2021 Crypto Industry

 2021 was perhaps the most critical year for the industry so far. After a 2020 that can be defined as a year of building and preparation, this year saw enormous progress and positive results across the industry’s most important metrics and macro indicators. The number of wallets interacting with dapps, and the trading volumes are higher than ever, while the demand for NFTs and games increased considerably. The industry’s three main categories – Games, NFTs, and DeFi all experienced positive trends and appear to be in an excellent place to continue gaining momentum and consolidate going forward.

The NFT space experienced one of the most impressive expansions overall, amassing over $23 billion in trades in this year. The proof of ownership entitled to their holders and the integration of intelligent computational processes disrupted the way we treat digital art and collectibles. Collections like CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), and Art Blocks became the face of the NFT explosion. Hollywood, sports celebrities, and big brands like Coca-Cola, Gucci, Nike, and Adidas, made their dent in the space, providing NFTs with a different level of exclusivity. The power of attraction of these famous names has profoundly impacted NFTs and the blockchain industry overall. Moreover, NFTs arrived at famous traditional art auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s, opening a doorway to a mainstream audience that would otherwise not be that familiar with the term. NFT being named word of the year says it all. 

With all of these elements in play, and hundreds of exciting projects launching by the day, the demand for NFTs spiked to unprecedented levels. Marketplaces like OpenSea, Atomic Market, and Solanart became some of the most popular dapps. The value of these assets rose significantly, and the floor market cap for the top 100 collections is now estimated at $16.7 billion. The pieces from specific collections are viewed as value storage units and sparked another exciting trend: fractionalization of NFTs. 

Not only NFTs but blockchain-based games also enjoyed an outstanding year. The play-to-earn revolution, spearheaded by Axie Infinity, helped the game category attract a current average of  1.4 million daily UAW, accounting for almost half of the industry’s usage. Most importantly, the social impact generated by this trend, especially in emerging economies like the Philippines or Venezuela, helped lure the attention of influential Venture Capitals (VCs) that poured a noticeable $4 billion worth of investments into the category. The capital acquired will help the teams develop further. The surge of scaling solutions like Immutable X or Polygon put the game category in a privileged position for years to come.

2021: year of the NFTs

2021 will be remembered as the year that introduced NFTs to the masses. Despite being conceived in 2014, NFTs didn’t begin to leave a visible footprint until this year. In 2021, the NFT space generated over $23 billion in trading volume. Significant trends such as randomly generated collectibles, the involvement of mainstream celebrities in the space, or the rise of play-to-earn, were the main drivers behind a record year for NFTs. The latest metaverse boom was the cherry on the cake. 

Celebrities and brands go NFT

The entrance of celebrities like SouljaBoy, Steve Aoki, and Rob Gronkowski into the NFT space early in the year paved the way for the category’s most crucial period so far. In months to come, mainstream media was filled with NFT headlines after Paris Hilton, Eminem, and Stephen Curry joined the space. This trend became more evident when NFTs debuted at Christie’s famous auction house when Beeple’s 1/1 art piece “Everydays: the First 5000 Days” was sold for $69 million. Other 1/1 art NFTs and pieces from the CryptoPunks and BAYC collections were auctioned in Christie’s and Sotheby’s for millionaire amounts in the upcoming months.

NFT Games

Finally, the important intersection between NFTs and play-to-earn. The presence of game items and virtual parcels of lands portrayed as NFTs were a key ingredient to the record trading volumes. As the adoption of blockchain games and the metaverse progresses, the mark of game NFTs will become more evident in the space. In the impressive Q3, NFTs amassed over $10.7 billion in sales, with game NFTs contributing 22% to the total. This is just the latest example of the vast flexibility offered by NFTs.

2022 will be even bigger

After a strong 2021, the future of play-to-earn looks even brighter. The significant amount of capital raised certainly provides teams with ammunition to continue developing and enhancing their current products. But perhaps more importantly, the masses are starting to realize the power of NFTs and play-to-earn games. 

In 2022, existing games will enable additional play mechanics. Such is the case of Lunacia, Axie Infinity’s virtual land, which will unlock additional playing mechanics and provide landowners with additional benefits within the leading game dapp. The Sandbox, one of the most important virtual worlds, is currently in its Alpha phase, and it’s expected to continue moving forward in 2022. At the same time, Splinterlands may also involve virtual land at some point next year. 

In addition to the established game dapps, hyped projects are closing their development phases. Illuvium, an open-world RPG play-to-earn dapp is expected to enable gameplay at some point in 2022. This game is labeled a AAA game and will run on Immutable X. Other Immutable games worth monitoring include the trading card game Gods Unchained, the mobile dungeon crawler Guild of Guardians, and the action MMO Ember Sword. 

Bitdeal started its journey in 2015, with the motto of uplifting the crypto startups, by creating awareness about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies around the world. The team Bitdeal revolutionized the blockchain industry with customer-centric blockchain and cryptocurrency exchange software solutions. Today, Bitdeal is a Leading NFT Development Company Providing all kinds of NFT Related Services such as NFT Marketplace Development , Non-Fungible Token Development, NFT Storage Solutions, Metaverse NFT Marketplace Development , Smart Contract Development and Cross Chain NFT Development. We Successfully launched 50+ NFT Related projects across the world. 

Citation: Dappradar.com