The year was a banner one for cryptocurrencies, with all-time highs for both dogecoin and bitcoin. The value of the overall market briefly surpassed $3 trillion and the popularity of digital assets like NFTs helped bring the once-niche technology to the mainstream.
The growth of the top coins in the year was led by the growth of dogecoin and other top coins. A $1,000 investment in four popular cryptocurrencies at the beginning of the year would be worth more than it is now. The prices are as of December 28.
Remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns, and experts caution investors to put no more money into cryptocurrencies than they are comfortable losing.
If you decide to get into the world of digital currency, you should spread your purchases out over time, rather than making a large purchase at once.
The price was $29,290 on January 1.
The price was $47,795.40 on December 28.
A $1,000 investment in the digital currency at the beginning of the year would buy you 0.034 token, which is worth about $1,632 at Tuesday afternoon's price.
The value of the world's largest cryptocurrencies increased between January and December. It hit a $1 trillion market cap in February, but has since pulled back.
INA FASSBENDER is pictured.
The price was $730.30 on January 1.
The price was $3,899.99 on December 28.
The value of a single ether has increased more than 400% in the past year. A $1,000 ether purchase on January 1 at a price of $730 would be worth $5,224.16 at Tuesday afternoon's price.
After the Eth2 upgrade in 2022, the network will shift to a Proof of Stake model, which supporters of the network say will make the system more secure and sustainable. The proof of work model of Ethereum requires miners to solve puzzles in order to verify transactions. This model requires a lot of computer power and is often criticized for its environmental impact.
The shift to PoS will allow users to use their own coins instead of using mining rigs.
The price was $1.53 on January 1.
The price was $181.18 on December 28.
If you had invested $1,000 in the Solana blockchain's native coin SOL at the beginning of the year, it would have grown to $118,418 by Tuesday's price.
Solana has grown by more than 13,800% over the past year and is currently the fifth biggest coin with a market cap over $57 billion. Solana is seen as a competitor. Solana was designed by Anatoly Yakovenko to support smart contracts, which are collections of code that carry out a set of instructions on the blockchain, and the creation of dapps.
The news is reported by Yuriko Nakao.
The price was $0.0056 on January 1.
The price was $0.18 on December 28.
If you put $1,000 into dogecoin at the beginning of the year, it would be worth $32,142 at Tuesday's price of 18 cents. Not bad for a digital token that started out as a joke.
In the first half of the year, the popularity of the coin grew by as much as 12,000%. The value of dogecoin fell in the last half of the year.
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Microsoft's market cap grew by 50% in the year of 2021.