Bitcoin (BTC) had a stellar 2020, but how are the other top crypto assets? Let’s take a look at how some of the major market cap cryptocurrencies have accomplished this.
Bitcoin
First, Bitcoin has seen a massive gain since January 1, when its price skyrocketed from $ 7,195 to $ 28,422.
In 12 months, Bitcoin’s price has risen 290%, exceeding all major stock indices and most stocks, with the exception of a few selected ones, including Tesla (TSLA).
The main catalysts behind Bitcoin’s recovery were the increase in institutional demand, favorable financial conditions as a result of the central bank’s liquidity injections and the fall of the US dollar.
The combination of the three macro factors fueled Bitcoin’s momentum in October. Eventually, the main institutional-focused platforms, including CME and Grayscale, saw a huge increase in volume and inflows, accelerating Bitcoin’s recovery.
Ethereum
The price of Ether (ETH) performed strongly throughout 2020, despite its recent stagnation phase against Bitcoin.
The price of Ether started in 2020 at $ 128 on the main exchanges and at its peak on December 30, ETH reached $ 748.
The main driver of the Ether rally in November was the launch of Eth2. After reaching a limit of more than 400,000 ETH in deposits, Eth2 started.
Eth2 is a major network update for Ethereum as it scales the blockchain exponentially over time. Without Eth2, Ethereum is capable of processing less than 20 transactions per second. With Eth2, that number increases to potentially thousands of transactions per second.
Old school altcoins
In the performance of the year to date, most old school altcoins (those from 2017 and earlier), including XRP, Cadano (ADA) and Stellar (XLM), have lagged behind Bitcoin pr.
Outside of the original altcoins, XRP initially performed particularly well in November, when Bitcoin rebounded towards its historic high.
The XRP started the year at $ 0.1923 and hit a high of $ 0.9210, showing a four-fold increase in about 11 months. However, as the BTC exceeded $ 20,000, altcoins were hit, causing the XRP to drop to $ 0.52. Following the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple, the XRP fell further, falling to $ 0.17.
Smart contract protocols
Polkadot, Chainlink, EOS and Tezos have also recovered since the beginning of the year. The four smart contract-related cryptocurrencies each saw considerable catalysts for short-term hikes when the BTC reached $ 20,000.
For example, Chainlink has benefited from the explosive growth of the decentralized finance space (DeFi). Chainlink is a blockchain network focused on the oracle and the purpose of an oracle is to feed data to the DeFi protocols.
Thus, as the total amount blocked at DeFi reached $ 16 billion, Chainlink has recovered, as have many other tokens linked to DeFi.
Despite several respective catalysts, Polkadot, EOS, Tezos and Chainlink lagged behind Bitcoin in accumulated earnings for the year. The main reason behind the quiet price action was Bitcoin’s meteoric rise after $ 20,000, which caused altcoins to pull back.
Specialized tokens like Wrapped Bitcoin, USDC and Tether have also seen significant growth in terms of market capitalization. These tokens are used primarily in DeFi protocols and the rapid increase in user activity has made each token endemic to the DeFi ecosystem.
Tether has just passed a $ 20B market capitalization!
This fantastic milestone is yet another confirmation for Tether to maintain its number one position as the most liquid, stable and reliable currency! pic.twitter.com/sorWjzChIo
– Tether (@Tether_to) December 18, 2020
Tether, in particular, saw a rapid increase in market capitalization in the fourth quarter of 2020. As reported by Cointelegraph, Tether, the most widely used stable currency in the cryptocurrency market, exceeded $ 20 billion in valuation.