As mentioned in an earlier article today, bitcoin had a big year in 2021. The asset itself and several other forms of cryptocurrency experienced many major developments and there were a lot of things revolving around the world of crypto throughout the past 12 months.<\/p>\n
But those were specific stories. It\u2019s now time to look at bitcoin\u2019s actual price movements throughout the year to see what patterns its followed and to better understand the trends that occurred in 2021.<\/p>\n
For the most part, 2021 has been a solid year for bitcoin\u2019s price. The world\u2019s number one digital currency by market cap started out the year on a hefty note, trading for well over $20,000. Who knew that things would eventually take an even greater turn, as through the first half of 2021, the currency incurred additional spikes? This made everyone believe that the early ugliness associated with 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic were officially over.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t long before the currency rose to the $30,000 and $40,000 ranges, and it seemed, for a while anyway, that bitcoin was on top of the world. However, over the summer, things took a somewhat rotten turn given that both Elon Musk and China proved to be extremely problematic for bitcoin.<\/p>\n
Musk \u2013 the South African billionaire behind companies such as SpaceX and Tesla \u2013 initially decided that bitcoin could be used to purchase electric vehicles. This got everyone excited, thinking that bitcoin was now achieving a level of mainstream love it had never seen before. However, Musk later rescinded the decision, claiming that bitcoin miners were not controlling their emissions, nor were they using the energy they had available to them well enough.<\/p>\n
This caused bitcoin to fall into a sinkhole. Prior to the announcement, the currency was trading at a new high of roughly $57,000, but it wasn\u2019t long before the currency began to drop, and things got even worse over the course of the next couple of months thanks to actions taken by China.<\/p>\n
At one point, China was the king of all bitcoin and crypto-related activity. For example, it housed anywhere between 65 to 75 percent of the world\u2019s crypto mining projects. However, the country made a surprise announcement that all bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining would soon be banned, and thus miners had to find new homes to operate from.<\/p>\n
From there, China took an even greater stance against crypto when it decided that all transactions were illegal and thus traders could no longer engage in buying or selling cryptocurrency. Bitcoin incurred another drop and for a while, was trading below $30,000.<\/p>\n
However, the asset later rose to a new high of about $68,000 in November, and while only trading for $51,000 at press time, bitcoin has proven itself to be one of the world\u2019s strongest assets in 2021.<\/p>\n