Monero (XMR)
XMR, the cryptocurrency native to the Monero blockchain, did not have a particularly exciting 2021.
In fact, the maximum price reached did not exceed the all-time high reached during the previous cycle, in January 2018.
The fact is that in 2021 many cryptocurrencies made new highs, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Monero, however, failed to do so.
On 9 January 2018, when ETH first surpassed $1,400, XMR briefly topped $540. By contrast, in 2021 the peak stopped at $475, failing to even approach $500. It is enough to mention that instead, ETH exceeded $4,800.
Thus, during 2021 ETH posted a new peak as much as 240% higher than that of the previous cycle, while that of Monero was 12% lower.
Despite this, however, XMR’s price is currently “only” 73% below its all-time high, which is a very similar percentage to ETH’s -72%.
Hence, although in 2021 Monero failed to keep up with the pace had by, for example, Ethereum, in 2022 it has practically recovered and stabilized on similar performance.
The curious thing, then, is that in this bear market Monero has lost less than Ethereum, and if only 2022 is taken into account, it shows that XMR has lost only 37%, while ETH as much as 64%.
Using Ethereum as a benchmark for all other altcoins we can say that Monero has been found to be more stable and less volatile, in recent years, with lower growth but also lower losses. It is as if a lower speculative bubble has inflated on XMR, not only compared to that of Ethereum but also compared to what also inflated on XMR in late 2017.
There could be an explanation: XMR is the most widely used high-privacy cryptocurrency on record, so it has a fairly constant use over time that probably limits its price fluctuations.
Shiba Inu (SHIB)
In the previous cycle that began in May 2020 with the third halving of Bitcoin, Shiba Inu did not yet exist.
But during 2021, the price performance of the SHIB token was almost absurd.
Born in August 2020, until April 2021 its value was practically irrelevant. Then suddenly it experienced an incredible boom, most likely linked in some way to a simultaneous boom in Dogecoin.
Then again, Shiba Inu is intended to be precisely an alternate to Dogecoin.
However, during the course of 2021, SHIB’s share price increased significantly only four very short times.
The first was between 31 January and 1 February, when it jumped in just two days from 0.14 billionths of a dollar to 2.9 billionths.
The second was between 16 and 20 April, when it jumped in four days from $0.16 millionths to $3.6 millionths.
The third between 8 and 11 May when it soared in just three days from 1.5 millionths to 35 millionths.
Finally, the fourth and final time between 5 and 28 October when in just over three weeks it rose from $8.5 millionths to 82 millionths.
In the remaining periods, it has only ever either lateralized or gone down.
It is worth noting that the April and May jumps were concomitant with Dogecoin’s, but the October one was not. That is, since June the price of SHIB has started to move independently from the price of DOGE.
Currently, it is as much as 88% lower than it was at the end of October, and this indicates very clearly that the one in 2021 was a speculative bubble. The fact that it was due to only four very rapid big jumps makes it clear that, unlike XMR, it does not have a solid user base.
Dogecoin (DOGE)
The price analysis of Dogecoin may be reminiscent of that of Shiba Inu, although Dogecoin is a much “older” cryptocurrency.
As a matter of fact, we have prices since 2013, although until 2021 they had not been particularly attractive. It is enough to mention that the highest price touched during the previous cycle was on 7 January 2018 when it touched $0.018 while last year’s peak was an impressive $0.73. In other words, the new peak was almost 4,000% higher than the previous one.
The year 2021 was truly the year of so-called “meme-coins,” indeed Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.
The incredible rise in the price of DOGE, however, occurred in only two specific periods.
The first, between 27 January and 11 February, took the price from $0.007 to almost $0.080, that is, with a tenfold increase in less than two weeks that was followed by a small reversal.
The second occurred between 12 April and 8 May, with a rise from $0.07 to $0.73, or another tenfold increase in about four weeks.
These two strong and rapid increases also brought with them the price of Shiba Inu, although then after 8 May 2021 the price of DOGE almost always fell, except at certain times.
DOGE currently loses nearly 92% from its peak, which says a lot about how large the speculative bubble that swelled last year on this asset has been.
Cronos (CRO)
Cronos (CRO) is Crypto.com‘s cryptocurrency
Although it suffered a speculative bubble last year similar to that of other cryptocurrencies, its value has maintained some stability over time.
For example, the current price of about $0.1 is very similar to the price in March 2019, which was almost two years before the speculative bubble inflated.
Indeed, until early February 2021, the value of CRO had almost always hovered around $0.1, which therefore appears to be a fairly common price level for this asset.
Were it not for the 2021 bubble, the price of CRO has never exceeded $0.2, and has never fallen below $0.02 since it rose to $0.1 in March 2019.
The 2021 anomaly for the price of CRO began on 19 February, when it came close to $0.26 in less than a month.
It is worth noting that CRO’s price rises are less rapid and less broad than those of meme-coins, thus denoting decidedly different behavior.
The real boom occurred between 2 and 24 November, when it rose from $0.21 to an all-time high of $0.96.
Incidentally, that was the same period when Bitcoin and Ethereum made new highs.
Since then CRO has lost as much as 89%, but its value is back near that $0.1 level that seems to be a kind of “standard” for this cryptocurrency.
In short, this is a cryptocurrency with lower volatility on average, partly because it has a large exchange behind it, but it has suffered at least one large abnormal overhang due to the great cryptocurrency speculative bubble of 2021.