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Highlights
- Next year looks to be the year when Ethereum 2.0 will be completed, and this will be a huge boon for the platform at large
- Solana has had a blockbuster year, bolstered by a migration of users coming from Ethereum’s platform, which as we mentioned was hampered by scalability issues
- Decentraland is an online virtual world where users can interact and buy and sell NFTs in what’s considered a decentralised virtual free market
We’ve seen a lot of surprises in the cryptocurrency space this year underlined by significant growth from many digital currencies, including the world’s number one crypto, Bitcoin.
It’s been the progress of altcoins which has surprised many, with blockchains like Solana and Cardano making big headway, while meme tokens like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have also surprised pundits with their extraordinary growth over the past 12 months.
So, what will surprise investors next year? Based on the direction the crypto space seems to be going, these are three cryptos to look out for in 2022.
Ethereum
Not that it hasn’t had a good year this year, because it has, but its developers will look back on 2021 as a year Ethereum was hampered by a series of scalability issues as well as delays of its long-awaited upgrade, Ethereum 2.0.
Next year looks to be the year when Ethereum 2.0 will be completed and this will be a huge boon for the platform at large. These upgrades will solve two main issues. Firstly, it will fix the problem of slow transaction speeds and high transaction costs, which users have been complaining about for quite some time and has seen many users migrate to more updated platforms like Solana for greater scalability. The second thing is that it will move Ethereum’s mining method over to the preferred, more environmentally friendly proof-of-stake protocol.
Image Source © Mindlesschef | Megapixl.com
Solana
Solana has had a blockbuster year, bolstered by a migration of users coming from Ethereum’s platform, which as we mentioned was hampered by scalability issues. It’s Solana’s superior blockchain that has attracted so many users with its fast transaction speeds. Just to give you an idea of how fast Solana is, it can make 2,500 transactions per second, compared to Ethereum’s current rate of 15 per second.
Solana’s superior blockchain will hold it in good stead for next year.
Decentraland
Decentraland is an online virtual world where users can interact and buy and sell NFTs in what’s considered a decentralised virtual free market.
2021 saw this metaverse token achieve astonishing growth as it went from US$0.08 to its current price of US$3.25 – a YTD return of around 4,160 percent.
The token’s popularity really surged at the end of October, around the same time Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced his own metaverse.
The metaverse looks to be a big part of the internet moving forward and something which will be heavily incorporated into Web 3.0.
The Bottom Line
There’s no doubt that next year will be huge for the crypto space with many coins vying for position to be the most attractive investment. As well as the three outlined above, there’ll likely be new cryptos added to the market, providing more options to investors and even better blockchain solutions.
