According to a review of the cryptocurrency industry in 2021, cryptocurrency research company, Arcane Research, predicts that layer-1 platforms would keep surpassing Ethereum in 2022.
Aside from layer-1s vs. ETH, the firm’s last report for 2021 included BTC vs. the S&P 500, DeFi, the NFTs marketplace, the forecast for Cardano and XRP, meme coin frenzy as aggravated by the dog coin wars,” and derivatives.
2022 Prediction for Layer-1s Token and ETH
Solana, Avalanche, Terra Luna, and Fantom are all positioned for significant growth in the coming year, according to an analysis published on December 28 by the blockchain data analysis and study business The Weekly Update, with indigenous tokens on these freestanding smart contract networks outpacing Ethereum in the marketplace.
Solana and the other good performing layer-1 systems, according to the business, are expected to keep their rising pattern over the coming year, with cost gains bolstered by greater demand and investment inflows. According to the research, these platforms have dynamic and rapidly increasing communities responsible for consistently pushing the price achievements of their indigenous tokens.
When looking at the exact yields for certain smart contract networks predicted to keep exceeding ETH, LUNA is over 14,823 percent in 2021, while FTM and SOL are both over 100x or more in value, at 13,549 percent and 10,907 percent, respectively.
While ETH’s primary coin, ETH, successfully increased by 460 percent this year, outpacing BTC by 73 percent, smart contract networks Harmony (ONE) and Avalanche (AVAX) have repaid 60-fold. Harmony is expected to end 2021 with a value increase of over 6,400 percent, while Avalanche is raised over 3,150 percent.
In terms of BTC vs. the S&P 500 and gold, BTC is up roughly 73 percent this year, while the S&P 500 has also pushed up to new highs, aiming for a 28 percent return for the year. However, irrespective of being the classic inflation hedge, gold has returned a negative -7 percent in a year when the inflation story succeeded in dominating opinion.
BTC, according to Arcane Research, would continue outperforming the S&P 500 as well as gold, having completed that for the 3rd year in a row. Researchers do remark, however, that BTC has progressively acted as though it was a risk-on asset, instead of the digital gold that it has been dubbed.
As a result, traders may wish to keep an eye on the stock market’s progress. Bitcoin value might start outperforming if stocks gain traction, according to the experts, whereas the S&P 500 has a “red year” and the cryptocurrency underperforms.
NFTS, Altseason, and the Metaverse
Although BTC’s performance in 2021 has been remarkable, the customized research agency claims that 2021 was largely dominated by altcoins. They write in their year-in-review study that “most altcoins have had a flying year,” with direct investment into the category making a contribution to BTC’s decline in supremacy in the initial half of 2021.
As previously said, Ethereum has successfully outperformed Bitcoin, as have the majority of other altcoins. BNB, for instance, had risen roughly 1,340 percent this year, surpassing both BTC and ETH in terms of market capitalization.
The company is also optimistic about NFTs and the metaverse, citing the fact that these two themes are dominating the market’s interactions in 2021. Nevertheless, they claim that the “NFT mania” is to blame for rising gas fees on the Ethereum platform, with increasing demand in layer-1 tokens.