Decentralized finance (DeFi) dominated the media headlines throughout 2021, and the industry and non-fungible tokens (NFT) helped initiate the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Although it turns out that the high returns and instant profits obtained by flipping jpeg are very profitable for investors, it is important to remember that without the basic functions of smart contract technology, all this is impossible .

The Ethereum network is still the most widely used first-tier smart contract platform in the crypto ecosystem, but everyone is aware of the high fees and network congestion problems in the past few years.

In 2021, competing networks such as Avalanche and Binance Smart Chain have achieved compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which has brought positive results for investors in these two ecosystems.

Let’s take a look at some of the best-performing first-tier agreements in the fourth quarter of 2021 and investigate how partnerships, traditional financial investments, and agreement development will benefit each project in 2022.

Algorand

Algorand (ALGO) is a pure proof-of-stake (PoS) first-layer blockchain network designed to be self-sustaining and highly scalable, so that it can handle heavy transaction loads at the lowest cost.

In the fourth quarter, the agreement launched the Algorand virtual machine to support decentralized applications (DApps), namely DeFi and NFT projects Can now operate on the network.

Tether (USDT) And U.S. dollar coins (USDC) Has been launched on the web before, so their integration with the new DeFi platform is relatively easy and liquidity can be quickly established. The 150 million ALGO Viridis fund initiated by the Algorand Foundation also aims to accelerate the development of the DeFi ecosystem on the Internet.

The project also attracted the attention of institutional investors, and a large amount of cash injection came from Unbounded Capital. Launched a $500 million fund Help develop DApp on Algorand. Hivemind Capital Partners also selected Agreement as its first technology partner.

We are happy to announce the launch of the US$500 million Borderless ALGO Fund II!https://t.co/EP0U6Ib8HV pic.twitter.com/okXf6GBFo8

-Borderless Capital (@borderless_cap) November 30, 2021

In October, Algorand launched a governance function that enables ALGO holders to have a say in the future development of the agreement.

On November 18th, 21Shares announced the launch of a physically supported Algorand exchange-traded product, which helped trigger the price of ALGO to rise to an annual high of $2.99.

Tezos

Tezos (XTZ) Is a flexible proof-of-stake blockchain designed to evolve over time without the need for a hard fork.In the fourth quarter, traditional financial entities such as Swiss Arab Bank Cooperation with the agreement Originally launched pledge, transaction and custody services for the project XTZ Token.

On December 7, the project made headlines after cooperating with the large game company Ubisoft to expand its NFT ecosystem.Ubisoft Quartz platform Use Tezos blockchain, And Ghost Recon: Breakpoint players will be able to buy and trade game-specific NFTs in the market.

On December 15, the popular NFT market Rarible also announced the integration of the Tezos blockchain into its ecosystem. This means that Rarible users can buy, sell and trade Tezos NFT in a much cheaper environment than Rarible’s Ether-based market.

Tezos blockchain is now live https://t.co/BplWYgszwb

Here is everything you need to know:https://t.co/opRwEeF1HB

-Rare (@rarible) December 15, 2021

Part of the reason for the growing interest in the Tezos blockchain is the energy efficiency of the network in a world that is increasingly concerned about environmental sustainability.

According to a recent carbon footprint report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Tezos network’s energy efficiency has increased by 70% in 2021. Carbon footprint of only 17 people.

At the time of writing, after XTZ hit an annual high of $9.17 on October 3, it was trading at $4.34. The final weeks of 2021.

related: “I believe in encryption very much,” said the former chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission

Elrond

Elrond (EGLD) is a blockchain platform for distributed applications and enterprise-level businesses. Its goal is to become a technology ecosystem of the “new Internet”.

According to the project’s website, the network uses sharding technology to process 15,000 transactions per second (TPS), with an average transaction cost of US$0.001.

The year-end price increase seen in the protocol’s native EGLD token is the launch of a 1.29 billion USD liquidity incentive plan Provided by Maiar Decentralized Exchange (DEX) located in Elrond.

Prior to the launch of the liquidity program, the price of EGLD had been rising because it was increasingly used as a form of digital payment, including The Romanian Music Festival is unknown, It announced that it could use EGLD to buy tickets for its 2021 music festival.

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