2021 was a wild year for the City and Wall Street, but was even wilder in the world of financial innovation.

Bitcoin led two major waves of global hype around cryptocurrencies, first hitting the $64,000 mark in April on the back of Tesla’s crypto buys, before breaking a new record at $69,000 in November. Institutions from JPMorgan to Fidelity jumped on the bandwagon, while investors sought out new trends in non-fungible tokens, and searched for the next big thing.