• Insider has exclusive data from Broker eToro about crypto trends in 2021.

• eToro boasts a large 23 million user base, which can be a great indicator of its open interest numbers.

• Bitcoin remained at the top of its list, but other currencies rose or fell in popularity.

As most people are aware, crypto is a rapidly moving market. Many people are surprised at the rapid decline in popularity of assets that were once hot commodities.

Data from eToro's trading and retail investing platform has revealed which cryptos dropped the most among its global customers and which have risen to the top.

Although market cap lists may provide an approximate measure of popularity, they can only be a rough guide to the true extent of it. There are many interrelated factors. It also does not distinguish between institutional buyers and retail investors.

eToro boasts a staggering 23 million users worldwide, which can give a better insight into the shifting guard in the crypto retail investing market.

Insider has exclusive access to the following top 20 ranking for 2021 and 2020.

First, bitcoin's popularity has increased despite its weakness towards the end last year.

Although many older cryptos are no longer in favor, the original has maintained its popularity with a 223% increase of open positions, enough to keep it at the top of the list.

This is an interesting finding considering the fact that bitcoin has been outperformed by other coins in terms of return and does not offer the possibility of huge profits like altcoins. Bitcoin gained a respectable 66% last year. However, smaller competitors like solana saw a gain of over 4,000% while the meme token dogecoin grew by more than 1,400%.

Another thing that stands out is the fact that crypto number two by market cap ether was knocked to third on eToro, by rival blockchain cardano.

The 'older generation' of cryptos, aside from bitcoin and Ethereum, has been thoroughly hammered. eToro users have taken to heart the popularity of litecoin, stellar, and XRP.

Tezos and Dash have all seen remarkable drops in just 12 months.

Dogecoin and spinoff Shiba Inu snagged their spots in the charts, taking 4th and 7th, respectively.

Metaverse coin mana (Decentraland), has made a splash jumping into the 13th position, amid a frenzy in interest in the space during 2021's later part of the year following the name change to Meta by Facebook.

Both blockchain solana, and oracle token chainslink started the year as new tokens on a platform but finished in the top 20 most open positions.

"2021 was a significant year for crypto assets with bitcoin and ether hitting new all-time highs more than once," stated Simon Peters, eToro's crypto market analyst. From El Salvador adopting it to be a legal tender to the arrival ETFs and institutional adoption, Bitcoin is now well-established in the world of investing.

"DeFi exploded onto the scene in 2021. While many projects were in operation for some time, DeFi was really embraced by an increasing number investors last year," he said.

"Investors now have greater control than ever over areas like governance and rewards, as decentralized projects are keen to give token holders a voice," he said. We expect DeFi to continue growing in popularity as it is more integrated into the mainstream, as trends like Web 3.0 or the metaverse are only going to increase in 2022," he stated.