December 27, 2022
By Murtuza Merchant
What a year for cryptos!
Few could have guessed that the bull run in Bitcoin, which started at the end of 2020 and lifted the entire market by its bootstraps, would crash and wipe out almost all of its gains.
However, some observers could say they’re fortunate to still be around in a year that saw an industry-wide liquidity crisis brought on by the failure of Terra’s UST stablecoin, the bankruptcy of FTX, and the subsequent contagion.
Bitcoin (BTC), the largest coin in the world by market capitalization, is currently trading at a 75% discount to its all-time high, which was set on November 10, 2021, when it reached $69,045.
Additionally, the price has decreased by more than 60% from the $46,320 it cost on January 1st.
Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency, is currently trading at $1,215 as of December 21 after starting the year at $3,686.
Where credit is due, the two market toppers were not this year’s most resilient crypto assets.
NFTMetta gathered the top-performing coins, DeFi tokens, and stocks for this year after consulting data from the entire market for your reading enjoyment (or pain).
This list does not constitute investment advice given the market’s wild uncertainties, but it does shed light on some of the most significant and possibly more surprising stories of the year.
Lido Staked ETH is a DeFi token (stETH)
How much?
According to market capitalization, Lido Staked ETH has reigned supreme as our top DeFi coin of the year for the past two years in a row.
It has also been shown to be the most durable. With a market capitalization heading into Christmas of $5,793,073,401 as opposed to $5,985,253,189 at the beginning of the year, its sector of the market has only shrunk by around 3%.
What is it?
Lido is a staking system that enables users to stake any amount of ETH using automatically self-executing financial contracts known as smart contracts.
Users can exchange their income for stETH, a currency linked to ETH that can be exchanged 1:1 for ETH. In DeFi, the token can also be borrowed, staked, and exchanged for other tokens.
Users can stake Solana, Polygon, Polkadot, and Kusama in addition to ETH.
Trust Wallet, a coin (TWT)
How much?
We stuck with cryptocurrencies that are in the top 100 by market cap for this category and the following, despite the fact that other outlier cryptocurrencies saw higher growth this year.
A large market cap is a strong indication of how many people have believed in the idea enough to open their wallets for it given the fleeting nature of many tokens.
Trust Wallet’s price increased by 116% from $0.71 on January 1 to over $1.54 as of December 21.
What is it?
The self-custody wallet owned by Binance has a governance token called Trust Wallet that is used to vote on future changes.
Following the demise of several centralized cryptocurrency lenders and exchanges this year, consumer and industry discussions have focused heavily on security, particularly with regard to self-custody solutions like decentralized exchanges and self-custody wallets, which also include hardware wallets.
Binance purchased Trust Wallet in 2018; after FTX’s demise, its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, promoted the project and assisted in driving up the price of the wallet’s native coin.
Dogecoin, or Memecoin (DOGE)
Dogecoin’s price didn’t decline as much as its closest competitors. The top memecoin for the year dropped from $0.17 at the beginning of the year to around $0.07 as of December 20. This represents a 58% decline.
What is it?
Software developers Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus came up with the idea for Dogecoin in 2013, with the goal of mocking the then-emerging trend of minting altcoins with no intrinsic value beyond novelty symbols.
When Bitcoin started its bull run at the end of 2020, the cryptocurrency gained a fervent following. They are referred to as the “Doge Army” informally.
Public cryptocurrency firm: Block (SQ)
How much?
From $141.54 at the beginning of January to $61.41 as of December 20, SQ stock has dropped by 56%.
What is it?
Former CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey currently leads Block, Inc, a cryptocurrency-friendly payments business formerly known as Square.
Since he started the business, Dorsey has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin.
He has also vigorously defended Bitcoin against allegations of the network’s mining operations’ negative environmental effects.
Naturally, cryptocurrency-related businesses did not perform much better than cryptocurrencies this year, with the majority of them losing money since the beginning of January.
About the author
Murtuza Merchant is a senior journalist and an avid follower of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
