Cryptocurrencies are one of the hottest topics of 2021.
There’s always talk of the latest Crypto investments and coins. Be it Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin or the next random crypto to go “to the moon!”.
Today, we’ll break them down….
But before we dive into the technicalities everyone wants to know what cryptocurrency is.
What is a Cryptocurrency?
To put it into layman terms, a cryptocurrency is a digital and decentralized currency that is freely tradable and has a variable value according to the market circumstances.
Cryptocurrencies can be used to buy and sell things. Cryptocurrencies are wholly digital, so there’s no physical coin or bill connected to the crypto you own. Instead, owners hold cryptocurrency in a digital wallet and buy or sell them through an online exchange.
Just like anyone can create a website, anyone can create a cryptocurrency. There are thousands of cryptocurrencies available today.
The first one and most popular is Bitcoin, which was created in 2009. Other common cryptocurrencies include:
- Ethereum
- XRP
- Bitcoin Cash.
Each of these currencies can serve a different purpose. Some are optimized for use in place of cash, and others are designed for private, direct transactions.
How do Cryptocurrencies work?
Cryptocurrency transactions are recorded on a decentralized ledger. This ledger is called a blockchain. Every time a cryptocurrency transaction happens, the transaction is added to the blockchain (a public database of the transactions, which is available to other crypto holders).
Anyone can join and participate in the blockchain, but data on individual transactions and the people involved with them are secured using cryptography (the basis for the term cryptocurrency).
For each transaction added to the blockchain, there’s a digital validation process to verify it and prevent fraud.
In turn, people who join the blockchain to process transactions (also known as miners) get a small fee for processing transactions. This is an alternative way to “get” a hold of more crypto.
How are cryptocurrencies used?
Cryptocurrencies are not yet widely accepted amongst mainstream retailers and online websites. But as people are realizing the value and the use of digital currency, more companies are starting to accept cryptocurrencies alongside normal money.
For more than 90% of people, crypto is a type of alternative investment. Just as you can buy and trade stock in public companies, you can buy cryptocurrency with the hope that it will increase in value over time, allowing you to cash out for a profit at a later date.
Some people invest in crypto less for the belief that it will become a popular currency and more as a bet on the blockchain technology behind it.
The current state of Crypto
It all started in 2009 with Bitcoin, since then, many cryptocurrencies have boomed the market with huge spikes in their prices which created more demands for all coins.
Today, the global market cap for all cryptos is over $2 trillion USD and it is growing every day.
The prices of different coins have increased with a significant amount, for some coins, it was over 7000%. And the market keeps on increasing day by day.
After the rapid increase in prices in 2021, the prices of these cryptos took a dip in the middle of May with the overall market cap reducing to $1.5 trillion.
This happened due to several factors including China banning cryptocurrencies in their country. The crypto market is still recovering and is expected to grow until the end of this year.
Now, let’s talk about some popular coins having the biggest circulating supply in the markets right now.
We used ParseHub, a free powerful web scraper, to scrape data from different crypto websites to analyze the trends of cryptocurrencies over the years. Our research focuses on the most popular cryptocurrencies circulating in the market.
Bitcoin
The first-ever cryptocurrency developed in 2009 was Bitcoin. It is a decentralized digital currency that can be sent from user to user without involving a middleman such as a bank.
In 2011, Bitcoin traded at $0.30 per coin which is now over $35k USD per Bitcoin. That is a whopping 1,000,000% increase in price.
Many organizations have started to use Bitcoin as a currency for their daily transactions. Bitcoin has a limit of 21 million circulating supply and as of June 2021, there are around 19 million Bitcoins in the market.
According to our recent scraped data, the price of Bitcoin fell by 20% in the past two months and has been fluctuating since then, but the future trends say that bitcoin will cross the 100k mark by the end of the year.
Ethereum
After Bitcoin, Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization. Its initial release was in 2015 when the prices were as low as 10$ per Ethereum and now it is over $2k per Ethereum coin.
According to our recent scraped data, Ethereum touched a record high price of $4k in April 2021 and the market was taken over by this blow.
But then the prices started to decrease gradually by 50% and now the prices stand near $2k in June 2021 but it is expected that by 2025 Ethereum has the potential to reach 50k.
Other Cryptos
Apart from these two, 2021 has also been the year of Alt Coins and Meme Coins one of which is Dogecoin – what started as a joke has now become a serious cryptocurrency with its backend being developed by real programmers and becoming tradable on all crypto platforms.
Dogecoin had an increase of 7500% in price over two years with the maximum increase seen in the year 2021.
Is cryptocurrency a good investment in 2021?
While Crypto has seen its ups and downs. It's important that you do your own research before investing any of your money! Be sure to invest accordingly to your risk tolerance and knowledge.
Just because celebrities are promoting certain cryptocurrencies, this doesn't mean you have to. Always do your own research and make sure you fully understand any crypto you invest in since you can potentially lose a lot of money (but at the same time, you can make a lot of money).
Our goal for ParseHub is to help everyone make better decisions! Whether that's to help you with your own investment or competitor research!
If you want to do your own research, you can download ParseHub for free here
View the other research pieces we have done:
