Arcane Research 2021 Crypto Report

Pretty cool crypto report from Arcane Research. Some interesting takeaways:

• Bitcoin has been outperforming the S&P 500 and gold in the last 3 years
• Bitcoin is a risk-on asset (like stocks) due to growing institutional adoption
• Altcoins outperformed Bitcoin (Ethereum #2 by market cap with 455% gain in ’21 and BNB with 1344% vs. Bitcoin 73%)
• Other layer 1 blockchains such as Solana, Avalanche, Terra Luna have significantly outperformed BTC, ETH, and BNB
• OpenSea (NFT marketplace) volume has surged from $0.33bn in July ’21 to $3.43bn in August ’21. Remaining months ranged between $2.66bn and $3.0bn
• There are now at least 64 crypto unicorns. There were 172 crypto related M&A transactions in ’21 vs 59 in ’20.
• Market cap for stable coins increased by 500%. Largest market cap is Tether, but USD Coin (second largest) has grown much faster

Their predictions:

• Bitcoin will continue to outperform S&P 500 in 2022
• BTC will continue to be linked to VIX (volatility index)
• ETH will continue to outperform BTC
• Other layer-1s will continue to outperform ETH
• Traditional gaming companies will continue to explore NFTs
• 2022 crypto M&A will be higher than 2021
• USD Coin will overtake Tether

Arcane Research Report