It has been a few days since we entered 2021 and the cryptocurrency market continues its rally. The very first selection of top coins to watch this year is again topped by the most popular and most established cryptocurrency, but while often staying in the shadow of Bitcoin and Ethereum, other projects are also making significant progress by deploying new features.
1. Bitcoin (BTC)
Although we believe Bitcoin does not need much introduction and that all eyes would be on it even if it were not featured on our list, here is a short summary of the history and key characteristics of the first truly decentralized digital currency. The world’s pioneer cryptocurrency was launched by pseudonymous figure named Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009 and has a capped supply of 21 million coins. The decreasing miner block rewards makes the cryptocurrency scarcer with time, ensuring a deflationary nature.
Many Experts predict a very Bullish Performance for Bitcoin in 2021
Bitcoin, whose market capitalization is currently at over $650 billion, representing around 68% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization, has finished last week off by setting a new ATH of $34.700. The high institutional interest, retail sales waking up and even billionaires entering the space, the price continues and likely will continue to rise. As a consequence of these conditions, Bitcoin is currently trading at above $35,000, near its current ATH price of over $35,600, set in the morning hours of January 6. Furthermore, since the beginning of the rally in Q4 2020 when thigs got interesting for Bitcoin holders, every dip was bought. In addition, pretty much all prominent experts’ price predictions for 2021 are very bullish. While some warn about a severe bearish retracement coming in after 2021, such as the bear markets seen in the previous bearish phases of the market cycle (up to -85% drop in price), they estimate that a drop below $20,000 is highly unlikely ever to occur again.
| Person | Prediction (in USD) | Date of prediction |
| Kevin Svenson | 250,000 | Jan 2021 |
| Ryan Selkis | 100,000 | Dec 2020 |
| Andrew Keys | 50,000 | Dec 2020 |
| Tone Vays | 100,000 | Dec 2020 |
| Willy Woo @woonomic | Conservative: 200,000 Realistic: 300,000 |
Dec 2020 |
| Raoul Pal | Conservative: 150,000 Realistic: >250,000 |
Dec 2020 |
| Philip Swift | 100,000 | Nov 2020 |
| Tom Fitzpatrick | 318,000 | Nov 2020 |
| Brian Estes | 100,000 – 288,000 | Nov 2020 |
| Erik Voorhees | 50,000 | Apr 2020 |
| Anthony Pompliano | 100,000 | Nov 2019 |
| Sunny Decree | 100,000 | Nov 2019 |
| Benjamin Cowen | 141,173 | Nov 2019 |
Interestingly, a lot of U.S. citizens that received a $1,200 stimulus check in April 2020 and did not need it to pay the rent, bills and other life costs decided to channel the extra money into cryptocurrency. This decision turned out to be quite lucrative for those who have bought Bitcoin with this airdropped money as the spring’s stimulus is now worth over $5650 if it has been fully used to purchase BTC.
We wonder how much money from the second stimulus package, which features a $600 check for every eligible citizen, will end up in crypto and how high up can the increased retail interest drive the prices this time?
2. NEM (XEM)
NEM smart asset blockchain platform launched in March 2015. The platform utilizes a pioneering Proof of Importance (POI) consensus algorithm to validate transactions and issue new XEM coins. In addition, NEM is written in Java and allows applications written in any programming language run on its blockchain, which is achieved through APIs. NEM is used by several financial companies in Japan and is the cornerstone of Mijin blockchain.
NEM to Launch Symbol Public Blockchian in February, Opt-in for XYM Distribution only Available until January 9
The NEM team is preparing for the launch of the Symbol public blockchain and the XEM holders have an opportunity to participate in its launch and receive Symbol’s XYM coins when the platform goes live. To be awarded the XYM tokens at a 1:1 ratio against their NEM holdings at the time of the snapshot, the NEM users have to opt-in before January 9. The date and time of the snapshot remains unknown and the minimum balance to be eligible for opt-in is 100 XEM. The ream advises users to opt-in through NEM the desktop wallet or NEM mobile wallet (available for Android only), but several prominent exchanges have already announced they will be supporting the XYM opt-in. More information regarding the Symbol migration and the whole opt-in process can be found here.
3. Aavegotchi (GHST)
Built by Singapore-based Pixelcraft Studios and founded by the popular DeFi protocol Aave, Aavegotchi is a DeFi staked crypto collectibles platform. The value and rarity of the playable digital avatars called Aavegotchis, which exist in the form of ERC721 non fungible tokens, are determined by their collateral stake, traits, and wearables.
Aavegotchi Mainnet Launched This Week
Aavegotchis represent a user’s collateral earning yield on Aave and can be minted by staking specific “aTokens” such as aUSDC and aLINK into their gotchi. The playable digital ghosts can be used to enter game battles and be equipped with wearables. However, each gotchi ghost out of the game once its owner chooses to liquidate the underlying stake. The highly anticipated project, which aims to push the adoption of non-fungible tokens (NFT) forward launched its first mainnet on January 4. The launch of the project, which is unique for its combination of crypto collectables (NFTs) and DeFi, was accompanied by several Aavegothchi raffles and NFT Auctions.
Andrew is a writer that does most of his work on cryptocurrency-related topics. While he’s primarily interested in Bitcoin, he also follows major altcoins and the innovative ideas that new cryptocurrency and blockchain projects are bringing to the table.