Below are guest contributions from intergovernmental blockchain experts and investors. Andy Liang.
There have been many developments in the cryptocurrency space over the years, including the launch of new cryptocurrencies, the emergence of decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, and the increasing adoption of cryptocurrencies into the mainstream.
The cryptocurrency market is now highly volatile and unpredictable, and it is not uncommon for prices to fluctuate wildly.
A recap of the 10 major cryptocurrency events in 2022:
1. Fall of the LUNA empire
When the UST collapsed, $84 million leveraged a $40 billion financial empire. The collapse began when UST de-pegging and extreme panic in the market triggered massive withdrawals. Terra, one of the world’s largest public chains, collapsed, beginning the historic decline of cryptocurrencies in just two days.
“If LUNA fails, then cryptocurrency fails.” This was a headline we saw in mainstream media at the time. The collapse process is as familiar to many financial insiders as the 1997 Asian financial crisis and his 2007 Lehman Brothers.
2. Hedge fund leader Three Arrows Capital goes bankrupt
This is an ongoing series. Immediately after LUNA collapsed, all eyes were on Three Arrows Capital (3AC). 3AC has borrowed from nearly all major lenders including BlockFi, Genesis and Celsius. The 3AC collapse can be traced back to his UST collapse in May.
They told The Wall Street Journal that they have invested $200 million in LUNA. Three Arrows liquidators recovered some assets belonging to creditors, including $35 million and several different cryptocurrency tokens, liquidator Russell Crumpler said in court.
3. Crypto Lehman Brothers Moment: FTX Bankruptcy Hits Market
A disaster without survivors is how I described this incident: SBF and FTX reached nearly every corner of the industry in three years, and their demise pretty much wiped out the entire industry. It all started when SBF stepped in to save other cryptocurrency exchanges from imminent doom from rising interest rates.
Little did he know that his cryptocurrency exchange would soon suffer the same fate. These deals also involved SBF’s trading house, Alameda Research, and the exchange suffered some losses.
Binance boss CZ called out SBF, users started pulling out of FTX, and the rest was history. At that point, the market found a liquidity gap of up to $8 billion on his FTX. FTX filed for bankruptcy restructuring and the conspiracy quickly reversed without giving anyone a chance to breathe.
The collapse of FTX set off a chain reaction of atomic bombs, merging a series of bankruptcies and FUD events. The former cryptocurrency giant is like a domino, and the entire cryptocurrency world is in panic. The bankruptcy of crypto exchange FTX in November forced Genesis’ lending arm to suspend redemptions. Since then, Genesis has worked to raise funds and negotiate deals with creditors. Chapter 11 BlockFi files for protection. The need for cryptographic control is emphasized. Many other companies were affected.
4. Ethereum Successfully Merged Mainnet and Beacon Chain, Ending the Mining Era
After 8 years of waiting, at 14:43 on September 15th, Ethereum will end its Proof of Work (PoW) and move to Proof of Stake (PoS) when the mainnet and beacon chains are successfully merged. signaled a complete switch of the . Merge” is a significant turning point for the Ethereum ecosystem. Ethereum’s vision continues and there are more milestones to achieve according to the plans announced on November 5th.
5. Virtual Currency Donation in Ukraine
At the end of February, the war between Russia and Ukraine began. The event was not directly related to cryptocurrencies, but added uncertainty to the global macro environment. However, things changed after Ukraine introduced cryptocurrency donations and made donation addresses public. Since the Russian invasion began, NGOs supporting the Ukrainian government and military have received over 120,000 of her cryptocurrency donations worth a total of $63.8 million.
This includes a CryptoPunk NFT worth over $200,000 and a $5.8 million gift from Polkadot creator Gavin Wood. Many questioned how this was done, the airdrop plan, and the NFT sales. But we witnessed him one of the most important cryptocurrency use cases for donations.
6. The toughest crypto sanctions ever: Tornado Cash
Tornado Cash, an Ethereum mixing platform, has been placed on the SDN list by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. According to the Treasury Department, Tornado Cash has been used to launder more than $7 billion since its inception in 2019.
It is the first time in history that a protocol has been approved. Tornado Cash was devastated, its developers arrested, its code removed from GitHub, and its website domain name blocked.
7. Creating a new paradigm for GameFi: STEPN Move-to-Earn Big
Move-to-earn is still a relatively new concept, but it’s similar to the play-to-earn (P2E) model as it employs elements of GameFi. It also solves some of GameFi’s shortcomings. STEPN is the pioneer.
The announcement of Binance’s IEO release on March 1st was an absolute turning point for STEPN. In a market that failed to find a glimpse of the light, STEPN’s GMT opened with a 17x return on Binance and then climbed from $0.1 to $4. It’s no exaggeration to say that STEPN led the Web3 wave in 2022.
8. NFT Summer – Selling well
Yuga Labs had a great year. In March, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) owner received an airdrop of ApeCoins tokens for each NFT she held. One BAYC received an airdrop that was originally worth around $140,000. Some “creative” member took BAYC out of the borrowed or split pool, received an airdrop and returned it, and in one day he made $1.1 million.
Many NFT-related events popped up over the summer. This has also started a string of celebrity endorsements for big brands entering the web3 space. These are great summer moments. we all remember them.
9. Curve Wars
Curve has a very important mechanism. Liquidity Providers (LPs) can obtain veCRV accordingly by locking the CRV. veCRV is used to vote in governance, boost governance rewards, earn transaction fees, and receive airdrops. The longer the CRV is locked, the more vote holders it has and vice versa.
Many projects have increased APY and organized new wars to win the wars so that the users who participated at that time could get good profit. More and more protocols are being built off of Curve, and entire ecosystems are emerging, engaging in the so-called Curve Wars.
10. Hacking incidents occurred many times throughout the year.
- Optimism confirms 20 million OP stolen. Hacker sold 1 million. Due to a communication and technical error in working with cryptocurrency market maker Wintermute, the 20 million OPs sent to Wintermute by the Optimism Foundation were sent directly to the wrong Layer1 address. 20 million OPs were then controlled by hackers.
- The official bridge of the BNB chain has been hacked. It was one of the largest on-chain attacks in cryptocurrency history, resulting in a loss of $718 million. The recovery was rapid and CZ’s quick response kept his BNB price stable.
- Axie Infinity’s Ronin hack. This is one of the most outrageous thefts of the year. GameFi leader Axie Infinity’s homegrown sidechain, Ronin, has been attacked. 173,600 ETH and he had 25.5 million USDC stolen, worth his US$625 million. It’s also one of the most serious attacks of the year. It is outrageous that authorities discovered it had been stolen six days before the official announcement, but it has not been announced.
- Bitkeep has been compromised. The multi-chain wallet BitKeep has security vulnerabilities. A hacker hijacked some of his APK package downloads, and the hacker installed the package, resulting in the theft of a lot of user funds. Losses totaling $8 million were promised to be paid in full.
- Cross-chain bridges are dangerous. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warned about the safety of cross-chain bridges and warned of additional risks when using them. Ronin Bridge by Axie ($624 million); Solana Wormhole ($326 million). Harmony Bridges ($100 million); Nomad ($190 million).
The cryptocurrency market is volatile and subject to a variety of external factors, making it difficult to predict specific trends with certainty. However, there are some potential trends that could shape the future of the cryptocurrency market.
Here are 10 future trends and predictions for 2023.
- of macro economy will stabilize and the Federal Reserve will slow rate hike progress. Crypto is also more stable.
- Cryptocurrencies will continue to be monitored regulator Move to a more compliant stage. Cryptocurrency companies must continue to maintain good government relations.
- NFTs Liquidity tools stabilize the NFT market and create a better Web3 infrastructure for users and investors. Soul Bound Token (SBT) use cases will also increase and become another market driver.
- Decentralized Exchange (DEX) Usage will grow exponentially in 2023.
- Decentralized Social (DeSoc) Change the flow of value with the help of AAA-level blockchain games.
- metaverse With DeFi structures and frameworks, for example, exchanges can operate with fewer restrictions and in the name of innovation.
- investment and hype ZK series public chain It could become a new hotspot. In the first half of this year, we could see Starknet, Zk-sync, Scroll, Polygon ZKEVM ZK L2 and more.
- Artificial intelligence (AI) It spurred new growth for Web3. ChatGPT’s popularity surprised us in Q4 2022 and will continue in 2023. You can see that it is applied at the application level. It is also conceivable that Web3/Blockchain will use AI to solve productivity problems and achieve a qualitative leap.
- security issues It will get more attention and a large scale application of on-chain data monitoring will be deployed. On-chain data not only provides support for Web3 security governance, but also provides detailed analysis of on-chain activity, revealing important information such as Web3 user behavior, emerging trends and investment opportunities.
- the beginning of CeFi + DeFi Reshape the crypto market. Forward-looking financial institutions will remain vigilant and dedicated to the union of CeFi and DeFi. We will also explore more business models that combine agency-level risk management capabilities with code-enforced transparency to support the real world of business. Rapid growth and relatively mature DeFi services are likely to develop and be preferred by major institutions.
The cryptocurrency field is constantly evolving and we may see the development of new technologies and applications that may change the way we think about and use cryptocurrencies.
“Overall, the future of cryptocurrencies is uncertain and it is difficult to predict exactly how they will evolve. It is important to carefully consider the risks and potential gains before making any investment decision.Let’s work harder for Crypto 2023!” – Andy Liang
