The 2021 Santa Claus rally of the cryptocurrency markets was short and bittersweet. Despite Bitcoin finally breaking the $50,000 price level after spending a few weeks in a slump, traders started cashing out of their positions a couple of days following Christmas. Bitcoin finally broke near the $51,500 price level, but was not able to rebound in the short term. This, of course, doesn't make sense if you think about where Bitcoin was at the beginning of 2020.

In the end, the cryptocurrency market failed to generate New Year's Eve fireworks, but this does not mean that the blockchain revolution has run out of gas. On the contrary, the crypto markets had a decent run in 2021; despite the final loss of value in Bitcoin and other tokens, we can't forget that these are market-cap-driven ecosystems. What started as an interesting experiment in a small section of the population has now become mainstream, and that can only mean good things.

The Santa rally was a good indication of the potential future for the crypto markets. Most cryptocurrencies gained double-digit percentage points and in some cases more than 100%, and this was likely caused by Bitcoin entering Wall Street in the form of two exchange-traded funds approved by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. If you go back to the beginning of 2020, you'll find the altcoin markets, Bitcoin, and the Ethereum markets all growing in similar ways. They were all driven by the same thing, and that was Bitcoin. If you take a look at the price charts of other crypto markets, including most of the largest and most popular crypto-related indices, you'll notice that in 2020, there were also the same similarities.

We can't forget that Bitcoin is now legal tender in El Salvador. Over the next few months, we will likely see this happening in Cuba and Ukraine. Also, the Swiss National Bank has opened up another door in the war of Bitcoin adoption. While the Bank of England and the Central Bank of Sweden remain unimpressed, the Swiss National Bank has announced that it will begin reviewing the legality of cryptocurrency exchange platforms.