A Look At How The Top Cryptocurrencies Were Performing This Time Last Year

The crypto market is currently facing one of its coldest and longest winters ever. Most coins have been dragging through the mud for months, and the end is nowhere in sight.

However, a while back — a year ago, to be precise — things were very different. The crypto market was experiencing a classic ‘Uptober’ with several coins touching new highs and breaking the proverbial glass ceiling. However, with the crypto market currently in tatters and most crypto investors feeling the blues, we decided to throw it back to October 2021 and look at how the top cryptos were performing at the time.

If nothing else, it will serve as a reminder of the prices these digital assets have commanded in the past and could surpass in the future. Let’s go!

Bitcoin (BTC)

Exactly a year ago, Bitcoin was trading at around $57,500. A few days later, on October 21, BTC surpassed the $66,000-mark. However, after proceeding to its current ATH of about $67,000 in November, Bitcoin has been on a continuous downward spiral. BTC slipped to $48,000 in mid-December 2021 and plummeted to $35,000 in late Jan 2022. Then it dropped to the $29,000 range in May and is currently changing hands at $19,083 at the time of writing.

Ethereum (ETH)

Around one year ago, Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, was trading around the $3,400-mark. Ten days later, on October 21, ETH further rallied to $4,161, and by November 9, it had reached $4,810 (its current ATH). However, since then, it’s been nothing but pain for investors, with ETH currently trading at $1,289; that’s 73 percent below its ATH. The Merge, which signalled Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake, was expected to cause some gains but did very little for ETH’s price action. Fortunately, the smart contract network has plenty of bigger upgrades coming up in the future, which could fuel a price boom.

Binance Coin (BNB)

Binance is the largest crypto exchange in the world, and its native crypto token, Binance Coin (BNB), currently ranks 5th in market capitalisation. However, positions three and four belong to stablecoins (USDT and USDC, respectively), whose values stay more or less the same; hence, they have not been considered for this list. Back to BNB, unlike BTC and ETH, BNB hit its all-time high of $661 in May 2021. And at this time last year, BNB was trading at $413, which is still much higher than its current price of $273. Considering that Binance far outperforms its peers in terms of market cap and daily trading volume, BNB should rally once the bulls are able to take over from the bears, who seem to have a tight grip on the market at present.

Ripple (XRP)

Last time this year, XRP was changing hands at $1.10, around 55 percent higher than its current price of $0.493. Besides the crypto winter, XRP is also dealing with a long-standing court battle with the SEC. This has caused Ripple to be bogged down for the last couple of years. However, recent events suggest a verdict could be out as soon as December this year, without the matter even going to court. Moreover, Ripple is also edging towards a positive result, causing XRP to pump nearly 38 percent in the last month. However, even if Ripple wins the battle with the SEC, it is still miles away from its all-time high of $3.021, registered way back in Jan 2018, almost five years ago.

Cardano (ADA)

Cardano has a market cap of more than $13.5 billion and is one of the top 10 cryptocurrencies in the world with respect to market capitalisation. However, among all the coins listed here, Cardano (ADA) has recorded the worst performance over the last year. At the time of writing, ADA was trading at $0.3977, down 81 percent from the same time last year. Like Ethereum, the Cardano network also underwent a significant upgrade – the Vasil hard fork – toward the end of September, which failed to have any lasting effect on the price of ADA. DeFi activity on the network has also slumped, with TVL dropping from $326 million in March to $135.39 million on Aug 1 and just $69 million at the time of writing. These are worrying signs for the smart contract network once touted as an Ethereum killer.

Conclusion

Looking back at historical data, it’s fair to say that crypto markets are cyclical in nature. This means that highs give way to lows which, in turn, give way to higher highs, and the process keeps repeating itself over time. Going by this trend, the current winter should be followed by a bull run in the future, causing prices to rise once again. Until then, just HODL on for the ride!