YEARENDER-The Year of the Doge? 2021, crypto's wildest year yet

Bitcoin soared over 120% from Jan 1. to a then-record of almost $65,000 in mid-April. Fuelling it was a tsunami of cash from institutional investors, growing acceptance by major corporations such as Tesla Inc and Mastercard Inc and an increasing embrace by Wall Street banks.

"Memecoins" - a loose collection of coins ranging from dogecoin and shiba inu to squid game that have their roots in web culture - often have little practical use.

Dogecoin, launched in 2013 as a bitcoin spinoff, soared over 12,000% to an all-time high in May before slumping almost 80% by mid-December. Shiba inu, which references the same breed of Japanese canine as dogecoin, briefly muscled its way into the 10 largest digital currencies.

Long sceptical of crypto - a rebel technology invented to undermine traditional finance - watchdogs called for more powers over the sector, with some warning consumers over volatility.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) - strings of code stored on the blockchain digital ledger that represent unique ownership of artworks, videos or even tweets - exploded in 2021.

In March, a digital artwork by U.S. artist Beeple sold for nearly $70 million at Christie's, among the three most expensive pieces by a living artist sold at auction.

The sale heralded a stampede for NFTs.

Sales in the third-quarter hit $10.7 billion, up over eight-fold from the previous three months. As volumes peaked in August, prices for some NFTs rose so quickly speculators could "flip" them for profit in days, or even hours.
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Part of the content is taken from Yahoo.