CoinGecko, one of the largest cryptocurrency market capitalization aggregators online, has just released its 2020 year-end report. The summary highlights the most important changes in the cryptocurrency ecosystem over the past 12 months.
The report analyzes the market landscape, as well as the growth of Bitcoin, DeFi, fixed-interest rate protocols (FIRPs), stablecoins, and cryptocurrency exchanges.
In its introductory ‘Founders Notes’ section, the CoinGecko team starts off with a quote that it feels defines the last 12 months in the crypto ecosystem:
“There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen. 2020 was full of defining events that changed the course of the world. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing many to digitally adapt, we believe that it is just a matter of time before our vision of global tokenization takes place.”
2020 Cryptocurrency Market Landscape Overview
The report starts off strong, highlighting the major growth seen across the cryptocurrency market as a whole.
CoinGecko pointed out that total cryptocurrency market capitalization at the end of 2020 reached a massive $732 billion. This equates to a 308 percent year-over-year growth rate. This figure overtook the $1 trillion mark shortly after.
Analyzing the top-30 cryptocurrencies by market cap growth, CoinGecko shows how big of a year it was for the ecosystem. The market cap’s rate of growth went from 62 percent in 2019 ($68 billion increase) to the current level of 308 percent in 2020 ($552 billion increase).
The top-5 cryptocurrencies by market cap grew at an average of 242 percent over the year with Ethereum taking the cake as the best performer in this category.
A Monumental Year for Bitcoin
Anyone who followers the cryptocurrency asset class is likely aware of how big of a year Bitcoin had in 2020. This analysis concisely puts into perspective Bitcoin’s price growth and usability in that time period.
Bitcoin registered new all-time high price records in 2020 after 303 percent growth. BTC ended up closing 2020 at a 48 percent higher price than the previous all-time high record set in 2017.
CoinGecko highlights global economic uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic and increased institutional adoption as two of the largest factors leading to this price growth.
The Decentralized Finance Boom
DeFi apps were some of the biggest players in the cryptocurrency space in 2020.
CoinGecko states, “The crypto space witnessed the meteoric rise of DeFi, particularly during the ‘DeFi’ summer’ as DeFi dominance rose rapidly from 0.9% to 4.6%.”
DeFi ended the year with an all-time high market cap of $20.4 billion, though that number has increased to over $22 billion today.
CoinGecko finishes the section with an important prediction, stating, “If and when Bitcoin dominance drops, a renewed DeFi craze may be in sight.
All in all, 2020 was a landmark year for the cryptocurrency space, propelling many of its use cases and abilities into the mainstream.
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