In 2021, it seemed like crypto was on a lot of investors’ minds. It was also consistently making headlines. Overall, the price of Bitcoin went up by more than 60% in 2021.What’s more, a recent survey found that more than half of the American investors who hold cryptocurrency bought it for the first time in the previous 12 months.
So, there’s no doubt that cryptocurrency adoption has increased significantly over the last year… and it shows no signs of slowing down in 2022.
Here are a few things crypto investors need to know:
There was a time when Bitcoin didn’t have a clear use case, but those days are long gone.
El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021.The move was made to reduce the fees that Salvadorans pay to send and receive remittances, and as a way for unbanked Salvadorans—who make up 70% of the population of El Salvador—to get access to financial services. There will likely be others that follow the lead of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, as other developing countries experience similar problems.
Bitcoin is unlikely to be adopted as legal tender in developed countries anytime soon, but it can be used to protect individuals and corporations from inflation, which came in at its fastest pace in nearly 40 years in December.In the short-term, Bitcoin trades as a risky asset in an increasingly risk-on, risk-off market. But in the long run, the cryptocurrency’s limited supply could lead it to outperform during periods of high inflation.
In 2021, cryptocurrencies with smart contract capabilities were on fire. Thetotal value of transactions on the Ethereum network in the first nine months of 2021 increased by more than 300% over the value of transactions in the same
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