Subsequent to the wild speculative height of the spring and fall of 2021, the cryptocurrencies began a fairly healthy recovery process with the crashes of May and December 2021. In combination with the Covid-19 crisis, the intense risk aversion of early 2020 caused a major low point in many cryptocurrencies. The subsequent easing of financial stress, massive injections of global liquidity, as well as recent pushes for institutionalization have caused an extremely powerful rally in cryptos that has led to two resounding crashes. But each time, the market recovered very quickly, returning to meteoric gains.
Some cryptos are still showing 1-year performances in 3 or 4 digits. The challenge at the beginning of 2022 will be to seize any bullish or bearish opportunities, despite medium-term risks due to the overall market trend.
1. Bitcoin : The King Crypto
- Market capitalization: €775 billion.
- Average daily volume at the end of 2021: €20-30 billion (3.5% of the capitalization)
- Total change in 2021: +48%.
In terms of price and market trends, Bitcoin ($BTC) continues to lead all other cryptocurrencies. 2020 will have been a record year for Bitcoin. During that time, its capitalization has more than doubled. While Bitcoin continues to grow at a slower pace in 2021, it still gains almost 50%. Bitcoin has outpaced companies like LVMH and Bank of America in capitalization.
There are two main reasons for Bitcoin’s rally: liquidity injections, the reduction of financial stress, as well as the willingness to institutionalize the currency. 2021 will be remembered as a defining year for Bitcoin. There has been a noticeable hesitation on Bitcoin in 2021, with more recurrent bearish movements. The performance trend seen in 2021 may or may not continue in 2022. Economic readjustments or an abusive speculative dynamic would pose the greatest danger.
Since Bitcoin is highly sensitive to market conditions, monetary policies might appear less accommodating to Bitcoin. However, these risks would be mitigated by a continued increase in stocks or a reduction in the rate of dollar strength.
2. Ethereum: The most used crypto
- Market capitalization: €390 billion
- Average daily volume at the end of 2021: €10 to €20 billion (4% to 6% of capitalization)
- Total change in 2021: +270%
By market capitalization, Ethereum (ETH) is the second-largest cryptocurrency. As of 2021, ETH has ranked among the top major cryptocurrencies with +270% in average annual performance, which is substantially higher than Bitcoin’s performance. Ethereum is often considered the most widely used cryptocurrency. This is due to the fact that there are many tokens (cryptocurrencies) issued by companies based on ETH. ETH has become very popular in recent years. ETH can be associated with a stock market index, as the companies that would make it up would be the players in the crypto industry.
However, ETH remains more volatile than Bitcoin. Daily volumes relative to capitalization are proportionally higher. It will be interesting to follow ETH in 2022, depending on how much democratization occurs among agents and how much financial stress the markets will experience. Although the performance over 2021 is lower than the performance in 2020, Ethereum is the crypto-currency that benefits most from this second wave of investor buying in 2021.
3. Binance Coin: the crypto that invites itself into the big leagues
Capitalization: €75 billion
Daily volumes at the end of 2021: €1 to €3 billion (3% of market capitalization)
Price change 2021: + 1,200%
For its part, Binance Coin has gone from nearly €5 billion in capitalization at the start of 2021 to more than €75 billion, which shows the scale of capital flows in 2021 and which suggests quite well the break between the rise of 2017 and that of 2020 and 2021: investment is no longer solely speculative. Binance is one of the fastest performing tokens, and this cryptocurrency had already seen an encouraging rise in 2020.
Binance Coin, issued by the famous platform of the same name (Binance), now belongs to the very closed club of the 3 largest cryptocurrencies in the world. Binance is one of those giants that are taking advantage of the democratization of cryptocurrencies in individual savings. A rise in the prices of the main cryptocurrencies could only benefit the platform. However, due to the correlation between the price of BTC and Binance Coin, one must be particularly attentive to possible further corrections in 2022.
4. Ripple: much more than a crypto, a passport to decentralized finance
Capitalisation: €30 billion
Daily volumes at the end of 2021: €2 to €6 billion
Price change 2021: + 297%
Among the biggest cryptocurrencies, the ripple stands out in the landscape. Ripple has indeed benefited less from the return to the levels of late 2017/early 2018, although its capitalization has been multiplied by more than 4 over the year 2020. Even if the performance was significant in 2021, Ripple has finally achieved a sort of catch-up effect.
Ripple is a start-up that has made no secret of its ambitions this year to set foot in Defi (decentralized finance). The company primarily offers its services to institutions in order to make fast and international payments. Although its average annual performance is statistically lower, the importance of the ripple makes it an interesting cryptocurrency.
Ripple is a cryptocurrency widely used by many institutions. Nevertheless, its performance is lower and steeper than most other digital currencies. Despite everything, Ripple remains one of the great virtual currencies, regularly benefiting from bullish phases. In mid-2021, San Francisco-based Ripple was targeted by the SEC for issuing unregulated “securities”, which caused the price of Ripple to fall sharply. But the latest news seems to show that the SEC may favorably reconsider its charges. Since then, the price seems to remain around an evolutionary channel.
5. Litecoin: a Bitcoin competitor that remains among the main virtual currencies
Capitalization: €9 billion
Daily volumes at the end of 2021: €1 to €2 billion
Price change 2021: + 2%
While Litecoin had performed by nearly 160% in 2020, it is stagnating strongly in 2021. Litecoin (LTC) is a competitor to Bitcoin. It retains its place in the top 25 cryptos by capitalization. Its quantity is ultimately limited to 84 million LTC, compared to 21 million for BTC. To date, 83% of LTC is in circulation, compared to 90% for Bitcoin. This cryptocurrency accepted by many agents offers a faster mining speed (2min and 30 seconds per block).
Litecoin is a cryptocurrency to keep in mind, even if this year 2021 will have caused Litecoin to lose several places in the ranking. However, unlike BTC, Litecoin still remains well below its records. As long as the trend remains strongly bullish on all cryptos, Litecoin could benefit from a relative catch-up effect. Conversely, risks may persist in the event of crypto tensions in 2022.
6. Cardano: a crypto based on a double blockchain and well established in the Top 10
Daily volumes at the end of 2021: €1.5 to €4 billion (8% of capitalization)
Price change 2021: + 390%
Cardano (ADA) is among the 6 largest cryptocurrencies to date. Cardano is a blockchain platform that differs from its competitors by the existence of a double blockchain. This allows secure and scalable transfers (capacity to meet high demand).
In 2021, Cardano’s price recorded even better performance than in 2020 (+390% against +350%), which allowed the virtual currency to easily exceed the previous highs of 2018. This dynamic is rather encouraging for the sequel and Cardano seems to take its place within the group of high-performance active cryptos.
Cardano is one of the virtual currencies that strongly benefits from the boom observed from the fall of 2020, which explains the very strong outperformance of Cardano compared to the crypto market.
7. Uniswap: the little crypto on the rise
Capitalization: €10bn
Daily volumes 2021: €200 million to €800 million
2021 performance: +200%
UNISWAP is a very recent cryptocurrency, launched at the end of 2020, and is already positioned almost in the top 20 virtual currencies in the world. UNISWAP’s goal is to facilitate cryptocurrency trading. Based on the Ethereum Blockchain, UNISWAP uses a decentralized financial protocol, which makes it one of the leaders in the decentralized finance sector. UNISWAP users can thus benefit from staking by providing liquidity to facilitate exchanges.
UNISWAP has been listed since September 2020, in particular, to reward former users of the platform, launched in 2018. The issuance of UNI tokens is expected to take place over 4 years to eventually issue 1 billion units. To date, 60% of the capitalization is issued. UNI’s recent success shows perhaps more encouraging prospects than other virtual currencies. Nevertheless, it should be noted that UNI has lost a few places in the rankings in 2021 despite its strong performance.
8. PAX GOLD: a cryptocurrency to protect your wallet
Capitalization: €285 million
Daily volumes: 10 and 20 million €
Price change 2021: -2.3%
PAX GOLD is a particular cryptocurrency, which allows you to reduce the risk in your portfolio. Issued by the company Paxos, the objective of the cryptocurrency is to reproduce very exactly the variations in the price of gold. Thus, PAXG tokens are issued at 177,000 units, with corresponding reserves via the Paxos company.
While the capitalization of PAX GOLD has almost tripled since 2020, the price of the token remains correlated to the price of gold, which has stagnated over the year 2021 (after a performance of +19% in 2020). This shows the interest of crypto investors in stablecoins.
This virtual currency could thus be interesting in the coming months with regard to the movements of gold to come in 2022. Even if gold generally performs less than virtual currencies, it is a way for the investor to reduce his risk. and to digitally invest in gold. The fall in tensions on sovereign rates could indeed favor the stability or the rise of the PAXG. The favorable context for gold, and its low volatility (gold is 3.5 times less volatile than Bitcoin), makes it possible to tend towards more stable performance in its portfolio.
Crypto currencies: what prospects for 2022?
2020 and early 2021 (until the crash of May 2021) will have been the period of all records for crypto currencies. This influx of capital is the result of a fall in risk aversion, the injection of liquidity, and above all a desire for regulation and institutionalization. As expected, the trend remained bullish in 2021, even if the market as a whole tends to slow its performance. The risks that the market could face in 2022 are risks of a more structural nature, with a possible slowdown in bullish performance. The year 2021 will also have shown the rapid emergence of some more speculative cryptocurrencies like SHIBA or Solana for example.
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