Looking back at 2021, the crypto market was absolutely wild. Total market cap went from $770 billion to $2.1 trillion, and some of the best crypto to invest in that year saw absolutely insane gains. But here's the thing - I was curious what happened to those top performers, and the reality check is pretty sobering.

Back then, projects like Gala were up over 40,000% and CEEK hit 25,000% gains. Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, Polygon, Solana - these were the darlings everyone was talking about. The play-to-earn gaming boom, metaverse hype, Layer 2 solutions, they all seemed unstoppable. Even more niche projects like XYO (geospatial data) and Telcoin (cross-border payments) were posting 16,000% and 7,000% gains respectively.

If you were looking at the best cryptos to invest in during 2021, Solana definitely stood out - it jumped into the top 10 by market cap and stayed there. Polygon solved Ethereum's congestion issues as a Layer 2 solution. Terra's algorithmic stablecoin model looked innovative. These weren't just hype - they had actual use cases.

But fast forward to now in 2026, and the picture's completely different. Gala is down 79% from its peak. CEEK dropped 85%. Even Solana, which seemed so solid, is down 40%. Kadena? Down 97%. BakeryToken? Down 99%. The best crypto to invest in 2021 turned out to be a very different story by 2026.

The article back then did warn about volatility - saying crypto is risky and prices often fall after big rises. But it's easy to ignore that when you're seeing 15,000% gains. The reality is, just because something exploded in price doesn't mean it'll keep going up. A lot of these projects either failed to deliver on their promises, faced competition, or got caught up in the broader bear market.

What's interesting is that some held up better than others. Polygon only dropped 26% - still painful but way better than the others. Ethereum (mentioned throughout) and the Layer 2 narrative actually made more sense long-term than the pure gaming and metaverse plays.

The lesson here? The best crypto to invest in isn't about chasing last year's winners. It's about understanding what a project actually does, who it competes with, and whether it can survive when hype dies down. 2021 taught us that extraordinary gains often come with extraordinary risk. Do your research, don't invest what you can't afford to lose, and remember - just because something was hot doesn't mean it'll stay that way.