OKX 2021 Year-End Report: A Tribute to the Golden Age of Blockchain
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Introduction
At the turn of the year, looking back on 2021, the crypto world has experienced tumultuous and earth-shattering changes. From DeFi to Layer 2, from NFT to GameFi, from DAO to metaverse, Web3, the tremendous changes in each sector are a microcosm of the decentralized world's transformation.
In the post-pandemic era, Bitcoin's price repeatedly hit new highs amid global central bank monetary easing, Musk became the "spokesperson" for Dogecoin, Facebook renamed itself Meta, El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as national legal currency... cryptocurrency has integrated into the global financial system, and we are experiencing the golden age of the crypto world.
Throughout 2021, as a global leader in blockchain ecosystem development, OKX has advanced across all business lines including CEX and NFT, maintaining its industry-leading position. This article will review OKX's 2021 by combining with major crypto world events.
Global Economic Easing, Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High
At the beginning of the year, the still severe COVID-19 pandemic led to continued global economic recession, which in turn caused frequent monetary easing by central banks in major developed economies. The cryptocurrency market cap soared from $780 billion at the beginning of the year to $3 trillion. The crypto world is gradually entering the mainstream, and the crypto golden age has begun.
In February this year, Tesla filed a report with the US SEC stating that the company planned to purchase $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin; in March, Tesla's official website announced support for Bitcoin payments. On the road to acceptance by commercial giants and the mainstream, Bitcoin scored another victory.
During the same period, OKX launched the unified Trading Account, an innovation of the industry's traditional trading platform model.
Continuous innovation is the driving force for world civilization progress: if Satoshi Nakamoto's creation of Bitcoin was a disruption to traditional finance, Musk's founding of Tesla was a challenge to traditional automobiles, then OKX's unified Trading Account, as an industry first, has epoch-making significance for the crypto world.
As OKX adopted the Chinese name "OKX", its global strategic layout began to accelerate, relying on industry-leading products, technology and responsiveness to provide smooth services to millions of users worldwide.
In the crypto bull market of the past two years, although Bitcoin's price repeatedly hit new highs, its market share declined from 73.61% at the beginning of the year to the current 40.12%. The fundamental reason lies in the strong rise of public chains like Ethereum, and the widespread acceptance of emerging asset categories such as DeFi/NFT/metaverse/Web3. Among many sectors, NFT's performance was the most outstanding.
Everything Can Be NFT, Start Your NFT Journey on OKX
In March, digital artist Beeple's work "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" sold at Christie's auction house for a staggering $69.34 million, setting a new record for the highest auction price for digital art. Overnight, NFT exploded into mainstream consciousness, becoming a topic of conversation.
NFTs, which solved the ownership verification难题 of traditional collectibles, attracted Internet giants such as Tencent, Alipay, and Twitter to compete in layout. Superstars including Elon Musk, Stephen Curry, and Wong Kar-wai also纷纷 bought or released NFT works.
Amid this wave, NFT trading platform OpenSea's trading volume showed exponential growth. The floor price of NFT works CryptoPunks continued to rise. When traditional auction houses like Sotheby's纷纷 entered the NFT space, it marked that NFTs were entering public view. The sudden emergence of Loot pushed this trend to its climax. The reason NFTs are considered to have brought disruptive change to digital artworks is that NFTs engrave the ownership and circulation process of artworks and collectibles on the blockchain in an open and transparent form.
At the beginning of this NFT wave, OKX took the lead in listing NFT ecosystem tokens such as CHZ and ENJ. Among them, the NFT sports ecosystem star project CHZ rose by 1644% that week.
In September, OKX heavily launched DeFi Hub and the OKX NFT platform, supporting multi-chain assets including ETH and OKTC, with advantages such as low barriers, zero fees, and rich categories. Users can freely trade NFTs on the OKX NFT platform and enjoy services such as grabbing first-issue NFTs in the primary market. The OKX NFT trading market includes many first-issue art works from well-known artists, game developers, and high-quality IPs, and has integrated mainstream hot projects such as Cryptounks and Loot. Today, the OKX NFT market has listed 12.58 million NFT works, initiated 25 NFT events, sold a total of $3,569,533, and had 18,301 participants.
It can be said that as the network becomes humanity's second living space, NFTs are becoming the most trustworthy weapon for artists, protecting artworks created with painstaking effort by original authors.
GameFi**** Explodes, Are Games the Prototype of the Metaverse?
2021 was also the first year of the metaverse.
The term metaverse originated from the science fiction novel "Snow Crash," describing a virtual space parallel to the real world, introducing the real world's operating logic into the digital virtual world. However, for a long time, the metaverse seemed to be just a concept carrying human romantic fantasies, until GameFi's sudden emergence let people see the prototype of the metaverse. In the Philippines, where the unemployment rate reached 25% under the ravages of the pandemic, countless game players flocked to the blockchain game Axie Infinity. Players can raise, breed NFT pets, and obtain returns by completing tasks, fighting, and trading. Today, Axie Infinity has become the leader of blockchain games, driving employment for over 150,000 people in countries such as the Philippines and Venezuela.
The gaming platform Roblox successfully listed as the first metaverse stock, opening the metaverse's path to the stars and the sea. Internet social giant Facebook also renamed itself Meta within the year, announcing a full entry into the metaverse. As Facebook's founder, Zuckerberg believes the metaverse will become the successor to mobile internet.
To promote metaverse ecosystem development, OKX launched a multi-million dollar fund on August 20 to boost the metaverse plan, helping excellent projects in fields such as metaverse and GameFi accelerate growth through a series of measures including special investment funds and project incubators.
OKX listed multiple high-quality GameFi assets. In March, it listed the metaverse star project SAND, which rose 4096% in half a year. In July, it listed the well-known game guild project YGG, which rose 1881% the following month. It listed the blockchain game star project AXS, which rose 126% the following month. In September, OKX listed 5 GameFi projects, among which GALA rose 947% the month after listing, and the OKTC leading GameFi project CELT opened with a rise of 1800%. In October, it globally premiered the well-known metaverse project STARL, which rose 430% that month. In November, it globally premiered the well-known game project TOWN, which rose 257% within the month; it premiered the well-known game public chain IMX, which rose 195% within the month.
The wealth effect of GameFi attracted more people to pay attention to the metaverse. In the near future, the metaverse may become a reality, and people will immerse themselves in it, starting and enjoying their virtual lives.
Hot Sectors Rise and Fall, Quality Assets on OKX
Looking back at the crypto world of 2021, people witnessed the bull market of crypto assets, and also experienced the rotation of sectors such as DeFi, Meme, NFT, GameFi, Layer 2, and DAO.
This year, the growing number of participants in on-chain activities such as DeFi led to congestion on Ethereum and persistently high gas fees, which also promoted the blooming of public chain ecosystems and the rise of the Layer 2 sector. On the Layer 2 ecosystem, OKX successively listed star projects such as MATIC and CELR, among which MATIC rose 700% the following month.
When a hundred schools of thought contended among public chains, cross-chain also welcomed a prosperous scene. Today, cross-chain bridges have surpassed centralized service providers to become the main channel for cross-chain fund flows. To support the ecosystem development of the well-known cross-chain project Polkadot, OKX listed Polkadot series projects such as PHA, POLS, and MXC in February, with an average rise of over 460% within the month. In June, OKX supported Kusama parachain slot auctions. In July, it listed Polkadot ecosystem series projects such as CFG and KAR, with an average rise of 297% the following month. In November, OKX launched the Polkadot parachain slot auction channel, supporting Polkadot slot auctions.
Web3, firmly favored by global investment firm a16z, also became an important component of sector rotation. To support Web3 development, OKX listed the star project Mask Network, which opened up 4000%. It listed Web3 ecosystem projects such as LPT and VRA, with an average rise of 807% over half a year. The globally premiered Web3 well-known project ENS listed by OKX saw a daily rise of as high as 700%.
As community became an inseparable part of the crypto world, the Meme sector rose again: Musk, as the sector's "chief marketing officer," used his influence to push Dogecoin into the top ten by market cap. To bring more possibilities to the community and help the industry ecosystem develop in a balanced way, OKX listed the star community project SHIB in May, which rose 592% that week. In July, it listed the well-known community token BABYDOGE, which rose 742.2% the following month.
In the construction of the platform token OKB, OKX started an all-industry layout, giving OKB more application scenarios. With more solid value support, OKB's price broke through $40 in May, with a half-year rise of 701%. On October 22, OKX launched Jumpstart staking mining, with the first phase being the Ethereum well-known project GODS: APY was 264%, and GODS rose 148% after listing.
In the past year, OKX has advanced simultaneously in platform ecosystem construction, product innovation, promoting industry development, and laying out emerging tracks, achieving comprehensive growth results. It currently covers more than 200 countries and regions, has tens of millions of users, and its comprehensive platform strength has long led the industry level. Among them, the platform insurance fund ranks first in the industry, and the throughput and matching speed of the trading system, as well as the stability of the risk control system, are far ahead in the industry. The image of "safe, stable, and reliable" has taken deep root in people's hearts.
OKX has passed five years, leaving a strong mark in the crypto world. In the next five years, OKX will shoulder the responsibility of a global leading blockchain ecosystem builder and promote the industry to write new chapters.
◆ 2021 Year-End Review Series Articles
|Public Chain Sector Review: Flowers Blooming, Multi-Chain Prosperity
|2021 Became the Explosion Year of NFT, These Three Trends Are Worth Attention
|Ethereum L2 Rapid Progress and Impressive Achievements
|OKX 2021 Year-End Report: A Tribute to the Golden Age of Blockchain
|DAO Sector Review: Towers Rising Gradually, Future Promising
Disclaimer
This article may contain product-related content not applicable to your region. This article is only intended to provide general information and does not assume responsibility for any factual errors or omissions therein. This article represents only the author's personal views and does not represent OKX's views. This article is not intended to provide any of the following advice, including but not limited to: (i) investment advice or investment recommendations; (ii) offers or solicitations to buy, sell or hold digital assets; or (iii) financial, accounting, legal or tax advice. Holding digital assets (including stablecoins) involves high risk, may fluctuate significantly, and even become worthless. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding digital assets is suitable for you based on your financial situation. For questions about your specific situation, please consult your legal/tax/investment professional. The information appearing in this article (including market data and statistics, if any) is for general reference only. Although we have taken all reasonable precautions in preparing these data and charts, we assume no responsibility for any factual errors or omissions expressed herein. © 2025 OKX. This article may be reproduced or distributed in its entirety, or excerpts of 100 words or less from this article may be used, provided that such use is non-commercial. Any reproduction or distribution of the entire article must also prominently state: "Copyright © 2025 OKX, used with permission." Permitted excerpts must cite the article name and include the source, for example "Article Name, [Author Name (if applicable)], © 2025 OKX". Some content may be generated or assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Derivative works or other uses of this article are not permitted.
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