2022 Crypto Figures and Moments Review: It was the worst of times, it was the best of times
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2022 Crypto Figures and Moments Review: It was the worst of times, it was the best of times
2022 was undoubtedly a tumultuous year in the history of cryptocurrency.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insights
Written by Ben Giove
Translated by TechFlow
2022 was undoubtedly a year of upheaval in cryptocurrency history.
This year brought massive changes to the industry as plunging prices reshuffled the landscape.
When trying to recap the major events of 2022, there is simply too much ground to cover. Fortunately, Ryan and David decided to do it for us through their livestream "The Biggest Crypto Moments of 2022."
Top 5 Heroes
5. Michael Saylor
Saylor incurred a $3.4 billion loss in 2022 as BTC dropped over 63%.
Judging his strategy based on performance alone may be fair, but his conviction remains admirable.
Saylor continued buying throughout the economic downturn while avoiding all other existing assets. This is All In Web3.
4. Anthony Sassano
Though less widely known than Saylor, Anthony Sassano certainly deserves a spot on this list.
Sassano runs The Daily Gwei newsletter and YouTube channel, where he provides free educational content about everything Ethereum.
As steady as the blockchain blocks he covers, Sassano delivers high-value content day after day.
3. Cobie
Cobie is famous for being one of crypto’s most legendary traders, but in 2022, he revealed his philanthropic side.
This year, Cobie made headlines by donating to Twitch streamers and providing $100,000 to help atozy defend against BitBoy’s frivolous lawsuit.
After BitBoy dropped the case, Cobie even let atozy keep the money—an authentic display of generosity.
2. ZachXBT
ZachXBT performed divine work in 2022 as one of crypto’s best self-regulators.
This anonymous on-chain detective exposed countless scams, frauds, and unethical business practices across the industry.
ZachXBT’s actions were incredibly brave, as he took substantial personal risks when publishing his exposés, contributing significantly to making crypto a safer and more ethical space.
1. The Merge Developers
The developers behind The Merge top our heroes list. These developers—including Hsiao-Wei Wang, Parithosh Jayanthi, Marius Van Der Wijden, Ben Edgington, Tim Beiko, and Danny Ryan—successfully executed one of the most monumental technical achievements in cryptocurrency history: transitioning Ethereum from PoW to PoS. What makes this feat even more impressive is that it happened smoothly despite the complexity of the task, the chaos of 2022, and the fact that they were managing a network worth over $200 billion.
Top 5 Villains
5. Richard Heart
Richard Heart ranks fifth on our list. Not only is Heart the controversial force behind the HEX token, but his ostentatious and obnoxious displays of wealth have angered many.
4. Alex Mashinsky
The CEO of Celsius drove his business into ruin due to unbelievably poor risk management and excessive risk-taking. That alone might not land him on this list, but Mashinsky and other Celsius executives withdrew millions of dollars in funds during the weeks before the platform suspended withdrawals and declared bankruptcy.
3. Su Zhu and Kyle Davies
As we’ve previously discussed, the collapse of 3AC severely damaged the industry. Therefore, it’s fitting that its co-founders and proponents of the supercycle, Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, make this list—especially after being accused of double-pledging collateral and misrepresenting financial positions to lenders. Su Zhu also irrationally claimed on Twitter that Ethereum had abandoned its users...
2. Do Kwon
Do Kwon ranks second on our list. The founder of the algorithmic stablecoin combined flawed protocol design with reckless risk management decisions—such as choosing Bitcoin as UST’s backing asset. Kwon didn’t help matters with his tweets either; he even claimed DAI would die under his control, but little did he know he’d be the one to perish instead.
1. SBF
I believe no one will be surprised—SBF is the biggest “villain” of 2022. He stole $8 billion, committing one of the worst financial crimes in human history. The recently arrested SBF has caused immeasurable damage to the space. He will likely spend a very long time in prison.
Top 5 Worst Moments
5. Tornado Cash Sanctioned
There’s good reason why many in the crypto industry feel the justice system treats them unfairly. Today, while many of crypto’s worst scammers and fraudsters remain free, Alexey Pertsev, the developer of Tornado Cash, was arrested in July after OFAC sanctioned the protocol.
Alexey Pertsev was imprisoned simply for writing code that protects privacy—a fundamental human right. This stands as one of the most unjust events of 2022.
4. Terra Collapse
Terra’s collapse was one of the largest episodes of capital destruction in human history, with LUNA and UST losing over $60 billion in market cap amid a death spiral of hyperinflation.
The implosion of an algorithmic stablecoin was bad enough on its own, but in hindsight, it was worse—it triggered a credit crisis and widespread contagion that devastated CeFi.
3. 3AC Bankruptcy
Three Arrows Capital, once an industry giant, collapsing had a devastating impact on the space. The hedge fund used heavily undercollateralized loans to buy assets and employed unprofitable strategies like GBTC discount trades.
3AC’s collapse led to massive sell-offs as their positions were liquidated, wiping out over $1 trillion in crypto market cap and affecting CeFi institutions like Celsius, BlockFi, and Voyager.
2. Ronin and Wormhole Bridge Hacks
Cross-chain bridges are insecure! This is a lesson we keep learning the hard way, as billions of dollars are repeatedly stolen via bridge hacks.
The two biggest victims in 2022 were the cross-chain messaging protocol Wormhole and the Ronin bridge—the L1 hosting the P2E game Axie Infinity.
Over $1 billion was stolen from these two protocols. The Ronin hack was particularly shocking, as it resulted from poor private key management and even helped trigger OFAC’s sanctions on Tornado Cash.
1. FTX Bankruptcy
Its position at number one should be uncontested.
FTX’s collapse revealed a massive fraud in which CEO Sam Bankman-Fried treated customer deposits as his personal funds—to buy real estate, invest in risky trades, make political donations, and issue loans to his hedge fund Alameda. For months and years to come, FTX will remain a stain on this industry.
But if there’s any lesson to take from this, it’s a stark reminder of the importance of decentralization and self-custody. NOT YOUR KEYS, NOT YOUR COINS.
Top 4 Best Moments
4. Crypto Supports Ukraine
Crypto proved itself an extremely effective tool for enabling fast, efficient, and permissionless political donations. Tens of millions in donations were sent to support Ukraine’s defense, including $6.5 million raised from NFTs of the Ukrainian flag.
3. L2s Surpass L1s in Transaction Activity
We may be a year late, but we finally had an L2 summer (sort of). According to L2 Beat data, Layer 2 average transactions per second (TPS) surpassed Layer 1s in October.
While we’re still far from having enough block space to handle billions of transactions, slowly but surely, Ethereum is beginning to scale.
2. Web2 Adoption of NFTs
In 2022, a wide range of Web2 companies began adopting NFTs, including Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Your average friend might still hate them, but it’s undeniable that NFTs are laying the groundwork for integration into daily life.
1. The Merge
As previously mentioned, The Merge was a monumental technical achievement. Its impact on Ethereum cannot be overstated—it reduced energy consumption and ETH issuance by orders of magnitude while paving the way for future scalability upgrades.
Looking Back at the Year
As we’ve seen, 2022 was a hellish year.
With crypto prices depressed, it’s easy to focus on 2022’s worst people and events. Frankly, that’s understandable—this year really was terrible.
Yet, it’s important to remember the good side too. Long-term builders kept building, NFT adoption grew, and crypto demonstrated incredible potential as a powerful tool.
As Ryan said on the show, bad actors need to be purged, and poorly run businesses need to fail.
Now we can rebuild from first principles. Crypto can and will emerge stronger than ever before.
We will have a better 2023.
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