Crypto Crash of 2022: The Coins & Billionaires that Lost Big
The Worst Performing Cryptocurrencies of last year : Terra, FTX Token, Solana, Axie Infinity, and More
2022 was a challenging year for cryptocurrencies. Since the beginning of the year, Bitcoin and Ethereum lost more than 50% of their value; more precisely, Ethereum has lost over 66% since the start.
This led some ardent supporters to start having second thoughts.
Even cryptocurrency exchange platforms like Coinbase have experienced market value declines of roughly 79.6% over the past year.
The 100 best-performing cryptocurrency index CIX100 has dropped nearly 68% year to date, indicating that the majority of top coins underperformed in 2022:
From October 2022, 61% of cryptocurrencies were experiencing negative movement, according to Coincodex, which keeps track of some trending gainers and losers in the cryptocurrency market.
Bitcoin’s losses are extreme, but some cryptos have fared even worse.
📉 The crypto losers that have performed the worst in 2022 include:
1. Terra (LUNA)
Terra became a debacle for the cryptocurrency sector after its market valuation crashed by 99.99% in May. The unravelling started with the implosion of Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD ($UST), marking one of the biggest busts in the crypto industry’s history. Luna Classic ($LUNC) jumped nearly 100% after its launch in late May 2022, while LUNA ($LUNA2) dropped around 40% in the same period.
2. FTX Token (FTT)
FTX Token was FTX's native token until it failed due to a liquidity issue in November. The token still trades on several exchanges but with low volume and liquidity. Since FTX is no longer active, it is considered "dead."
3. Solana (SOL)
The layer-1 blockchain protocol Solana crashed 91.3% YTD due to a string of unfavourable news in 2022. This includes six network outages throughout the year, a wallet based on Solana that was breached for $200 million, and Solana's connection to FTX. The allegations that Solana is not as decentralized as it claims to be led to more negative press, making SOL one of the worst-performing projects of 2022.
4. Axie Infinity (AXS)
Axie Infinity, a P2E gaming ecosystem, uses Axie Infinity Shard primarily as its governance token. Additionally, it is accepted payment in the Axie Infinity market, where players can buy in-game NFTs.
Due to low player participation (which reduces the demand for tokens), a $650 million hack involving Axie Infinity's blockchain Ronin in late March, and concerns over the unlocking of 8% of supply in October, the AXS market consistently trended lower in 2022.
$AXS has experienced a YTD decline of roughly 90%, making it one of the worst-performing assets in the current bear market.
5. The Sandbox (SAND)
The Sandbox is a virtual platform similar to Axie Infinity, where users can develop, own, and monetize their gaming abilities using NFTs and the Sandbox, the platform's utility token. However, despite its initial popularity, DappRadar data shows that the platform has only 500 or fewer unique users.
The demand for SAND has been impacted by the lower turnout across spot exchanges, which has caused its price to decline 88% YTD. Other causes of declining interest include a general lack of interest in riskier assets in an environment with higher interest rates.
Other tokens that fell more than 90% YTD are GALA (-91.21% reduction), ONE (-91.41% reduction), and GLMR (-95.79% reduction).
Billionaires who lost the most in 2022
The year has been financially challenging for crypto billionaires. A trillion-dollar crypto crash hit the market. As a result, investors filed thousands of lawsuits to recover their lost funds. If we make a rough estimate, the top crypto experts lost a total of $112.7 billion this year.
💸 Top Crypto Billionaire Losses In 2022:
Changpeng Zhao – $65 billion
Changpeng Zhao, the so-called Chinese crypto king, reportedly lost an estimated $65 billion. The decline in cryptocurrency prices cost the CEO of Binance money. Despite this, Zhao remains the wealthiest person in the crypto industry. He currently has a $4.5 billion net worth.
Sam Bankman-Fried – $24 billion
Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, was severely affected by the crash. His estimated worth was $26 billion before the crash. His most valuable holdings were his shares of FTX and the Alameda cryptocurrency trading platform. However, Fried struggled with liquidity and lost $24 billion in three weeks.
Brian Armstrong – $6 billion
Brian Armstrong, the co-founder and chief executive of Coinbase, suffered the third-largest loss among these crypto industry titans. Crypto Presales claims that he recently saw a $6 billion decline in wealth. Now, his net worth is $1.5 billion.
Gary Wang – $5.9 billion
Gary Wang, the co-founder of FTX, lost approximately $5.9 billion after the collapse of the crypto exchange. In 2022, he became the youngest to appear on Forbes's top 400 rich list. Wang’s net worth now stands at $0.
Chris Larsen – $4.3 billion
The co-founder of Ripple, Chris Larsen, saw a decline of $4.3 billion in his wealth; now, his net worth is valued at around $2.1 billion.
These are the biggest crypto losers of 2022 (so far).
Since the crypto market began, there have been four-year boom and bust cycles. These cycles happen with uncanny regularity. The previous crypto crashes occurred in 2014 and 2018. So the current crypto winter is not out of the ordinary.
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