Bitcoin's (BTC) price hit an all-time high of $68,789 in 2021, making it a breakthrough year for the cryptocurrency sector in many ways. From Jan. 1 to Nov. 10, the price of Ether (ETH) surged 565 percent to a record high of $4,859, a new all-time high.
While large-cap cryptocurrencies had a great year, the biggest gains and most significant developments came from the altcoin market, where decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) rallied by thousands of percent and helped bring blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies to a new level of awareness and adoption.
Five altcoin projects that had a big impact on the cryptocurrency ecosystem in 2021 are highlighted below.
1. Uniswap
In the summer of 2020, the Uniswap (UNI) decentralized exchange launched, and since then, the DEX has seen substantial growth as it assisted hundreds of new crypto ventures get off the ground by reducing the obstacles to entry that existed on centralized exchanges.
By analyzing Dune Analytics' data, it can be concluded that Uniswap has consistently witnessed higher trade volume than all other DEXs combined.
By project, the DEX volume each month. According to Dune Analytics,
The volume traded on decentralized exchanges really began to increase in the second half of 2021, mostly due to the activity on Uniswap, according to the graph above.
Uniswap continued to lead the market in development in 2021, with the protocol's creators announcing the March release of Uniswap v3. Layer-two scaling solutions, such as Optimism and Arbitrum, were integrated with Uniswap as part of the v3 update to assist lower transaction costs and processing times for customers.
start investing in Uniswap
2. AAVE
It wasn't until early 2021 that AAVE became a favorite of the DeFi community because of its vast range of crypto assets offered and the support of several well-funded players.
AAVE v2 adds Polygon, a layer-two scaling solution, and Avalanche (AVAX), a popular cross-chain blockchain network, to its capabilities and reach throughout the course of the year.
There is no limit on how much money may be moved around using the AAVE protocol.
With these new features, AAVE's overall liquidity has topped $25.7 billion, giving it the top-ranked DeFi protocol in terms of total value locked in (TVL).
3. Curve
In order to maintain liquidity on the platform and across the DeFi ecosystem, Curve Finance uses an automated market maker.
Because of its ability to offer traders a safe haven during times of significant market volatility, stablecoins have emerged in 2021 as an important part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem as a whole.
To benefit Curve and its native CRV, several of the main DeFi protocols, including as Yearn.Finance and Convex Finance, have accelerated their integration of stablecoins into the Curve protocol.
In spite of the fact that stablecoins account for a major amount of the assets stored on the Curve protocol, it is currently the second most valuable protocol in terms of TVL after AAVE, according to statistics from Defi Llama.
Curve has a lock on all of its value. Defi Llama is the source for this information. This is more proof of Curve's mission to become the crypto market's primary source of stablecoin liquidity. Curve has also merged with several of the most active blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Avalanche, Harmony, xDAI, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Fantom."
4. Infinity Axie
Play-to-earn (P2E) trading and combat game Axie Infinity enables players to acquire, breed, grow and fight NFT-based monsters called Axies and exchange them.
Over the course of 2021, the P2E model developed as a new fan favorite since it allows players to earn a daily income alongside their games, which offers a few distinct benefits when compared to the old P2P model.
Axie Infinity's AXS token hit a new all-time high in tandem with the platform's growth in popularity. The site produced $17.55 million in day income on August 6 as the cryptocurrency surged to new heights.
The price of Axie Infinity compared to the overall revenue of the company. The Token Terminal is the source of this information.
Also, Axie Infinity was one of the first projects to migrate away from the Ethereum network due to excessive fees and delayed transactions. After moving to the Ronin sidechain earlier this year, the project established its own DEX named Katana in November of the same year.
5. Dogecoin
It's no surprise that Dogecoin (DOGE), an open-source proof-of-work cryptocurrency, has become the most talked-about meme coin of the year.
Elon Musk and Mark Cuban's shilling helped to propel Doge's price from $0.0031 on January 1 to an all-time high of $0.74 on May 8 despite the project's lack of technology or development contributions.
start investing in Dogecoin
Additional interest in DOGE was generated by its usage in funding SpaceX's launch of a lunar satellite and by the Dogecoin movement's initiation of a meme-coin rally, which resulted in the creation of several copy-dog ventures, such as Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogelon Mars (ELON).
