U.Today is taking a look back at the major events of the cryptocurrency industry’s most successful year to date
2021 has been a blockbuster year for cryptocurrencies, with their total market cap crossing $3 trillion at its peak. Here are some of the major events that defined the industry this year:
21. Bitcoin Advocate Jack Dorsey Resigns As Twitter CEO
After leaving his top Twitter job, Jack Dorsey has started a heated debate about Web3, locking horns with Mark Andreesson and other proponents of the new crypto buzzword. Some already say that Jack is their favorite Jack after Twitter.
20. Drowning of a Bitcoin Billionaire
A controversial bitcoin evangelist, Mircia Popescu, drowned in Costa Rica in June, leaving behind a rumored $2 billion fortune.
19. Taproot Upgrade
Bitcoin is very conservative compared to altcoins, which many consider to be its biggest merit and biggest drawback at the same time. However, in 2021, the crypto king saw its most significant upgrade in years, the Taproot.
18. John McAfee Commits Suicide
Antivirus software pioneer and crypto baron John McAfee has been found dead after committing suicide by hanging himself in his Spanish prison cell. The news came hours after his extradition was authorized in the US.
17. Shiba Inu surpasses Dogecoin in terms of market capitalization
The Shiba Inu was determined to prove that the “Dogecoin killer” wasn’t just a catchy nickname, becoming the top dog on the block in late October, benefiting from a largely retail-driven frenzy.
16. $600 Million DeFi Hack
DeFi hackers are fairly common, but an anonymous hacker stole $600 million worth of cryptocurrency from the Poly Network and then returned the full amount after weeks of bizarre conversations, drawing considerable attention.
15. Coinbase Goes Public
The largest US exchange put crypto into the limelight with its much-anticipated public listing that took place on the Nasdaq in April. This debut laid the foundation for more major crypto companies to go public.
14. Beeple Sells $69 Million NFTs
After digital artist Beeple (Mike Winkelman) raised $69 million at Christie’s auction with his non-fungible token called “Everydays: The First 5000 Days”, everyone who claimed that NFTs were just a fad was in deep denial. .
13. Ethereum EIP-1559. launched
A fee-burning mechanism has allowed the Ethereum community to weaponize the deflationary narrative about “ultra-sound money” that subsequently pushed the price of Ether to new record highs.
12. First US Bitcoin ETF
The launch of America’s first futures-based bitcoin ETF was a consolation prize rather than a real victory for the crypto space, but it helped restart bitcoin’s rally. Now, major industry players are aggressively trying to get spot ETFs approved in 2022.
11. Cardano Launches Smart Contract
After months of constant hype, Cardano, one of the top “Ethereum killers”, finally launched smart contracts, but not without controversy.
10. Vitalik Buterin Burns $6 Billion Worth of Shiba Inu
The Ethereum co-founder, who was reluctantly gifted half of the Shiba Inu supply by the coin’s anonymous creator, burned 90% of his SHIB tokens and decided to donate the rest to charity.
9. Apple CEO Tim Cook Says He Owns Crypto
The cryptocurrency community received a major endorsement from the boss of the world’s most valuable company, which has a market cap of close to $3 trillion. However, Apple is yet to enter crypto.
8. Dogecoin Crashes After Elon Musk’s SNL Appearance
Dogecoin’s epic downfall was much faster than its rise. Elon “Dogfather” Musk joked that the meme may have been a “hustle” during his appearance on “Saturday Night Live” on May 8, the coin’s price plummeted and has not recovered since.
7. Bitcoin’s Market Cap Tops $1 Trillion
2021 was the year bitcoin first joined the trillion-dollar club- on February 19th. Sadly for the bulls, the cryptocurrency will end the year below this mark, which currently stands at $887 billion.
6. El Salvador Makes Bitcoin Legal Tender
El Salvador, a small tropical country in Central America, made history by first adopting bitcoin as the official currency for a nation-state, but the move sparked some protests within the country.
5. Elon Musk Makes a U-Turn on Bitcoin
After Musk announced that Tesla had decided to abandon bitcoin payments, the bitcoin community quickly became disillusioned with its new hero. Several weeks of chaos ensued on Twitter, with the price of bitcoin falling sharply.
4. Gary Gensler Sworn In As SEC’s New Chairman
Gary Gensler was sworn in as the new chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission in April. Wall Street’s new top cop took a harsh stance on crypto from day one, earning a decent number of critics within the industry.
3. Dogecoin Valued at $90 Billion
The OG cryptocurrency, inspired by the Doge meme, seemed unstoppable after surpassing Chinese tech giant Xiaomi by market cap and becoming the fourth-largest cryptocurrency in early May. It appeared as if the dog frenzy was really taking over the world.
2. China Purges Bitcoin Miners
China’s bitcoin ban has become an ongoing joke within the cryptocurrency community. However, in 2021, the Chinese government peaked by purging all its bitcoin miners and handing over land to the US in a global hash power race that crypto proponents see as a major geopolitical blunder.
1. Tesla Bought Bitcoin
Tesla stunned bitcoiners as well as the wider investment community with its $1.5 billion bitcoin purchase, and in February shifted the corporate adoption narrative into a higher gear. Suddenly, every CEO had to think about whether bitcoin had a place in their company’s balance sheet.