOGE was trading at $0.004 on New Year’s Day, and the bulk of crypto traders were ignoring it. DOGE experienced its first small surge in February, following the first of a series of Elon pumps.
DOGE prices took a wild journey in April and May, surging more than 1,100 percent to an all-time high of $0.731 on May 8, propelling it to fourth place on the crypto market cap charts.
In June, Musk lauded the merits of DOGE as a payments network, causing the memecoin to experience yet another round of FOMO.
Since May, DOGE has been losing ground against Bitcoin and the US dollar. Despite all of the increased mainstream media coverage it has received, as well as major trading platform listings, the Shiba Inu-inspired joke coin has seen a massive gain of 3,800 percent so far this year. DOGE has grown 2,100 percent year-over-year, from 168 satoshis to 3,696 satoshis in mid-December.
Starting position, based on market capitalisation, on December 15: 26 — Final position, based on market capitalization: 11
Solana (SOL)
Solana, the business blockchain’s native token, has also had a good year in terms of gains. SOL was trading for a little over $150 at the time of writing, down from $1.52 at the start of 2021. This is a staggering increase of more than 9,800% in less than a year.
SOL reached an all-time high of $260 in early November, but has since fallen as markets have begun to drop late in the year. SOL has climbed to fifth place in the market cap statistics after peaking at fourth. SOL has gained 6,473 percent vs BTC in the last year.
Solana has gained traction as a result of major investments and increased adoption following the rise in transaction prices on Ethereum, which has been dubbed a “Ethereum killer.” Solana Labs raised $314 million in June from Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital through a private token sale.
Starting position: 112 — Final position: 5
Terra (LUNA)
Terra’s native token made a brief appearance in the top 10 cryptocurrency rankings. LUNA began the year with a market cap of $0.65 and was largely unknown to ordinary investors.
Prices were raised in March and May, but they didn’t truly take off until August, when LUNA hit an all-time high of $77.73 on December 5. LUNA had increased by 8,515 percent from the beginning of the year at the time of writing. LUNA has increased 5,815 percent against BTC in satoshi terms this year.
The bullish price action is largely due to the rapid expansion of partners on the Terra ecosystem.
CMC starting position: 62 — CMC final position: 10
Avalanche’s AVAX has increased by 2,330 percent this year, Polygon’s MATIC has increased by more than 12,000 percent, and Binance Coin (BNB) has increased by 1,271 percent this year.
Top 3 crypto losers in 2021
Internet Computer (ICP)
After 5 years of largely hidden development, Dfinity’s Internet Computer project emerged into the public this year amid a world of anticipation. It promised an internet revolution, allowing developers to deploy their code directly on a “public internet” without having to rely on third-party hosting companies, so displacing the trillion-dollar legacy internet and IT business.
When ICP tokens were launched on major exchanges in mid-May, speculators in a rush for the next big thing in crypto bought up on them, sending prices surging to a very quick all-time high of $700 on May 10.
ICP prices have nearly fallen since then, plummeting to an all-time low of $24.29 on December 4, a crushing 96 percent drop from their peak just seven months previous. In terms of satoshis, it has likewise lost 93 percent against Bitcoin.
8 is the starting/highest position; 37 is the final position.
EOS (EOS)
While those around it have soared, the erstwhile darling of crypto that many predicted would destroy Ethereum has done very nothing in terms of price fluctuations this year.
On January 1, EOS had already dropped out of the top ten by market capitalization, and it proceeded to tumble down the rankings throughout the year. In the big scheme of things, EOS prices have only increased by 15% over the year whereas others have increased by three and four figures, therefore we would consider it a loser.
At the time of writing, Block.one’s once-hyped coin was trading at $3.25, having fallen to 50th place by market cap. It is currently down 86% from its all-time high of $22.71 in April 2018 and has lost 22% vs BTC this year.
Members of the EOS ecosystem expressed their displeasure with the network’s trajectory in early November.
15th starting position — 50th finishing position
Monero (XMR)
He is a cryptocurrency that focuses on anonymity. Monero’s market valuation has also plummeted this year as a number of large exchanges have delisted digital assets that provide anonymity.
XMR prices have only risen by 17 percent this year, and are still well below their all-time high of $524 set in January 2018. XMR is currently trading at about $183, down 66 percent from its high, and has dropped to 49th in the coin cap rankings. Since the beginning of the year, Monero has lost 30% of its value against Bitcoin.
16th starting position — 49th finishing position
To put these gains and losses into context, Bitcoin has gained 67.5 percent year to date (YTD), while Ethereum has gained 440 percent.
