A few days before the end of 2021, the pioneering cryptocurrency shows a 71% return. The performance of the overall crypto market tripled that of Bitcoin this year.
There have been wide fluctuations in the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in 2021. However, the balance is currently very positive since the total capitalization of the cryptocurrency market is USD 2.37 trillion. That represents an appreciation of 209% compared to the beginning of the year.
On January 1st, the total market capitalization was USD 766,678 million, which indicates that it rose three times during the year. That is the sixth-best annual return for cryptocurrencies in the last decade. For example, the annual return was 301% in 2020.
The great boom starting in October 2020 served as the frame for the first quarter of 2021. In late March 2021, the total value of the cryptocurrency market reached USD 1.83 trillion, which represented a 139% rebound.
In the second quarter, the value of the cryptocurrency market hit an all-time high of USD 2.57 trillion on May 12th. In mid-May, Tesla announced it would not receive payments with BTC for its cars. That contributed to the decrease in the price of Bitcoin and the total value of the cryptocurrency market.
While April closed in green numbers, May and June did not. On June 30th, the total value of the cryptocurrency market was USD 143 trillion, a 21.86% drop in the second quarter.
Following the correction beginning in May, the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies started to drop in the third quarter. The low of that bearish phase/stage occurred on July 21st when the value of the cryptocurrency market reached USD 1.2 trillion.
A market recovery that brought the total value of cryptocurrencies to USD 2.4 trillion on September 8th followed that decline. Cryptocurrencies had a boom in the third quarter despite a moderate dip, and the total value of the market closed at USD 1.9 trillion.
The Cryptocurrency Market Follows the Lead of Bitcoin
In the last quarter of 2021, the cryptocurrency market has reached several milestones. The most prominent was the 42% record growth in October, the highest monthly close for Bitcoin price and cryptocurrency market capitalization. The second was that the latter reached the all-time high of USD 3 trillion on November 10th. Although a correction began, it was considerably lower than the one occurring between May and July.
Despite the market pullbacks in November and December, the last quarter is still green, thanks to the boom in October. Bitcoin is currently trading USD 51,179, and the appreciation of the cryptocurrency market in the third quarter was 24.66%.
The price of Bitcoin recently exceeded USD 50,000 once again, amid a moderate price recovery beginning on December 17th. The appreciation of Bitcoin in 2021 has been 71.3%, three times lower than the return of the total cryptocurrency market.
There was growth in decentralized finance platforms (DeFi) and the great boom of non-fungible tokens (NFT) in 2021. That may have contributed to that disparity in the return of Bitcoin compared with the cryptocurrency market. The dominance of Bitcoin went from 70% earlier in the year to 40.30% today, according to CoinMarketCap.
By Alexander Salazar
