It certainly has been an incredible year in the world of crypto, with 2021 offering a plethora of exciting opportunities for crypto enthusiasts across the globe. This year saw the world’s first cryptocurrency – Bitcoin – breach the $60,000 mark, while Solana enjoyed unprecedented gains of over 12,600%.
With El Salvador’s official adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender and many more countries and businesses warming to cryptocurrencies, the stage is set for 2022 to be an even more profitable year for investors. With that being said, let’s explore some of the top cryptocurrencies to watch in 2022.
Shiba Inu
Shiba Inu exploded in 2021, with a market cap of over $17 billion, a unit price of $0.000032, and a circulating supply of over 549 billion SHIB at the time of writing. This meme coin’s success piggybacked off the popularity of Dogecoin and caused a flurry of activity that led to an all-time high this October.
The SHIBArmy – Shiba Inu’s devoted band of followers – implored Robinhood to make SHIB available for trading on its platform after it hit the giddy heights of a $40 billion market cap. While it has since bled value in the tail end of 2021, more than halving its market cap, there’s plenty of promise in Shiba Inu’s future to excite investors in 2022.
Cosmos
Cosmos has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the past 12 months, with a market cap of over $4 billion, a unit price of $21.42, and a circulating supply of over 226 billion ATOM at the time of writing. Cosmos is a competitor to Ethereum, with a major focus on interoperability – connecting different blockchains together.
The value of Cosmos has spiked more than 400% in 2021 – a fantastic jump in price from the $5.90 it strolled into 2021 with. With over 250 blockchains, apps, and services in the Cosmos ecosystem, together with a highly-successful organic growth of ATOM, there’s every chance that Cosmos will pack an even bigger punch in 2022.
Cardano
Cardano has made huge strides in 2021 and has an extremely healthy market cap of over $42 billion, with a unit price of $1.24, and a circulating supply of over 34 billion ADA at the time of writing. While ADA limped into 2021 trading at less than $0.20, it showed great resilience in a turbulent market with its unit price shooting to over $3 in early September – elevating Cardano as the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency in the process.
Although ADA’s unit price has since levelled off, it’s in a far better position heading into the new year than it was 12 months ago. With a growing number of investors choosing to diversify their portfolios with Cardano and many exciting projects in the pipeline, 2022 could certainly be a fruitful one for Cardano.
Ethereum
As one of the big hitters in the crypto scene, Ethereum’s stock has really taken off this year with a market cap of over $456 billion, a unit price of $3,841.38, and a circulating supply of over 118 billion ETH at the time of writing. 2022 promises to be an even better year for Ethereum as the blockchain is due to release one of its most important upgrades – Ethereum 2.
Ethereum 2 is the perfect solution to the network’s biggest problem at the moment – its transaction speed. It currently processes about 30 transactions a second but will boast a transaction speed of 100,000 per second after the upgrade – truly amazing!
The two notable improvements are a switch to a proof-of-stake validation method that cuts out time-consuming validation by granting validation power to validators according to coins held. Moreover, Ethereum is adding shard chains that will relieve the congestion on the main network. If the upgrade process goes smoothly, the sky’s the limit for Ethereum in 2022.
Final thoughts
As we soak in the festivities at the end of what has been a fabulous 2021 for cryptocurrencies, there is a whiff of optimism permeating the air as we float into a magical 2022. While investors understand that the crypto market can become dramatic and disruptive, the future of the coins discussed above certainly appears to be bright – something that many investors are all too aware of. Make sure to be discerning when approaching your investments and remain steadfast in times of uncertainty – Good luck!
It is important to note that investing in cryptocurrencies is a risky and highly speculative proposition. This article does not provide recommendations, advice, or guidance regarding cryptocurrency investments, but is rather our opinion on such activities. Investors must conduct their own research and engage in the services of qualified professionals before making any financial and/or cryptocurrency investment decisions. We do, however, recommend established platforms like Wisly to monitor and analyse your cryptocurrency investments.
