2021 Year In Review – The Blockbuster Numbers Behind Crypto’s Record-Breaking Year

In 2021, crypto officially entered the mainstream as Bitcoin and Ethereum (and many more) hit new all-time highs. Along the way, the acronym “NFT” rocketed from obscurity to Collins Dictionary’s Word of the Year, El Salvador became the first country to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender and Elon Musk took his Dogecoin cheerleading from Twitter to Saturday Night Live — just months after Tesla added $1.5 billion worth of BTC to its balance sheet. Lets take a look back at the numbers that tell the story of crypto’s biggest, busiest year ever.

$3 trillion 

The total value of the cryptocurrency market during November’s all-time high. At the time, Bitcoin’s price approached $69,000 and Ethereum came close to $4,900. This week, the market hovers closer to $2.2 trillion, but crypto remains one of the best-performing asset classes of 2021.

$240 billion 

Total amount deposited into DeFi — the vast network of apps and protocols that enable decentralized lending, borrowing, NFT buying, crypto swapping, and more. While Ethereum hosts the majority of DeFi’s global peer-to-peer activity, rival blockchains like Solana and Avalanche made significant inroads this year by offering speedier transaction times and cheaper network fees.

$30 billion 

Amount of venture capital funding that poured into crypto startups and projects this year — more than the previous decade of crypto-space funding combined.

$1 billion 

The single-day trade volume of the first U.S. Bitcoin futures ETF when it hit the New York Stock Exchange in October  — making it one of the top ETF debuts in history. The ETF holds bitcoin futures contracts, which are bundles of agreements to buy BTC in the future at a specific price. Despite more than a dozen applications, the SEC has yet to approve a “spot” BTC ETF, which would hold the cryptocurrency directly.

200 million 

Number of global crypto users as of mid-2021 — a 100% increase from the beginning of the year. As Coinbase’s Q3 shareholder letter noted, “the crypto adoption curve over its first decade is mirroring that of Internet adoption over a similar time period beginning in the late 1990s.”

$69 million 

Price paid for Beeple’s “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” NFT at a Christie’s auction in March, launching NFTs into the mainstream. But that figure is dwarfed by the total sales achieved by the biggest NFT collectibles and games — including Axie Infinity ($3.7 billion), CryptoPunks ($1.8 billion), Art Blocks ($1.1 billion), Bored Ape Yacht Club ($890 million), and NBA Top Shot ($800 million).

17,437 

Number of crypto wallets that contributed funds to ConstitutionDAO — a group of internet strangers that raised $47 million in an attempt to buy a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution at a Sotheby’s auction in November. The group’s “WAGBTC” goal was foiled after billionaire hedge-fund manager Ken Griffin outbid the DAO.

12,882% 

Percentage increase of Dogecoin between the first day of 2021 and it’s May 7 all-time high — the day before “Dogefather” Elon Musk hosted Saturday Night Live. While DOGE has trended downward since Musk’s SNL appearance (it’s still up 4000% for the year), the joke-based crypto kicked off a frenzy for memecoins like SHIBA INU. 

$269 

Approximate value of BTC mined via El Salvador’s volcano-powered “Volcanode” during an October test, a month after the country became the first to make Bitcoin legal tender. Miners in Iceland and Norway have long used geothermal power, which is a sustainable source of energy. 

79 

The number of nations that are researching, developing, piloting, or launching their own “central bank digital currencies.” CBDCs are a completely digital version of government-issued money. Unlike Bitcoin, CBDCs are centralized legal tender, created and controlled by a government or central bank. Like Bitcoin, they can be used for fast and inexpensive global payments.

35.4% 

Percentage of Bitcoin mining power hosted in the U.S. as of August. Following China’s midyear mining crackdown, the industry has re-established itself in regions from North America to Kazakhstan. Meanwhile, a record number of global computers (roughly 18,000 “nodes”) are operating Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, which enables faster, cheaper BTC transactions.

13 

Age of Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin whitepaper as of October 31. Next month, on January 3, Bitcoin will celebrate the 13th anniversary of the first transaction ever recorded on the network. The message inscribed in the “Genesis Block” referenced a newspaper headline about the Great Recession, a key factor in Bitcoin’s creation: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”