The world of cryptocurrencies is changing rapidly. Many external factors influence the rise or fall of the value of certain cryptocurrencies, but there are also trends that many experts notice which are recurring, and that can be easily recognized thanks to some specific patterns.
For example, investors can expect that the value of Bitcoin will increase each time a halving occurs. What is halving, you may ask? Well, it’s pretty much a reward that miners get for mining one block of the cryptocurrency, and with each halving, that reward gets smaller and thus making the value of a cryptocurrency.
Things such as halvings impact the price of a cryptocurrency, but there are also different trends that tend to last for quite some time. For example, ever since the Ethereum blockchain became the go-to blockchain for most transactions in the crypto world, the price of ETH was on the constant rise.
Every year is different, and every year carries something else for the crypto world. Because of this, it is extremely important to notice certain trends that occur, which can help you out to be a profitable trader.
In this article, we’ll talk more about crypto trends globally, why they are important for the overall cryptocurrency market, and what trends will be popular in 2022.
What are crypto trends?
Trends are present everywhere, not just in cryptocurrency. To be honest, if you aren’t a crypto buff, then you probably first heard of a trend somewhere else – for example, a fashion trend or an industry trend.
Balenciaga is a perfect example of a fashion trend – it’s undebatable that the company was famous even before the popular shoes that “look like socks”, but thanks to them, the company as a brand became extremely popular and is enjoying a hyped trend that is lasting ever since.
There are also other trends that are not fashion-based. For example, right now, the trend of electric cars taking over the market is ongoing, with over a 40% increase from 2020. This trend is expected to continue to grow in the upcoming years and it’s safe to say that it will last in the near future.
In the last couple of years, crypto trends have been appealing to investors since they can use them to multiply their initial investment. Certain trends are short-lasting, but most of them aren’t, and investors can expect that they can use such trends to be proactive and seize an investing opportunity.
Crypto trends can be extremely rewarding since once the trend starts, the investors just stick to it. For example, the meme coin trend, a trend that was popular in 2021, lasted throughout the whole year, and millions of people made a lot of money. Certain cryptocurrencies such as the DOGE coin increased over 100,000% in value in a span of a few months, and investors were just drooling for similar opportunities.
Depending on the nature of the trend, it can bring bigger or smaller impacts on the prices of a certain cryptocurrency. Also, another thing that has an impact on the value is the number of people that follow the trend and invest money based on that trend.
Some trends are specifically technical and aren’t driven by any external factor. For example, the famous “death cross” can drive the price of a cryptocurrency in an unwanted way, and that trend can be long-lasting. For example, in February of 2021, Bitcoin has been looking at a “death cross”, and many experts wondered if the negative trend is on the horizon.
Now, let’s look at different crypto trends that were the signature of the year 2021 and discuss a bit why they were so popular.
What trends were popular in 2021?
2021 was very interesting when it comes to crypto trends. In 2021, crypto became mainstream and millions of new investors came to the market. In 2021 alone, the overall crypto market cap increased by over 180%, which is the highest increase from 2012. 2021 is also a year when Bitcoin reached its all-time high, and a year when many trends occurred. But, let’s start from the beginning and the most popular trend – the trend of meme coins.
Right now, you probably know about the DOGE coin – but 2 years ago, this “meme” coin wasn’t even considered to be a real deal. It was just a coin that was a meme, with no real value. Oh, how tables have turned. Even though it’s still a meme, it’s one of the biggest cryptocurrencies sitting at 13th place in terms of total market cap.
The meme coin trend started at the end of 2020 and stretched throughout the whole of 2021. It started with the DOGE coin, but other meme coins saw the light of the day as well. For example, the one that is also worth mentioning is Shiba Inu, another meme coin that made a lot of people rich.
In late 2021, another trend occurred. This one could be anticipated since the whole story behind the trend was long overdue, and it was just a matter of time before it would happen. Of course, we’re talking about the Meta (Metaverse).
When Facebook changed its name to Meta, the trend skyrocketed. Metaverse coins exploded and people entered a frenzy. Everything Metaverse related was booming and millions of people just wanted to be a part of this new technology. It is expected that the global Metaverse market will reach around $750 billion by 2026 – this speaks enough about the impact Meta has on the world.
Metaverse coins are still trending and new projects are popping on every corner. But, there is another trend that happened during 2021 that was considered to be even bigger in terms of popularity. You guessed it, we’re talking about NFTs.
If you want to learn more about NFTs, we suggest that you take a look at another article of ours, but for the purpose of explaining, we’ll just say that NFT is essentially proof that you own something digital, and that it’s unique. Picture, animation, song, you name it. If you buy it, you’re a digital owner of that NFT and the blockchain confirms it.
NFTs became a global trend, not just in cryptocurrencies. Celebrities hopped on the hype train, companies, even rich business people. For example, you might have heard that Mike Winkelmann — the digital artist known as Beeple, sold his collection of NFTs for a staggering $69 million at the beginning of 2021.
Or that a collection of ape pictures called “The bored Ape Yacht Club” passed $1 billion in sales, and people such as Neymar (the famous football player) bought one for himself.
And all of this is nice – but the past is the past, and all we care about is the future. What does the future hold in terms of crypto trends, and is there something you should know about? Let’s see.
Crypto trends in 2022
2022 is set to be an exciting year with many crypto trends – some of which we got a chance to see in 2021. If you are wondering which trends will be the ones that will bring you the biggest return on your investment, continue reading.
Before we jump into the new trends, we have to dedicate a few paragraphs to the trends that were present in 2021, but will for sure stick through the whole of 2022. First and foremost, the NFTs are here to stay. Even though they peaked in 2021, experts say that 2022 will be even better and that NFTs will become mainstream – meaning that many companies will start to incorporate them in their business.
If we can judge the year by its first 15 days, we are up for a ride. In the first 15 days of January 2022, NFTs traded more than $3.2 billion in volume on an NFT marketspace called OpenSea – which is the leading platform for NFT trading.
With the whole year ahead of us, you can expect that almost all crypto projects will indeed incorporate NFTs in their business blueprint because the market asks for it. It’s trending and NFTs are appealing to people – thus we think that companies won’t miss this opportunity.
Another thing that is here to stay is the Metaverse. Sure, by the end of 2022, the Meta bubble burst a bit but there are still a ton of new Meta projects that are created every single day. People are selling real estate in the Metaverse, big companies are buying properties and land, and it’s just a matter of time when Metaverse will become even more accessible to the regular people and when that happens, Meta projects will surely be on top of their value.
It would be a good idea to always have certain cash by your side which you can easily use to invest in promising NFT or Metaverse projects in the upcoming months.
But, if you are looking for new trends in 2022 (the ones that weren’t present in 2021), then we have to say that we aren’t wizards. Such trends can’t be anticipated (as no one could anticipate the meme coin frenzy), but we can surely point out several indicators that might help you decide on which project to invest in.
Scalability has always been an issue for blockchains and interoperability is something that goes with it. You can expect that projects which solve the issue of “blockchain trilemma” will be on the rise and will surely become more popular in 2022 and even 2023. After all, the question of “blockchain trilemma” is something that is long overdue for a solution, and we think that it’s just a matter of time before someone tackles this issue with success.
But, time will tell if we are wrong – what you can do, however, is to always follow the news, be informed about possible trends that can come out of nowhere, and be ready to seize an opportunity.
Be ready for the trends
It can be hard to predict trends that will happen in the crypto world. In many cases, they are driven by external factors that can’t be influenced or predicted. But, when the trends happen, it’s important to be first in the line so that your investment bounces upwards.
In any case, the most important thing is that you stay informed, follow crypto news and be ready to seize an opportunity. Only by doing so, you will catch the next DOGE or the next Metaverse.