2022 Crypto Year in Review

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CRYPTO YEAR IN REVIEW

The past year has been a pretty crazy one.  The insane bull market of 2021 turned into the demise of many popular crypto projects and companies in 2022.

Despite the drop in prices though, many great things have been built and continue to be built in the crypto industry. 

So without further ado, let's break down the top crypto stories from the past year:

The Terra/Luna Demise

In May of this year, Terraform Labs' native token Luna and stablecoin Terra collapsed in a matter of days. In one of our most popular newsletters of the year, we broke down exactly how it happened. 

Terraform Labs founder, Do Kwon, whereabouts are still unknown has an Interpol Red Notice out for his arrest and South Korean authorities have been looking for him since June.

With an estimated $60B in value wiped out in, the Terra/Luna collapse will always be viewed as the spark that lit the fire of the crypto decline in 2022. 

The "Crypto Winter" Summer

The fallout of the Terra/Luna collapse sent shockwaves throughout the crypto industry. Hedge funds like Three Arrows Capital (3AC) and multiple lending platforms like Celsius, BlockFi, and Voyager faced massive financial troubles from their exposure to Terra and Luna.

With customer withdrawals paused and client funds gone, many institutional investors were forced to liquidate, causing other cryptocurrencies to sharply decline in value. The entire crypto market value declined from over $2.1 trillion in April to less than $800 billion today.

Ukraine Accepts Crypto 

Ukraine began accepting crypto donations in March of this year to help fund their defense efforts against the Russian invasion. In a few days, Ukraine had raised ~$60 million in crypto donations.

These donations highlighted how anyone across the globe can use crypto to make donations directly to a wallet without having to go through banking intermediaries and can view the transactions of the wallet that was donated to. 

The Ethereum Merge

Another highlight of the year came when the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Ethereum, completed its long awaited transition from the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism to the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism in a process known as "The Merge".

The process reduced the energy usage of the chain by over 99% and eventually led Eth to be a deflationary cryptocurrency. The upgrade is just the first in a series of upgrades that are expected to come to Ethereum over the next several years and marks a significant milestone in the cryptocurrency's history.

The FTX Collapse

In probably the most famous collapse of a business since Lehman Brothers or Enron, the massive crypto trading platform, FTX collapsed in the matter of 2 days in early November.

Not that you need to hear all the details for the 500th time, but the firm's CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried who allegedly knowingly misused customer funds is now on bail preparing for his upcoming court case and will likely spend significant time in prison.

Now, the ex-CEO is still tweeting as of today and Alameda Research's wallet has still been making transactions.

Something tells us this story will continue to unfold in 2023.

That's a wrap for 2022! See you next week and have a safe and happy New Year!

Rollfi Inc does not guarantee and is in no way responsible for the accuracy of information provided in this message. All information is provided “AS IS” and with all faults. Data presented here may not reflect all activity in the market.