8 stories defined blockchain in 2021

[ad_1]

The year 2021 was one for the ages. COVID-19 has raged. The metaverse has entered the limelight. The stock market has erupted, with the number of public debuts reaching new highs. Billionaires – and the rest of the world – have looked skyward, imagining a future beyond our land borders.

At the same time, some of the biggest stories of the year revolved around the changing landscape of finance, which is rapidly being developed by the brave and the daring. From Elon Musk and the NFTs to meme coins and the crackdown on cryptocurrencies, these are some of the biggest moments that defined blockchain in 2021:

Bitcoin has hit record highs again and again

Bitcoin has repeatedly defied the expectations of skeptics in 2021, reaching dizzying heights with mind-numbing effect. It went from $ 30,000 at the start of the year to $ 40,000, to $ 50,000, and then, after an early summer crater in the crypto economy, Bitcoin losing more than 30% of its value in a single day. to a record high of $ 68,000 in November.

The roller coaster ride of the price – which before December 2020 had never reached $ 20,000 – made millionaires into small, amateur investors almost overnight, and also likely gave them a boost after then repeatedly dropped in volatile fluctuations. But hey, the thrill is part of the game: big risk, big rewards.

Shiba Inu overtook Dogecoin

You can also call it the year of the same coin. Dogecoin has had a hell of a run, jumping over 12,000% from the start of the year to early May, which means – try not to cry – if you only invested $ 500 you would have earned more of $ 60,000 by doing nothing, really.

But those who bought the joke token – which is based on a popular meme and bears the face of a Shiba Inu dog – are a lion-hearted bunch, perhaps matched only by avid investors in the rival joke token. , the Shiba Inu coin, which was designed in August 2020 specifically to become the “Dogecoin killer” (and which bears the face of an animated Shiba Inu, do you understand?).

Despite the best efforts of Elon Musk – perhaps DOGE’s most influential fan – SHIB finally completed its assignment in November, temporarily surpassing its predecessor in the cryptocurrency rankings by market capitalization. (However, SHIB has since fallen back to just below DOGE – and the internet culture wars continue.)

Elon Musk brought the love of crypto to SNL

It doesn’t get much more mainstream than Saturday Night Live, the comedy sketch TV show that features the most iconic and / or beloved celebrities of our time as hosts. In May, he brought in Elon Musk, of Tesla and SpaceX, recognized in the crypto world as one of its most powerful trendsetters. He can spike or spiral tokens, depending on his mood, all with the posting of a cryptic tweet.

Musk’s appearance sparked a lot of hype, especially when he suggested via Twitter that she would include a skit about a “Dogefather”; fans then bought Dogecoin en masse, sending its price to an all-time high of 73 cents.

Sadly, the Gold Rush didn’t happen – within minutes of the episode’s start, Dogecoin’s value fell off a cliff, dropping to 30%, as guest host Musk joked that it was all a “fuss”. (He may have caught up with this when he later adopted a Shiba Inu puppy named Floki, causing the price of Dogecoin to rise again.)

NFTs have spawned a booming market

NFTs, or digital tokens that allow shoppers to claim ownership of items that only exist online, have exploded this year much like a supernova: quickly and with far-reaching consequences. These digital collectibles were minted left and right, by artists of all mediums – from famous to obscure – and mega-businesses in all industries; often they sold for millions of dollars.

Call it a fast growing market or a bubble about to burst, but a new kind of consumption has been created, and it’s one that embraces the show. Some of the hottest NFTs at the moment include digital avatars of various species, including “cool cats” and “mutant monkeys,” which cost around $ 30,000 in Ether. (A CryptoPunk human, meanwhile, made $ 500 million once.) Sometimes you know what you’re getting, and sometimes you don’t; each comes with a mishmash of features, and it’s a gamble whether the one wearing the flat-brimmed hat will be worth more than the one with the brains oozing all over their face. But again, that’s part of the fun.

El Salvador paved the way for cryptocurrency

In June, the Central American nation of El Salvador declared it would become the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender. While exciting for crypto-heads, the move sparked massive protests from the small country’s impoverished population, who feared the volatile cryptocurrency could lead to instability and inflation.

Never mind that the policy’s rollout in September was hampered by glitches – that the government-sponsored digital wallet crashed almost immediately, and the system’s failure to verify photos of new users resulted in fraud of generalized identity. President Nayib Bukele’s response has instead been to double down, taking the stage at a blockchain conference in November – dressed in a backwards baseball cap – to describe his future Bitcoin city, which is said to be shaped like a ‘a large coin and would use geothermal energy from a surrounding volcano to power Bitcoin mining.

Bukele’s vision also involved $ 1 billion in volcano bonds, half of which would be used, naturally, to buy and sell more Bitcoin, a ploy many analysts see as the administration’s desperate ploy to get away with it. clear your way through a financial hole.

China’s severe crackdown

After the militant crackdown in China this year, it was like watching a bloody sport. Beijing has targeted big companies like Ant Group and Didi, video games like Fortnite, and fandoms like BTS Army. And cryptocurrency was one of the most vilified institutions, with officials comparing it to the currency of crooks and money launderers.

In May, the government tightened its grip by banning cryptocurrency mining, an industry that was booming in China due to the country’s coal-rich power plants, which can power supercomputers that solve complex puzzles for check the blockchain and unlock new coins. Just like that, the region that provided roughly three-quarters of the world’s mining power in 2019 was suddenly offline under threat of severe punishment, contributing to a major crypto-economic collapse that lasted all summer. in the form of branded coins like Binance and Ethereum. lose up to 50% or more of their value.

Staples Center gets a makeover for the 21st century

A glaring sign of the times, the legendary Los Angeles Staples Center, home of the NBA Lakers and oft-named venue where Bruce Springsteen, U2, Madonna and Taylor Swift played sold out, is fast becoming the Crypto.com Arena, it was revealed in November. The Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange, which currently has 10 million users, paid $ 700 million for the rebranding in what is considered the richest naming rights deal in the world. history of sport, removing the title from the arena to an increasingly obsolete metal clamp for paper prints.

The new logo will be unveiled on Christmas Day, when the word “crypto” starts to roll out of the tongues of, well, probably a few hundred thousand more people than before. Crypto.com, meanwhile, is becoming the cool newcomer to town with big bucks, flashing sponsorship deals with Formula 1, the UFC and Hollywood star Matt Damon.

Crypto investors plot to wrest Constitution

In November, an internet collective called ConstitutionDAO sought to hoist the flag of a DeFi revolution, funding nearly $ 47 million in Ether to purchase an original copy of the United States Constitution, which it said would ultimately belong. to “we the people”. DAO, acronym for Decentralized Autonomous Organization, refers to a group without top leadership, which governs itself by voting on rules automatically enforced through blockchain technology; ConstitutionDAO agreed to hand over the precious document to a charity dedicated to promoting democracy. It would have been a frolic for ages, if the group had not ultimately lost its offer to the billionaire leader of the Wall Street giant Citadel. But the flip side aside, the campaign embodied the spirit of DeFi – that power belongs to the many. Long live the revolution.

[ad_2]