Here Are the Major Events That Shaped 2020
February: bZx hack occurred. IOTA Foundation Network Stalled after hacks valued at $300,000.
March: the advance of the COVID-19 pandemic, the crypto market alongside the stocks plunged in a black swan event on March 13th. Bitcoin hit record lows of $3,800 during the market carnage.
April: The crypto market recovered gradually from the drastic lows seen in March. Binance also acquired CoinMarketCap.
May: Bitcoin had its 3rd Halving event on May 11th, 2020. Investor Paul Tudor Jones endorses BTC.
June: Bitcoin entered into a consolidation range. Wirecard bankruptcy to the tune of $2.1 billion. Compound Finance introduced liquidity mining.
July: Yearn. finance was launched birthing a new tide in the DeFi boom. Bitcoin broke out of its month-long consolidation bout in late July.
August: The entrant of MicroStrategy into the Bitcoin market while Stage left. The yam token debacle occurred. YAM was barely two days old.
September: PayPal accepts crypto. Bitcoin critic, Peter Schiff admitted he was wrong on BTC, Sushiswap exit scam occurred. Uniswap’s UNI token was launched in mid-September. KuCoin was hacked to the tune of $281 million. Polkadot jumps to the top 10.
October: DeFi Protocol Harvest Finance hacked for $24 Million. President Trump’s coronavirus and Bitmex charges weighed on the cryptomarket. Major exchange OKEx announced a temporary suspension of withdrawals.
November: Bitcoin continued its parabolic rise. Altcoins surged alongside Bitcoin with XRP reaching highs of $0.92 on Coinbase.
December: Ethereum 2.0 was launched on 1st December. Nexus Mutual CEO gets hacked for $8M. Bitcoin sets new all-time highs of $29,321. SEC lawsuit against Ripple drags XRP down.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin traded at $7,195 on Jan. 1, 2020. Its price has increased by more than fourfold as it hit highs of $29,321 on December 31. The main factors behind Bitcoin’s growth have been the increase in institutional demand and a weakening U.S. dollar.
Ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) price traded at $128 at the start of 2020. As of December 31st, ETH attained a peak of $755 buoyed by ETH 2.0 release and increasing attention shift to Ethereum by institutional investors.
XRP, Cardano (ADA), and Stellar (XLM)
XRP is trading down from its November 21 high of $0.92 due to SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple. XRP’s decline reached $0.17 amid exchanges delisting, which brings it slightly beneath its January 1st price of $0.1923. XRP alongside Cardano (ADA), and Stellar (XLM) are falling behind BTC in the year to date returns.
Polkadot, Chainlink, EOS, and Tezos, Band Protocol, Yearn Finance, and DeFi Tokens
Polkadot, Chainlink, EOS, and Tezos have grown since the start of 2020. Chainlink growth was buoyed by the DeFi boom as it reached highs of $20. The total value locked in DeFi reached a recent value of $16 billion. Other smart contracts such as Band protocol and many other DeFi-linked tokens rallied in the year. For instance, Yearn. finance topped near $44,000.
Wrapped Bitcoin, USDC, and Tether
Tokens like Wrapped Bitcoin, USDC, and Tether have also grown significantly in terms of market capitalization. These tokens are mainly used in DeFi protocols, and in particular, Tether’s market capitalization has grown rapidly, exceeding $20 billion in valuation.
Presently, it’s a totally Bitcoin season, but this could change in 2021 as traders and investors start looking for new opportunities and undervalued assets with great upside potential. In the first quarter of 2021, Altseason could start when Bitcoin cools down. The phenomenon that is part of the cryptocurrency market cycle causes many Altcoins to skyrocket in their USD and BTC pairs.
Ethereum could be the first to drive Altseason as institutional investors start opening up ETH as a long-term investment opportunity in 2021. Also, attention is paid to Litecoin and Ziliqa. An analyst opined that LTC may be ready for an impressive 1800% rally with a target at $1400. Michaël van de Poppe believes a run of more than 300% and a very bullish outlook is likely for Zilliqa in 2021.
The most conservative Bitcoin price prediction by the end of 2021 stands at $100,000 by stock to flow model creator, Plan B.
