• DeFi tokens such as Hegix, Uniswap and DeFi Money Market dominated the popular analyst’s top coins to watch in 2021 list.
• Ethereum emerged as the top coin to watch, with the analyst citing ETH 2.0 and the numerous DeFi projects as factors for growth.

One of the most popular cryptocurrency traders, analysts and YouTubers Nicholas Merten has released his list of the top 10 coins to watch in 2021. Decentralized finance (DeFi) projects dominated the list, with Ethereum emerging as the top cryptocurrency to bet on this year.

2020 was a rollercoaster year for the cryptocurrency industry. The Bitcoin halving in May was a non-event, with the price only changing slightly, Merten observed. However, with growing institutional support and the rising fear of currency devaluation, Bitcoin has been able to rise again to set a new all-time high price.

In 2021, DeFi projects will dominate the market, the trader, whose DataDash channel has over 365,000 subscribers, predicted.

Ethereum tops the list

Ethereum is the top coin to watch in 2021, Merten predicts. The second-largest cryptocurrency started 2020 at just $130.7 but went on to gain 460% to end the year at $737. The analyst predicts this uptrend will continue in 2021. He cited the ETH 2.0 protocol upgrade, the surge in DeFi tokens and the rising number of Solidity developers as the factors for growth.

“An important thing to realize is that every single DeFi project lives within the Ethereum blockchain. And while it’s the second-largest cryptocurrency, it didn’t get there by speculation. It has the largest open-source developer network in crypto, with over 10,000 Solidity developers.”

He predicts an ambitious price of between $10,000 and $12,500 by 2022 for Ethereum.

Second on Merten’s list is Ampleforth, a project he believes is solving a major challenge in the cryptocurrency industry. He compared Ampleforth to a central bank on the blockchain that increases or deflates supply of its Ample tokens depending on their price.

“And its peg can be adjusted usually to meet the level of inflation that the real US dollar has faced since the launch of its protocol in 2019. For example, the current peg is a dollar and one cent,” he pointed out.

Ampleforth has gained over 38,000% in 2020, boosted by its rising prominence in the DeFi industry.

DeFi to dominate 2021

DeFi projects dominated the list, with Uniswap taking third place. The project is the largest automated market maker in the DeFi space as per the analyst. The surge in liquidity providers, supported tokens and low fees make it a formidable long-term project. Merten pointed out that Uniswap has even outpaced some major exchanges including Coinbase.

Fourth on the list was Chainlink, a project that the analyst believes is anchored on its “large community of partners.” Chainlink was the top pick for 2020 by the analyst, and it didn’t disappoint, gaining 1,500%. He believes that the rise in demand for oracle solutions makes Chainlink a project primed to break out in 2021.

I’m highly confident this (LINK) could reach heights similar to Ethereum’s highs in 2017.

Taking the fifth spot was dHEDGE, a Synthetix-based asset management protocol. The project allows its users to become “virtual, permissionless hedge funds, giving them the ability to create synthetic portfolios.”

Aside from DeFi, Merten believes enterprise blockchain will be the sector to watch in 2021. Unibright, which took the seventh spot, will be the biggest beneficiary of this growth.

Enterprise blockchain in my opinion is one of the major sectors of crypto that doesn’t get enough attention and for Unibright; it’s the project’s area of expertise.

Rounding up the list was DeFi Money Market at eighth, Warp Finance at ninth and derivative options trading platform Hegix at tenth.

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