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In 2021, CCData achieved notable milestones, including receiving FCA authorization as a regulated Benchmark Administrator and forming strategic partnerships for index development. The company expanded its influence with significant collaborations like the FT Wilshire indices and licensing deals with SGX, FTX, and 3iQ Corp.
2021 was a pivotal year for the crypto industry with new all-time highs, surging volumes and institutions, like VISA, Tesla and Microstrategy beginning to pay closer attention to the growing world of digital assets.
We look back at the industry’s biggest news from the past year and the key milestones for CCData that allowed us to accelerate and continue to provide you with the best products and data solutions.
CCData continued to build strategic partnerships in 2021, supporting the growth of our regulated digital asset investment products to provide more than 500 data clients and customers with the best service possible.
As the digital asset markets continue to grow, so does the need for high-quality research that brings greater clarity and transparency to this rapidly evolving industry. CCData’s suite of research reports provides market participants with trusted, high-quality data and analysis.
To help bring greater transparency to the cryptocurrency landscape, we also launched two new research reports to accompany our suite of industry-leading research:
Our events are a key convening place for the market to connect, learn, network, and bridge the gap between digital assets and traditional finance.
CCData connected with a global audience in 2021 through a host of digital events (and one physical!) partnering with companies including Solidus Labs, AAVE, Bitstamp and Coinbase. The events featured heavy-hitting speakers from regulatory and industry backgrounds. You can find recordings for the events below:
Coming Up: Join us this March as we welcome a range of industry leaders with the return of CCData’s Digital Asset Summit #CCDAS on March 30th, 2022! You can get your tickets here or reach out about partnership opportunities.
CCData provides access to the most granular, reliable and highest quality market data, whilst expanding our data offerings, research and suite of leading indices. The past year has seen our team nearly double in size, as we have scaled up our technology and data teams, while also growing our research, marketing, and sales resources.
From China’s ban of cryptocurrencies (again!), the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender by El Salvador, numerous DeFi hacks and rug pulls (totaling $7.7 billion combined) to the launch of the first Bitcoin ETF on the New York Stock Exchange — crypto has become an increasingly hot topic this year. Here’s a breakdown of some of the biggest stories from 2021:
It was a positive start to the year as Bitcoin hit $40,000 less than three weeks after breaking through $20K, following weekly gains of more than 40%.
Just four days later (and in typical crypto fashion) Bitcoin fell 17% in 24 hours wiping out roughly $125 billion in market value — following an article by The Times stating that HSBC would not process cryptocurrency payments.
Dogecoin arrived, as did headlines like this: ‘Joke’ Crypto Dogecoin Surges Over 500% In 24 Hours In Reddit-Driven Boon’
Bitcoin ascended to a new all-time high at the start of February following Tesla’s purchase of $1.5bn worth of Bitcoin — Tesla also announced that it would accept Bitcoin as payment for its products.
Shortly after the announcement, Mastercard revealed its plan to offer support for some cryptocurrencies on its network. Following this, on Tuesday 16th February, Bitcoin surged to a new all-time high, breaking the $50,000 mark for the first time.
Finally, Nyan Cat, the popular internet GIF, sold for 300ETH at auction — helping to kickstart 2021’s NFT craze.
In March, the narrative surrounding cryptocurrency shifted to focus on its energy consumption.
China’s Inner Mongolia region first announced it would ban new crypto mining projects and shut down all existing mining activity, whilst Bill Gates also discussed the amount of energy that “bitcoin guzzles up” in a live-streamed Clubhouse session.
In more positive news, payment giants Visa and PayPal announced that they would facilitate payments using cryptocurrency in March.
The Brazilian Stock Exchange (B3) approved the first crypto ETFs in Latin America — a first for the market.
The total market cap of digital assets topped $2 trillion for the first time in April as Bitcoin and Ethereum charged on to reach record highs of $64,773 and $2,800 respectively.
PayPal’s Venmo became the latest platform to integrate crypto in April, allowing users to invest in four different cryptocurrencies — Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.
Germany also announced a new law that opened crypto funds up to institutional investors. The law means that around 4,000 existing institutional investment funds would be eligible to invest in crypto assets(on July 1st).
May began with hundreds of banks in the U.S. announcing that they would be offering bitcoin access to their customers this year, thanks to a partnership between Fidelity National Information Services and the New York Digital Investment Group.
Two days later, the governor of the Bank of England stated that “cryptocurrency investors should be prepared to lose all their money.”
Institutional interest continued in May, with the global investment bank, Goldman Sachs, officially acknowledging its involvement in cryptocurrency trading. However, in wake of this, the U.S. Treasury called for stricter cryptocurrency compliance with IRS — asking certain exchanges to reveal the identity of their customers.
And then China spoilt all the fun, again… In one swift move, China announced its ban on services related to cryptocurrency transactions and warned investors against speculative crypto trading. As a result, Bitcoin plunged 30% to near $30,000.
The regulatory crackdown continued in March as regulatory watchdogs ban Binance from the UK.
Meanwhile, the U.S. The Texas Department of Banking confirmed that state-chartered banks may store cryptocurrency for clients’, provided they have “adequate protocols in place”.
Institutions continued to take notice — Andreessen Horowitz launched $2.2 billion crypto fund and Interactive Brokers announced they will offer crypto trading by the end of the summer
Crypto began to be pushed into the limelight with Crypto.com’s $100m Formula 1 sponsorship deal.
And then, the unexpected happened, with El Salvador announcing their plan to make Bitcoin legal tender.
Visa Announced $1 billion in crypto card transactions, as well as partnerships with 50 crypto platforms.
The widely anticipated B-Word conference took place, featuring Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey and Ark Invest founder and CEO Cathie Wood.
In July, an insider leaked a plan for Amazon to integrate Bitcoin payments & launch Its token. Amazon later denied the report.
More positive news surrounding adoption came in August. Firstly, Cuba’s central bank announced it would recognize cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
PayPal also revealed it was expanding cryptocurrency service in the UK — the first international expansion of PayPal’s crypto product.
United Wholesale Mortgage, the second-largest U.S. mortgage lender announced that it would accept payment in bitcoin and Binance unveiled its plan to bring Bitcoin payments to Shopify via a new partnership.
The IRS claimed that it has seized $1.2 billion worth of cryptocurrency as of the 4th of August and further debates surrounding the U.S. infrastructure bill came to fruition as Yellen and the White House fought changes to weaken the bill.
August is now also home to one of the biggest cryptocurrency thefts ever when $600 million was stolen from Poly Network. However, in a strange turn of events, the hacker returned nearly all of the funds.
China reiterates its states on cryptocurrency, announcing that all cryptocurrency-related activities are illegal.
In the middle of a crypto flash crash, El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced the country took advantage of crashing prices to purchase an additional 150 bitcoins.
Ukraine became the latest country to legalize bitcoin and a South African University professor urges the country to ‘Finalize Cryptocurrency Policy’.
Proshares listed a Bitcoin futures ETF, under the ticker BITO, on the New York Stock Exchange — the first Bitcoin-linked ETF to launch in the US after SEC approval.
Less than a week later, Valkyrie Investments launched their Bitcoin futures ETF, under the ticker BTF, on the US stock exchange NASDAQ.
Grayscale’s Assets Under Management (AUM) hit $60bn for the first time ever, exceeding the world’s largest Gold Fund.
Bitcoin’s long-awaited Taproot upgrade went live on the 14th allowing developers to integrate new features that aimed to improve privacy, scalability and security.
The SEC rejected Vaneck’s spot Bitcoin ETF proposal however Vaneck’s Bitcoin futures ETF launched on the CBOE later in the month.
Ninety percent of all bitcoins had been mined by December 2021, according to data from Blockchain.com which meant that 18.89 million bitcoins, out of a maximum 21 million were now on the open market.
Crypto execs defended industry and argued that their technology held promise for the future as lawmakers and regulators explored how to bring the more than $2 trillion market under government oversight.
CCData aims to support you with each step of 2022, offering unrivalled breadth, scope and depth of data and bridging the gap between the crypto asset and traditional financial markets. We hope you have a great new year and we look forward to seeing you on the other side!
Disclaimer: Please note that the content of this blog post was created prior to our company's rebranding from CryptoCompare to CCData.
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