Top 10 most mentioned cryptocurrencies on social media in 2021

Cryptocurrency has become investors’ favourite digital asset and as a result, the prices of several cryptos have rallied to make new highs this year. Against this backdrop, ‘Bitcoin’ has emerged as the most mentioned cryptocurrency in terms of social media conversations among Twitter Influencers and Redditors in 2021*, according to the Social Media Analytics Platform of GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
Smitarani Tripathy, Social Media Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Social media conversations around crypto as a topic surged year-on-year by more than 400% in 2021*. Mentions by technical experts, blockchain experts, CEOs, and fintech experts were found to be more impactful to drive discussions around crypto.  Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc, proved to be one of the most influential contributors to the crypto market, and played as a catalyst for top cryptos such as Bitcoin and Dogecoin.”

1. Bitcoin | 881,900+ discussions
Bitcoin gained the highest conversations on social media when it traded above US$66,000 after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the first US bitcoin futures exchange-traded funds for trading.
Social media discussions also surged when Elon Musk tweeted about not accepting Bitcoins to buy Tesla cars over concerns about the environmental costs of crypto mining.
2. Ethereum | 305,800+ discussions
Social media conversations around Ethereum soared when it outperformed Bitcoin. Ethereum’s association with ancillary growth sectors in the cryptocurrency world, such as decentralized finance (Defi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and metaverse were some of the key drivers for its stellar performance.
A rise in influencers discussions around Ethereum on GlobalData’s SMA was also noticed when Ethereum was hyped as the biggest metaverse token in crypto and being used most commonly for digital land.
3. Dogecoin | 150,700+ discussions
Dogecoin emerged as the third most discussed crypto in 2021*, with a more than 8,000% rise over 2020. Conversations around Dogecoin jumped when the crypto price skyrocketed after Elon Musk tweeted to launch a satellite named DOGE-1 in 2022 and mentioned it as the future of currency. The recent spike discussion around Dogecoin was majorly driven by Elon Musk’s tweet to accept Dogecoin for merchandise.
Another spike around Dogecoin was recorded when it ranked among the top 10 cryptos by market capitalization, as the meme crypto took the cues from the suspension of trading of GameStop at Robinhood.
Polkadot, Binance Coin, Tether, Solana and Shiba INU were the other top mentioned cryptos among social media discussions in 2021*. Among these, social media conversations around Shiba INU, a so-called rival meme token of Dogecoin, surged more than 16,000% in 2021*, the highest growth when compared to other top 10 cryptocurrencies in 2021*. The highest spike in social media conversations around Shiba INU was driven by market speculation on listing it in Robinhood as investors clamoured through a petition which also led prices to touch the lifetime high.
* As of 09 December 2021