BTC Year In Review 2021: The First Quarter

In four parts, we look back on the most important events in BTC-Land in 2021. It starts with first quarter.

That started well. In the first quarter of this year, the No. 1 cryptocurrency made a brisk debut. While BTC was still quoted at 29,000 US dollars (USD) on January 1 of this year, on March 31st, it was still USD 58,600 – a price growth of 100 percent within three months. That’s a lot even for high-flyers BTC. Too much, as it turned out in retrospect. But one after the other.

BTC energy consumption: an annoying constant topic

One more thing, it must be said, caused a sensation about BTC’s energy consumption. But the topic of energy consumption in proof-of-work cryptocurrencies is a complex one. It cannot be dealt with in short articles. 

Dispute over BTC whitepaper

There was also a dispute this year about the BTC whitepaper. Because an Australian is still trying to convince the world that he is Satoshi Nakamoto. We are of course talking about Craig Wright. Wright not only claims ownership (and even wants to enforce in court) the code, but also the white paper. He took the latter as an opportunity to warn well-known hosters of the original Satoshi paper and to have the white paper deleted.

But that backfired: Instead of deleting the paper, more and more services have agreed to host the BTC whitepaper on their own website.

BTC bigger than Tesla for the first time

For the first time in February of this year, BTC overtook US automaker Tesla in terms of market capitalization. Because already in February the crypto currency No. 1 was quoted at 58,330 US dollars. This made the entire BTC market worth around USD 955 billion – more than Tesla, which “only” had a market value of USD 712 billion at the same time.

Currently, the situation is reversed again. BTC ranks 10th ($ 908 billion market capitalization) and Tesla ranks 8th ($ 997 billion market capitalization).

First BTC ETF launched in North America

And then there was a bigger premiere to celebrate in the first quarter of this year: With the Purpose BTC ETF, the first BTC ETF is celebrating its genesis on North American soil. Contrary to what had been hoped, the index fund is not traded in the USA, but in neighboring Canada.

Until recently, the US Securities and Exchange Commission had bricked up – and had finally collapsed.

BTC market cap hits $ 1 trillion

Historically: on February 19 of this year, the market capitalization of digital gold exceeded the trillion USD mark for the first time. The market capitalization results from the current price multiplied by the BTC amount in circulation (currently 18,905,647.75 BTC).