UNI, AAVE, CRV, AXS, and DOGE are just a few of the major cryptocurrency projects in 2021 that have shaped the cryptocurrency ecosystem and paved the way for global adoption.
In many ways, 2021 was a watershed year for the cryptocurrency industry, and most investors are ecstatic that Bitcoin (BTC) reached a new all-time high of $68,789. In the same span, Ether (ETH) had a parabolic boom, with its price rising 565 percent from January 1 to $4,859 on November 10.
While large cap cryptocurrencies had a banner year, the altcoin market saw some of the most significant gains and developments, with decentralised finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) rallying by thousands of percent and helping to usher in a new level of awareness and adoption for blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.
Here are five altcoin projects that contributed significantly to the cryptocurrency ecosystem in 2021.
Uniswap
Since its launch in the summer of 2020, the decentralised exchange Uniswap (UNI) has arguably had the greatest impact on the crypto ecosystem as a whole, with the DEX seeing significant growth throughout 2021 as it helped thousands of new crypto projects launch by removing the barriers to launch that existed on centralised exchanges.
According to data given by Dune Analytics, Uniswap has been the most popular DEX throughout the year, with higher trading volume than all other DEXs combined.
The volume traded on decentralised exchanges really started to build up in the second half of 2021, led in large part by activity on Uniswap, as shown in the graph above.
Uniswap also led the field in development in 2021, with the protocol’s creators announcing the release of Uniswap v3 in March. Multiple protocol enhancements were included in the v3 upgrade, and it laid the groundwork for layer-two scaling solutions like Optimism and Arbitrum to be integrated with Uniswap in order to help users minimise transaction costs and processing times.
Aave Aave (AAVE) is a decentralised lending system that allows users to deposit their tokens and either lend them out for a profit or pledge them as collateral to borrow another asset.
AAVE’s capabilities and reach grew this year with the release of AAVE v2, which included support for Polygon, a layer-two scaling solution, and Avalanche, a prominent cross-chain blockchain network.
The overall liquidity accessible on the AAVE protocol has topped $25.7 billion as a result of these new features, making it the top-ranked DeFi protocol by total value locked (TVL).
Curve Finance is a stablecoin-focused protocol that manages liquidity on the platform and across the DeFi ecosystem with the help of an automated market maker.
Stablecoins, which provide sufficient liquidity for the market and a safe haven for traders seeking refuge during periods of excessive volatility, have emerged as a basic piece for the cryptocurrency ecosystem as a whole in 2021.
Curve protocol and its native CRV have profited from the growing relevance of stablecoins by hastening the incorporation of stablecoins into several of the main DeFi protocols, including the Yearn.Finance ecosystem and Convex Finance.
Despite the fact that stablecoins account for a large amount of the assets secured on the Curve protocol, the platform now ranks second in terms of TVL behind AAVE, with $21.77 billion in value locked in Curve vaults, according to statistics from Defi Llama.
Curve has also merged with many of the most active blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Avalanche, Harmony, xDAI, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Fantom, demonstrating the protocol’s goal of being the global stablecoin liquidity provider.
Axie Infinity is a play-to-earn (p2e) trading and battling game in which players can gather, breed, grow, battle, and trade Axies, which are NFT-based monsters.
Over the course of 2021, the p2e model became a new fan favourite since it allows users to make a daily income while playing their favourite games, which has a few distinct advantages over the old pay-to-play model.
With the growth in popularity of Axie Infinity, the platform’s native AXS coin reached a new all-time high. At its peak on August 6, the platform generated $17.55 million in daily income as the cryptocurrency soared to new heights.
Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity was also one of the first projects to establish the trend of moving away from the Ethereum network due to excessive transaction fees and slowness. Earlier this year, the project switched to the Ronin sidechain, and in November, it introduced Katana, its own DEX.
Over the course of 2021, the p2e model became a new fan favourite since it allows users to make a daily income while playing their favourite games, which has a few distinct advantages over the old pay-to-play model.
With the growth in popularity of Axie Infinity, the platform’s native AXS coin reached a new all-time high. At its peak on August 6, the platform generated $17.55 million in daily income as the cryptocurrency soared to new heights.
Axie Infinity was also one of the first projects to establish the trend of moving away from the Ethereum network due to excessive transaction fees and slowness. Earlier this year, the project switched to the Ronin sidechain, and in November, it introduced Katana, its own DEX.
Dogecoin
Dogecoin is an open-source proof-of-work cryptocurrency that has dominated the “meme” coin market since its inception in 2021.
While the project has made few technological or development contributions, frequent shilling from figures such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban helped to propel Doge to a 23,746 percent gain, with the price rising from $0.0031 on January 1 to $0.74 on May 8.
The Dogecoin movement has sparked a meme-coin rise and spurred a slew of copy-dog ventures, like Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogelon Mars, on top of the monetary gains (ELON).
