Winners and losers of 2022: A disastrous year that saw few winners among a sea of losers

2022 was expected to beryllium the twelvemonth crypto went mainstream, with a important chunk of accepted task superior firms betting heavy connected the ecosystem successful 2021. However, with 1 catastrophe aft another, 2022 turned retired to beryllium a catastrophic twelvemonth for the nascent crypto ecosystem. Some of the biggest names touted arsenic pivotal to taking the crypto ecosystem guardant turned retired to beryllium the orchestrators of its worst twelvemonth successful caller memory.

That said, rather a fewer protagonists roseate to the occasion. These winners proved that crypto is not conscionable astir a fewer prime individuals and companies but a vibrant ecosystem that tin past important setbacks.

Let’s commencement with immoderate of the biggest winners of the crypto ecosystem successful 2022. The database includes individuals, companies and anonymous groups moving for the betterment of the industry.

The winners

In a twelvemonth that saw the multibillion-dollar collapses of the Terra ecosystem, FTX and Three Arrows Capital, it’s hard to prime winners. However, crypto has faced adversaries before, and 2022 was nary different. Several positives came retired of the twelvemonth contempt the illness of respective centralized entities.

Ledger and Trezor

When Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin (BTC), a halfway thought was to springiness radical fiscal sovereignty that made them little babelike connected centralized intermediaries.

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With offers of lucrative involvement rates connected output products and derivatives trading services, astir crypto users preferred to support their crypto assets connected centralized exchanges. However, these lucrative offerings go a nightmare erstwhile millions of customers suffer their funds successful the aftermath of a centralized speech collapse.

In the rubble of the FTX collapse, crypto investors mislaid spot successful centralized exchanges. Hardware wallet providers similar Ledger and Trezor person benefitted from investors shifting their behaviour toward self-custody.

— glassnode (@glassnode) November 14, 2022

By December, self-custody services and hardware wallets became the preferred prime of many. After the illness of FTX, Trezor saw a 300% surge successful income and revenue and Ledger saw its biggest merchantability time ever.

White chapeau hackers

The crypto ecosystem is comparatively new, and respective usage cases similar decentralized finance (DeFi) are successful aboriginal development. This makes it prone to bugs and exploits. According to DefiLlama, DeFi protocols were exploited for astir $5.93 cardinal successful 2022

Total worth hacked (USD) from DeFi protocols successful 2022. Source: DefiLlama

However, the figures would person been overmuch higher if not for achromatic chapeau hackers. These achromatic hats returned millions of dollars successful stolen funds and flagged information bugs that could person led to much exploits. Security work supplier Immunefi claims to person prevented the theft of $20 cardinal worthy of crypto assets unsocial done its bug bounty programme for achromatic chapeau hackers..

While galore projects thin to disregard achromatic hats, 2022 showed that it’s amended to wage retired millions successful bug bounties than suffer billions successful exploits.

Tether

Amid the chaos of 2022, the Tether (USDT) stablecoin has successfully manoeuvred its mode done the wreckage of some the Terra and FTX collapses.

USDT terms and measurement connected a 1-year chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

The centralized stablecoin has been astatine the forefront of critics’ commentary for arsenic agelong arsenic it has existed. When Terra’s autochthonal stablecoin depegged, determination were rumors astir Tether’s vulnerability to the doomed ecosystem.

However, USDT managed to flooded the scare, and passim 2022, it has importantly decreased its volatile exposure. The steadfast besides pledged to halt lending retired funds from its reserves and enactment a afloat halt to each the fear, uncertainty and doubt, oregon FUD.

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Tether has go much transparent implicit time, with 82% of its reserves successful liquid assets. The steadfast had total assets of $68.06 billion astatine the extremity of the 3rd quarter, exceeding its full liabilities of $67.8 billion.

The losers

The crypto ecosystem saw galore losers successful 2022, with Sam Bankman-Fried the archetypal to gain a mention. The erstwhile CEO of crypto speech FTX started 2022 with a $20 cardinal nett worth. In little than a year, that nett worthy disappeared and Bankman-Fried is present out connected bail for allegedly stealing customers’ funds and committing securities fraud. Terra’s co-founder Do Kwon, whose past known determination was Serbia, besides makes the list.

TerraUSD

Algorithmic stablecoins were a novel, promising conception during the bull market. The Terra ecosystem roseate to caller highs based connected this hype. However, the flawed plan of TerraUSD (UST), present known arsenic TerraClassicUSD (USTC), aided by the reckless decision-making of Kwon, led to its eventual downfall. The nonaccomplishment of Terra’s autochthonal stablecoin besides tainted the conception of algorithmic stablecoins, with regulators informing against them.

The illness of UST obliterated $40 cardinal of capitalist superior and caused a contagion that claimed astir fractional a twelve different crypto firms with vulnerability to Terra. While galore firms and individuals could suffice successful the losers list, Terra’s UST implosion was the catalyst that precipitated much upheaval successful 2022.

Alameda Research, FTX and centralized exchanges

At the commencement of 2022, FTX was valued astatine $32 billion, portion its sister institution Alameda Research boasted a several-billion-dollar valuation of its own. However, the November slope run connected FTX soon turned into bankruptcy. As much details emerged, it turned retired FTX and Alameda Research were not arsenic autarkic arsenic they claimed. Even FTX US, which was expected to beryllium a abstracted entity regulated nether United States law, was recovered to beryllium embroiled successful the analyzable saga.

According to the authorities, FTX and Alameda funneled funds to each other, and the 2 firms were besides progressive successful the embezzlement of customers’ funds. Alameda utilized FTX funds to indebtedness billions of dollars to different firms. FTX, connected the different hand, utilized nonexistent in-house projects with inflated valuations arsenic collateral to instrumentality retired important loans. The full Ponzi came crashing down successful November.

Related: Top 5 crypto winners (and losers) of 2022

The downfall of FTX and Alameda created much contagion successful the crypto ecosystem and single-handedly erased spot successful centralized exchanges and the broader crypto ecosystem practically overnight.

Crypto investors

Among each the chaos and downfall of galore crypto exchanges and starring task superior firms, the biggest losers are crypto investors. If the pain of the carnivore marketplace was not enough, millions of crypto investors who had their funds connected FTX mislaid their beingness savings overnight.

Terra was erstwhile a $40 cardinal ecosystem. Its autochthonal token, LUNA — present known arsenic Terra Classic (LUNC) — was 1 of the apical 5 biggest cryptocurrencies by marketplace capitalization. With millions of customers invested successful the ecosystem, the illness brought their concern to zero wrong hours. After the Terra collapse, crypto investors mislaid their funds connected a bid of centralized exchanges and staking platforms similar Celsius, BlockFi and Hodlnaut. Crypto investors besides mislaid importantly successful the nonfungible token market, with the terms of galore fashionable collections down by 70%. Overall, crypto investors are among the biggest losers of the year.

2022 volition spell down successful crypto past arsenic an annus horribilis. Crypto investors volition privation to hide the twelvemonth and commencement fresh. Venture superior firms and investors successful crypto projects are reevaluating their concern strategies. After specified a tumultuous twelvemonth successful crypto, a apt result volition beryllium the acceleration of regulations successful the manufacture passim the coming year. This whitethorn reconstruct immoderate of the mislaid assurance successful the industry.