https://ift.tt/3oqtwBh Report: a great 2021 for the crypto sector

Coinbase Institutional has released its “2021 Year in Review” report on the crypto-economy’s annual achievements and expectations for 2022. 

The goals of the crypto sector in 2021 according to Coinbase

The report reveals that the cryptocurrency market has shown significant growth in 2021, mainly thanks to DeFi and NFTs, as well as the launch in the United States of the first ETF on BTC. 

As for the current year, the event considered potentially most relevant is the final launch of Ethereum 2.0, with the merger of the current Mainnet into the new Beacon Chain. 

As far as Bitcoin (BTC) is concerned, two important milestones were reached in 2021. The first is the surpassing of $1 trillion in market capitalization, which occurred in February, while the second is the surpassing of $400 billion in realized capitalization, achieved in October.

The event that contributed the most to driving up the price of BTC at the beginning of Q4 2021 was the SEC’s approval of the first Bitcoin Futures ETF, so much so that trading volumes were $1 billion on the first day alone. 

As for Ethereum (ETH), the most notable thing is the fact that it has made bigger gains than BTC, with the ETH/BTC pair hitting all-time highs in early December. 

In addition, network congestion and high gas costs have encouraged the development of Level 2 (L2) solutions, while also favoring other emerging Level 1 (L1) blockchains. 

The success of DeFi is evidenced by the total value locked up on the various DeFi protocols, which rose from around $17 billion in early 2021 to as much as $250 billion by year-end, according to DeFiLlama data. 

Furthermore, according to Coinbase’s Skew data, the market capitalization of the largest stablecoin issuers grew by about 435% in 2021, from $28 billion to over $150 billion.

Forecast for 2022

Instead, the most interesting potential initiatives for 2022 are the metaverse, which will take time to mature, and above all the transition from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0.

Coinbase’s Head of Institutional Research, David Duong, said:

“Crypto is now a reality among advanced investors, who are actively using cryptocurrencies to deploy advanced trading strategies developed in established circles.

We are seeing quantitative investment firms looking to capitalize on cross-exchange arbitrage opportunities, yield-farming strategies focused on DeFi, and even dedicated NFT funds that see this burgeoning market as a scalable trading opportunity”.