It's interesting to look back at what happened in the crypto market in November 2021. Back then, everyone was writing about the best cryptocurrencies of the year - Terra, Solana, Decentraland, Dogecoin, and Ethereum. Everyone had some theory about why these projects would be the next big thing. Today, looking at it with some distance, I see a completely different story.

Terra with the Luna token was the absolute star at that time. In 12 months, it was +11,500%. The project promised a revolution in stablecoins - decentralized stablecoins that would address volatility. The blockchain had been operating since 2019 and was already ranked 14th by market capitalization. It looked like a clear winner compared to centralized Tether. Today? Luna is down 68 percent over the past year. It shows how much things can turn around in this industry.

Solana had a similar success story. Since 2020, and it was already fifth in the world. The SOL token grew by nearly 10,000% annually. It addressed Ethereum’s problems - slow and expensive transactions. Solana processed over 2,700 transactions per second with fees of just a few cents. Everyone saw it as the future. Now it’s -47 percent. It still has its community and technology, but the hype is gone.

Decentraland and its MANA token - that was the metaverse craze. Barbados opened an embassy in this virtual world, investment funds bought land for hundreds of thousands of dollars. It seemed like digital reality was on the verge of a major breakthrough. The metaverse segment had a market cap of around 12M. Today, MANA is down 73 percent. The metaverse proved to be more hype than reality.

Dogecoin is a special case. It started as a joke, became a phenomenon thanks to Elon Musk and the community. In 2021, it was +6,700% - the seventh-largest increase. Everyone knew it was speculation and risky, but people went for it. Now it’s -51 percent. But Dogecoin has retained something others lost - the community.

Ethereum is a different story. Only +680 percent this year, which seemed modest compared to others. But Ethereum remains second in market cap - $273 billion. 87 percent of all tokens were issued on its blockchain. It is undergoing a transformation from PoW to PoS. Today, it’s -9 percent over the year - the smallest decline of all. That says something about stability.

What can we take from this? The best cryptocurrencies by hype are not necessarily the best long-term investments. Terra promised a revolution but went bankrupt. Solana had better technology, but that wasn’t enough against market realities. Ethereum, which seemed boring, maintained its position. This market is strange - sometimes technology wins, sometimes community, sometimes just luck. It’s interesting to watch how these projects develop further and whether they will ever return to the numbers from 2021 or if it was just a bubble.