CoinDesk Research publishes the 2022 Annual Crypto Review. Despite the bear market in 2022, many things happened in all aspects of the crypto industry.
Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are down 65% and 67%, respectively, in 2022, following a massive rally in 2021.
Correlations between macro assets and bitcoin vary. Bonds ended the year at uncorrelated levels with Bitcoin, while the equity index remained slightly positively correlated and the US dollar index slightly negatively correlated.
The worst of the market downturn has caused the shares of bitcoin mining companies to drop significantly. CleanSpark was the best performer among the major publicly traded mining companies, but its stock still fell 79%. Bitcoin’s hashrate rose as mining equipment purchased during the bull market came into operation, and combined with the slump in the Bitcoin price, the mining industry found itself in a difficult situation.
That said, the amount of VC investment raised by blockchain and cryptocurrency companies has increased, reaching around $30 billion. Compared to 2021, the growth rate was much lower, but the venture fund raised in 2021 had dry powder (funds not yet used for investment), so the amount of VC investment increased significantly.
In the bear market of 2022, we can find hope in the development of technology. The Ethereum blockchain has successfully transitioned from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS), the so-called “Merge”.
Bitcoin also performed well. With more nodes supporting the 2021 “Taproot” update, the growth of the Lightning Network has opened up several exciting use-case possibilities.
It’s been a strange year on the policy front. While major regulatory bills, such as the European Union’s “Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA)” bill, are nearing legislation, few countries have actually enacted new laws clarifying crypto-asset regulation. rice field. But the events of 2022 have put new pressure on regulators to actually do something about the space.
From a regulatory standpoint, the US Treasury Department blacklisted the mixer program Tornado Cash in August 2022, and the arrest of one of its developers, Alexey Pertsev, led to Ethereum’s Most of the transactions are now Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) compliant.
And of course, no discussion of crypto in 2022 would be complete without discussing the credit crisis of crypto companies.
The crisis began with the proliferation of crypto lending firms offering yields in exchange for depositing assets, and culminated in the arrest and extradition of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to the United States. This has been happening for years, and while it may not be the first credit crisis in financial history, it was arguably the first credit crisis in the history of the cryptocurrency industry.
Read CoinDesk Research’s 2022 Annual Crypto Review here.
｜Translation: coindesk JAPAN
｜Editing: Takayuki Masuda
| Image: CoinDesk Research
｜Original: CoinDesk Research’s 2022 Annual Crypto Review
