How may Bitcoin’s 2021 bull run differ from 2017

The Bitcoin’s price has finally returned to the same price range that it held three years ago. In 2017, when the value of BTC peaked near $19,900, most altcoins also posted weekly gains of 200% or more.

The price of BTC is practically identical to what it was on December 17, 2017. Anyone might think that not much has changed. However, compared to 2017, a significant amount of the necessary infrastructure has been built. 

What has changed since 2017?

Today, strictly regulated derivatives are being offered through the launch of CME and CBOE futures contracts. The fast growth of institutional investors is offering an endless source of demand for Bitcoin.

A new series of decentralized finance platforms (DeFi) has also emerged with a market capitalization of billions of dollars. 

Compared to 2017, there is a lot of easily accessible data related to price and market capitalization ranking. This should help investors better explain how the current market was different from the market in 2017.

We can better understand the crypto market in a couple of years by analyzing the differences.

When it comes to ranking cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, four of the top five remained the same. Interestingly, the market capitalization of Ether and XRP is relatively the same at $69 billion and $28 billion, respectively. This movement occurred even though both cryptocurrencies experienced a 15% price drop since December 2017.

The issuance of new coins causes this effect. For example, Ether’s coin supply increased from 96.4 million to 113.7 million. Meanwhile, the total number of Bitcoin in circulation increased by 10.8% in the same period.

Aside from Bitcoin, Ether, and XRP, the cryptocurrencies in the top 20, suffered heavy losses. IOTA lost 91%, Bitcoin Cash 84%, Litecoin 73%, and Cardano posted a loss of 70%.

The current top 3 currencies, BTC, ETH, and XRP, attract a $ 448 billion market capitalization, representing a 7% increase in three years. Meanwhile, the remaining 21 leaders currently have a $ 77 billion capitalization, which is a decrease of 41%.

One would automatically assume that Bitcoin’s dominance increased enormously at this time, but it increased by only 2% to the current 63%. This effect is only possible by adding hundreds of new tokens. The three sectors that stand out are exchange tokens, stablecoins, and the DeFi.

Institutional investors will affect prices in the future

As mentioned above, neither CBOE nor CME futures existed in December 2017, much less with relevant liquidity. The same can be said for the praise and effective investments of institutional investors in Bitcoin.

More recently, even BlackRock CEO Larry Fink seems to be bullish that Bitcoin will become an asset class on its own.