The crypto market isn’t just about coins and tokens. There are more applications beyond that. People buy and sell virtual lands, buy gaming items in games, bid for digital art and other interesting activities. 2021 has been the “crypto year” with NFT’s blowing up, BTC reaching an all-time high (ATH) of $69,000 per coin, and El Salvador making BTC a legal tender.
There are many other trends of crypto you need to know about. Below are some of such trends.
NFT’s
My personal favorite of the crypto trends so far. NFT’s are non-fungible tokens on the blockchain network. These NFT’s are digital arts, songs, videos, virtual lands, and more.
Some NTF’s are worth millions of dollars, and according to Mark Cuban, the market cap could be worth billions. Tory Lanez sold an entire album for $1 million in under a minute. I would say most early investors hit a gold mine. CryptoPunks are the most priced NFTs to date, with the most expensive one worth 124,457 ETH ($530 million).
2. Play-to-earn games
Play your favorite “Sims-like” games and earn some money. That’s my takeaway from this. Blockchain is already being used in various industries, including economics and art, and video games are no exception. The cornerstone for value creation in play-to-earn games is blockchain technology, which can take the form of NFTs.The “play-to-earn” model may represent a new and flexible way to make money, but it also reflects some of the risks associated with the digital economy. Axie infinity just sold a piece of virtual land for $2.4 million.
3. DeFi
Decentralized finance had major mainstream adoption during the 2020 pandemic. In recent years, DeFi projects have established a solid base in the financial sector. DeFi, according to experts, will be one of the primary catalysts for the rapid adoption of cryptocurrencies.
4. Bitcoin as a salary
Many top celebrities and government officials, including Mayor Suarez of Miami, are taking their next salaries in BTC. That’s a smart way of getting their hands on some crypto, and it also helps with the popularity of cryptocurrencies.
5. Into the Metaverse
Mark Zuckerberg made a shocking announcement of Facebook changing its name to Meta last month. Most crypto-geeks saw this as an opportunity for the Cryptoverse because Facebook’s—oh shoot— Meta will bring a large number of its users to the Cryptoverse. Déjà vu, you might say, Meta, then Facebook acquired a lot of users during the social media era inception.
6. CBDCs
Yeah, the governments also want a piece of the crypto pie. The typical “if you cannot stop them, just join them.” Starting with the digital yuan by China, other countries such as Nigeria followed with their very own digital currencies. I mean, it still is controlled by the central bank, which violates the purpose of the blockchain. The upside, I would say, is that the citizens are getting to applying blockchain technology well beyond BTC and Shiba Inu.