2022 was imagined to be the yr crypto went mainstream, with a major chunk of conventional enterprise capital companies betting closely on the ecosystem in 2021. Nevertheless, with one catastrophe after one other, 2022 turned out to be a catastrophic yr for the nascent crypto ecosystem. Among the largest names touted as pivotal to taking the crypto ecosystem ahead turned out to be the orchestrators of its worst yr in current reminiscence.

That stated, fairly a number of protagonists rose to the event. These winners proved that crypto is not only about a number of choose people and corporations however a vibrant ecosystem that may survive important setbacks.

Let’s begin with a few of the largest winners of the crypto ecosystem in 2022. The checklist consists of people, firms and nameless teams working for the betterment of the business.

The winners

In a yr that noticed the multibillion-dollar collapses of the Terra ecosystem, FTX and Three Arrows Capital, it’s arduous to select winners. Nevertheless, crypto has confronted adversaries earlier than, and 2022 was no completely different. A number of positives got here out of the yr regardless of the collapse of a number of centralized entities.

Ledger and Trezor

When Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin (BTC), a core thought was to provide individuals monetary sovereignty that made them much less depending on centralized intermediaries.

With affords of profitable rates of interest on yield merchandise and derivatives buying and selling companies, most crypto customers most popular to maintain their crypto belongings on centralized exchanges. Nevertheless, these profitable choices develop into a nightmare when tens of millions of shoppers lose their funds within the wake of a centralized trade collapse.

Within the rubble of the FTX collapse, crypto buyers misplaced belief in centralized exchanges. {Hardware} pockets suppliers like Ledger and Trezor have benefitted from buyers shifting their conduct towards self-custody.

In direct response to the failure of FTX, #Bitcoin buyers, of all pockets cohorts, have made a definite behavioural shift in direction of self-custody.

From Shrimp, to Whales, #Bitcoin onchain balances are on the rise

Learn extra in The Week On-chainhttps://t.co/cVUE7QHbtQ pic.twitter.com/uIxUIcI46a

— glassnode (@glassnode) November 14, 2022

By December, self-custody companies and {hardware} wallets turned the popular selection of many. After the collapse of FTX, Trezor noticed a 300% surge in gross sales and income and Ledger noticed its biggest sale day ever.

White hat hackers

The crypto ecosystem is comparatively new, and several other use instances like decentralized finance (DeFi) are in early improvement. This makes it susceptible to bugs and exploits. In accordance with DefiLlama, DeFi protocols had been exploited for almost $5.93 billion in 2022

Nevertheless, the figures would have been a lot increased if not for white hat hackers. These white hats returned tens of millions of {dollars} in stolen funds and flagged safety bugs that might have led to extra exploits. Safety service supplier Immunefi claims to have prevented the theft of $20 billion price of crypto belongings alone by its bug bounty program for white hat hackers..

Whereas many initiatives are likely to ignore white hats, 2022 confirmed that it’s higher to pay out tens of millions in bug bounties than lose billions in exploits.

Tether

Amid the chaos of 2022, the Tether (USDT) stablecoin has efficiently manoeuvred its approach by the wreckage of each the Terra and FTX collapses.

The centralized stablecoin has been on the forefront of critics’ commentary for so long as it has existed. When Terra’s native stablecoin depegged, there have been rumors about Tether’s publicity to the doomed ecosystem.

Nevertheless, USDT managed to beat the scare, and all through 2022, it has considerably decreased its unstable publicity. The agency additionally pledged to cease lending out funds from its reserves and put a full cease to all of the worry, uncertainty and doubt, or FUD.

Xmas dinner desk: What to inform your loved ones about what occurred in crypto this yr

Tether has develop into extra clear over time, with 82% of its reserves in liquid belongings. The agency had whole belongings of $68.06 billion on the finish of the third quarter, exceeding its whole liabilities of $67.8 billion.

The losers

The crypto ecosystem noticed many losers in 2022, with Sam Bankman-Fried the primary to earn a point out. The previous CEO of crypto trade FTX began 2022 with a $20 billion web price. In lower than a yr, that web price disappeared and Bankman-Fried is now out on bail for allegedly stealing clients’ funds and committing securities fraud. Terra’s co-founder Do Kwon, whose final recognized location was Serbia, additionally makes the checklist.

TerraUSD

Algorithmic stablecoins had been a novel, promising idea in the course of the bull market. The Terra ecosystem rose to new highs based mostly on this hype. Nevertheless, the flawed design of TerraUSD (UST), now often called TerraClassicUSD (USTC), aided by the reckless decision-making of Kwon, led to its eventual downfall. The failure of Terra’s native stablecoin additionally tainted the idea of algorithmic stablecoins, with regulators warning in opposition to them.

The collapse of UST obliterated $40 billion of investor capital and prompted a contagion that claimed almost half a dozen different crypto companies with publicity to Terra. Whereas many companies and people might qualify within the losers checklist, Terra’s UST implosion was the catalyst that precipitated extra upheaval in 2022.

Alameda Analysis, FTX and centralized exchanges

At the beginning of 2022, FTX was valued at $32 billion, whereas its sister firm Alameda Analysis boasted a several-billion-dollar valuation of its personal. Nevertheless, the November financial institution run on FTX quickly became chapter. As extra particulars emerged, it turned out FTX and Alameda Analysis weren’t as impartial as they claimed. Even FTX US, which was imagined to be a separate entity regulated beneath United States regulation, was discovered to be embroiled within the complicated saga.

In accordance with the authorities, FTX and Alameda funneled funds to one another, and the 2 companies had been additionally concerned within the embezzlement of shoppers’ funds. Alameda used FTX funds to mortgage billions of {dollars} to different companies. FTX, however, used nonexistent in-house initiatives with inflated valuations as collateral to take out important loans. The entire Ponzi got here crashing down in November.

Prime 5 crypto winners (and losers) of 2022

The downfall of FTX and Alameda created extra contagion within the crypto ecosystem and single-handedly erased belief in centralized exchanges and the broader crypto ecosystem virtually in a single day.

Crypto buyers

Amongst all of the chaos and downfall of many crypto exchanges and main enterprise capital companies, the most important losers are crypto buyers. If the burn of the bear market was not sufficient, tens of millions of crypto buyers who had their funds on FTX misplaced their life financial savings in a single day.

Terra was as soon as a $40 billion ecosystem. Its native token, LUNA — now often called Terra Traditional (LUNC) — was one of many prime 5 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. With tens of millions of shoppers invested within the ecosystem, the collapse introduced their funding to zero inside hours. After the Terra collapse, crypto buyers misplaced their funds on a sequence of centralized exchanges and staking platforms like Celsius, BlockFi and Hodlnaut. Crypto buyers additionally misplaced considerably within the nonfungible token market, with the value of many widespread collections down by 70%. Total, crypto buyers are among the many largest losers of the yr.

2022 will go down in crypto historical past as an annus horribilis. Crypto buyers will wish to neglect the yr and begin recent. Enterprise capital companies and buyers in crypto initiatives are reevaluating their funding methods. After such a tumultuous yr in crypto, a possible consequence would be the acceleration of rules within the business all through the approaching yr. This will restore a few of the misplaced confidence within the business.