Cryptocurrency Adoption & Trends — What’s New?
Cryptocurrencies have seen a tremendous rise in the last couple of years. Not only top cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ETH, but also many other smaller altcoins have contributed well to this growth. India, among other countries, has played a major role in the crypto market growth over the last couple of years, as the country has seen over a 500 per cent increase in the number of local crypto users during the period.
Besides high-potential cryptocurrencies like the Libra Coin that offer great value potential to the holders, another type of coin that saw traction this year are meme coins. There were many new projects in spaces ranging from digital payments to e-commerce, digital security, cloud storage and others that are using cryptocurrencies to revolutionise the way digital transactions are performed.
Also, same as the last year, and before that, there were people who continued to question the legitimacy of cryptocurrencies and whether they can be considered the future of money.
Cryptocurrencies in 2021: A Quick Overview
2021 was a good year for cryptocurrencies and crypto investors and holders. Many new developments came into existence in the crypto market this year. Out of all these, one of the biggest revolutions was non-fungible tokens or NFTs. NFTs are tokens that represent unique digital assets that cannot be exchanged for one another. The rose of big NFT platforms or marketplaces was certainly one of the biggest updates of 2021.
Another big crypto thing that came this year was that bitcoin became more mainstream, as many companies including large platforms like Microsoft and Expedia announced that they will accept bitcoin as a means of exchange.
And the biggest news of all was, of course, El Salvador becoming the first country in the world to accept bitcoin as a legal tender. In September 2021, El Salvador announced that it will legalize bitcoin and residents would be able to use it as a real currency to buy/sell things. Isn’t that great news?
Another trend that was seen in the crypto market this year was the growing activity in online crypto communities, especially Twitter, Telegram and Reddit, where crypto beginners are taking the opportunity to get in touch and learn from the experience of seasoned crypto investors and even the founders of crypto exchanges and platforms. On that note, there has also been seen significant growth in the number of crypto exchanges or websites that allow swapping of crypto and digital currencies. This has allowed more and more users to get on board and start their crypto investing journeys.
What’s next?
With many big organisations, institutional investors and banks showing their interest in cryptocurrencies and many other big players becoming ready to come into this market, things are definitely going to be exciting for crypto investors and companies in the coming year.
The focus is expected to be more on building projects with real use of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology for uplifting the living standards of people around the globe and providing them with more opportunities and access. Projects like the Libra ecosystem will not only make more people globally accept and use cryptocurrencies but also create more use cases for crypto so that it can become a mainstream medium for payments for merchants and people worldwide and in many industries, not just e-commerce.
