In our four-part annual review, we review the Bitcoin year 2021. It continues with quarter 2.
Typical for this year: discussions about flippening. What is meant is the displacement of Bitcoin as the most valuable asset in the cryptoversum by Ethereum. This trend already began in April of this year, as we report here. It is now clear that this was not a flash in the pan: Ether performed significantly better than Bitcoin in 2021. BTC has gained around 62 percent, and at ETH it is a whopping 440 percent.
The Tesla cause
But the courses weren’t all that drove the Bitcoin community this year. Also the ups and downs of the Tesla-Integration of Bitcoin moved hearts. In February of this year, the US carmaker prepared a celebration for Bitcoiners by announcing a large-scale Bitcoin strategy. In addition to purchasing BTC worth $ 1.5 billion, the company had also promised the acceptance of BTC for electric cars. No sooner said than done: On March 24th, Tesla activated the purchase of a car via Bitcoin.
But the euphoria shouldn’t last long. As early as April 27, the automobile manufacturer sold 10 percent of its BTC holdings – allegedly to test whether selling works as easily as buying.
Coinbase goes public
With the US crypto exchange Coinbase became the first Bitcoin trading platform to become a publicly traded company on April 14th of this year. The company, which was brought to the trading floor by means of Direct Public Offering (DPO), made its debut with a whopping 68 billion US dollars. The average price per share was estimated at $ 343.58 per share. Anyone who has held up so far is more likely to be smeared. Because compared to the initial price, COIN is around 23 percent in the red.
At the time of writing, one share of COIN is available for $ 252.
El Salvador is making Bitcoin legal tender
Nobody would have expected that at the beginning of the year: On June 9 of this year, the parliament of the Central American state of El Salvador voted for a law that would make Bitcoin the official national currency alongside the US dollar. The law is historical. In no other country in the world is there a requirement to accept payments with BTC.
The law was finally introduced on September 7th. A good two months later, BTC-ECHO was on site with a team and got its own picture of the implementation.
You can read the result in issue 54 of the Kryptokompass or listen to it in our podcast.
If you want to know what happens next, drop by us tomorrow – then part 3 follows!