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January was a very green month for the markets, with barely any coins in red, while all the top 10 by market capitalization finished it in green. Bitcoin (BTC) hit USD 42,000 and ethereum (ETH) reached USD 1,449, with altcoins seeing double-digit rises as well.
February was even better, with only two coins out of the top 100 ending up in red. BTC and ETH continued pushing higher, moving above USD 58,000 and USD 2,000, respectively. Binance coin (BNB), cardano (ADA), and polkadot (DOT) went up between 427% and 103%.
March continued the greenery and all-time high streaks. BTC surpassed USD 61,500, while this was the sixth month of consecutive gains for the coin. All top 10 coins had double-digit increases this month, except ADA, whose price had dropped.
And then, the second quarter began - and it proved to be one of the worst for the first crypto in the world.
April was successful price-wise, but noticeably less green than March. ETH has been outperforming BTC consistently over the month, with the former increasing 59 percentage points more than the latter. Bitcoin had the lowest increase among the top 10 by far. It saw its ATH of around USD 65,000, and it hasn't reached it again since, recording some drops this month, touching the USD 47,000 level. ETH kept rising, closing the month with USD 2,770, before it would surpass USD 3,000 at the beginning of May. Meanwhile, dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated around 530%, after it had started leading the market, with the Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Tesla chief Elon Musk adding fuel to the fire yet again.
May saw a dramatic selloff, followed by consolidation. All coins in the top 10 dropped, except for ADA. Bitcoin was trading between USD 31,000 and USD 40,000 in the second half of the month, while ethereum traded between some USD 2,200 and USD 2,600, following a dip below USD 2,000. ETH had a much better month percentage-wise than BTC in May as well even though both had dropped over the month and since their ATHs. Analysts pointed to a wide range of possible causes behind the selloff: overheating market, large liquidations of leveraged positions, Elon Musk's BTC tweets, Tesla stopping payments in this currency, environmental concerns, somewhat hawkish US Federal Reserve, as well as the tighter regulation on crypto mining and trading in China.
And so came June, with some breaking news. El Salvador President decided to give bitcoin the status of legal tender, with lawmakers across Latin America expressing their support for bitcoin adoption. Just days ago, El Salvador officials said that the BTC they’ll give away in airdrops is for spending, not for converting into USD.
Meanwhile, Beijing-backed anti-mining activities continued to gather pace. On the other side of the coin, as miners relocate from China, they disperse across the world, which will lead to hashpower decentralization.
After the May selloff, BTC briefly touched USD 40,000 in June, but stayed below it for the majority of the month. Ethereum also spent some time below USD 2,000, but not long, as it soon moved above that level, as the London upgrade was approaching – bringing with it the much-discussed EIP-1559. The activation of one of Bitcoin’s biggest upgrades, Taproot, was also confirmed.
Top 10 Coins in June, Q2 & H1
The crypto markets ended June in red. There isn't one winner to talk about. The biggest drop among the top 10 by market capitalization was seen by XRP, with a fall of nearly 31%. It's closely followed by uniswap (UNI)'s 29% and polkadot (DOT)'s 28%. Dogecoin is another with a drop of over 20%. Meanwhile, bitcoin's 7% was the smallest drop, followed by ETH's 13%, as well as binance coin (BNB)'s 15%, and ADA's 20%.
As we go further in the past, the fields are getting greener. In the past quarter, we see four out of the top 10 appreciating in price. The definite leader by far here is DOGE, with a rise of nearly 323%. The distant second winner is actually June's biggest loser - XRP, appreciating nearly 16% in three months. It's followed by ETH and ADA with 11% and 10%, respectively. Meanwhile, the first red spot is taken by DOT's 59% drop, and behind it is bitcoin with its own 43% drop. UNI and BNB come last with their falls of 37% and 11%, respectively.
And once we reach the first half of the year, we see no coins in red (not taking stablecoins into account). All top 10 coins appreciated, seeing double-, triple-, even quadruple percentages. The memest of coins, DOGE, is the leader here as well, going up the whopping 4,027%. Next up is BNB with a rise of 663% and ADA with 638%. While UNI, XRP, and ETH went up between 285% and 192%, BTC appreciated the least among its peers, going up some 13%.
Just recently, a proposal regarding a new fee structure and policy for Dogecoin Core was released, receiving Musk's support as well.
Top winners in June
There are barely any winners to speak of among the top 50 coins by market capitalization. Only 5 out of 50 appreciated in June. The top is taken by AMP and its 56% increase, followed by theta fuel (TFUEL)'s 21%, and solana (SOL)'s 10%. Among the least to appreciate on the list are LEO with just below 5% and the self-proclaimed DOGE killer, which put even Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in a pickle - shiba inu (SHIB), with a rise of 0.39%.
Top losers in June
Having so few rises means that June saw more than its fair share of drops. The 10 highest drops among the top 50 are relatively close to one another. The highest fall in price is that of polygon (MATIC) with 41%. The following seven coins all dropped between 37% and 30%, led by chainlink (LINK) and EOS. The smallest drops on the list, those just below 30%, are UNI's and DOT's.
Top winners in Q2
SHIB might have had one of the smallest rises in the past month, but it dominated the past quarter. The coin saw a whopping rise of, wait for it, nearly 24,652%. The three coins that follow it all had substantial, and triple-digit rises, but still a lot smaller in comparison. Nonetheless, these notable increases include DOGE, ethereum classic (ETC), and MATIC - all rising between 320% and 197%. The rest of the 10 winners among the top 50 by market capitalization had double-digit rises, and interestingly, all are coins mentioned earlier for their rises and falls, except for maker (MKR) which went up almost 19%. The smallest on this list is XRP's 15%.
As reported, the Ethereum Classic (ETC) network will undergo a hard fork in July to implement the Magneto upgrade, which includes Ethereum Berlin upgrade features, and therefore certain Ethereum Improvement Proposals that will tackle the network’s security and gas fees.
Top losers in Q2
The second quarter has a full list of the 10 largest drops among the top 50 coins as well. But again. the difference between them is relatively small. The highest drop is klaytn (KLAY)'s 76%. The second and third places are taken by filecoin (FIL) and terra (LUNA) with 70% and 68%, respectively. While avalanche (AVAX) and DOT have drops of around 60%, the remainder of the list decreased between 49% and 42%. This includes bitcoin's 43%, sitting in the second-to-last place.
According to crypto data aggregator, Skew, this is BTC's weakest quarter since Q1 2018 when it fell nearly 50%, and close to Q3 2014, when it dropped just above 40%.
Top winners in H1
The leaders among the winners in the first half of 2021 have quite high green percentages next to their names. MATIC here stands tall with a rise of more than 6,000%. Behind it comes another winner, DOGE, which appreciated more than 4,000% in six months. Three more coins are up between 1,000% and 2,000%, these being pancakeswap (CAKE), SOL, and TFUEL. The rest of the list recorded notable increases as well, all between 856% (ETC) and 638% (ADA).
As reported, MATIC's price action has been supported by growing on-chain fundamentals since the year's start, as well as winning the favors of billionaire investor Mark Cuban who added the platform to his list of backed companies.
Top losers in H1
As a testimony to just how good the first half of 2021 was for the crypto market is the fact that only 2 coins out of the top 50 ended it in red - and arguably not by large percentages either. SAFEMOON fell 25%, while bitcoin SV (BSV) is down just above 14%.
Winners & losers from top 100 in June, Q1 & H1
Only nine coins out of the top 100 coins by market capitalization appreciated in June. The top winners among these are bitcoin cash ABC (BCHA), followed by quant network (QNT) and AMP, rising between 81% and 53%. Meanwhile, thorchain (RUNE) dropped the most with 46%, closely followed by synthetix (SNX)'s 44%.
In the past quarter, SHIB is still in the lead, followed by triple-digit increases of DOGE, ETC, as well as telcoin (TEL), and MATIC. As for the drops, while KLAY and FIL take the first and the second spots, respectively, the next in line is the graph (GRT) with a fall of just below 70%, closely followed by LUNA.
As for the half-yearly change, TEL leads the list here, with a rise of 14,835%. MATIC follows it with its own major increase, as do DOGE and CAKE. The drops are a lot less dramatic. The highest among them is mdex (MDX)'s 49%. After it comes nem (XEM) with nearly 39%. Only three more coins dropped among the 100: SAFEMOON, BSV, and SNX.
Top NFT coins
In the past 30 days, the top 10 NFT-based tokens are ultra (UOS) with a rise of 53%, followed by wrapped origin axie (WOA) and blockv (VEE), with a 49% and a 42% rise, respectively. Besides these, only 10 others ended June in green. As for the red ones, dmarket (DMT) had the largest drop, of 98%. It's followed by UNIFY, blockchain cuties universe governance token (BCUG), and domraider (DRT) - all of which are down between 71% and 70%.
Looking in the past quarter, the top token in this category is ITAM, with a rise of more than 337%, followed by small love potion (SLP)'s 116%, with seven more green coins seeing double- and single-digit increases. As for the drops, the highest falls on the list all recorded 90%-99%, led by DMT.
Lastly, in the past 6 months, bakeryswap (BAKE) took the first stop among the increases, leading with an 11,890% rise. MUSE is placed second with 4,854%, while the next four coins on the list went up between 1,000% and 1,500%. Notably, there are no red coins in this time frame among the first top 50. As for the falls, BCUG is leading the red coins with a near 97% drop, while eight others fell between 90% and 94%.