The editors of BeInCrypto decided to recall the main events and trends of 2022 in key segments of the cryptocurrency industry
DeFi
If the previous year was favorable to the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry, then 2022 was marked by a crypto winter and resonant collapses of several large crypto companies, the latest of which was the bankruptcy of the FTX exchange.
As DApp Radar analysts wrote in a lengthy report, negative factors for the industry in 2022 were the military conflict in Ukraine, the collapse of the Terra Luna and FTX projects, as well as the general decline in prices for cryptocurrencies.
This led to a significant drop in the total amount of funds locked in DeFi protocols (TVL). So, immediately after the collapse of TerraUSD, the value of TVL fell from $158 billion in April to $89 billion in May.
Source: DApp Radar
TVL for Ethereum and BNB Chain Tier 1 Scaling Networks Decreases to $32B and $6.5B. In the annual comparison, the drawdown was 74.56% and 62.5%, respectively. Meanwhile, the second layer protocols (Layer-2) showed better performance. So, Optimism and Arbitrum solutions showed good results. Many projects have actively integrated exactly them, abandoning other blockchains.
2022 has been a challenging year for the DeFi sector. During this period, TVL fell from a January high of $211.4 billion by 73.97% to $55 billion in December. However, despite the decline in investment, the number of unique active addresses still grew by 50% y / y, from 1.58 million in 2021 to an average value of 2.37 million in 2022.
In general, according to DApp Radar, the decentralized applications segment has demonstrated high resilience and maturity, and continued to develop innovations.. The continued mass adoption of blockchain technologies and smart contracts by consumers and companies promises a bright future for the industry.
Earlier, the editors of BeInCrypto also talked about the fundamental differences between decentralized and centralized finance.
Proof-of-Stake In September 2022, the entire Ethereum mainnet moved from the extremely energy-intensive Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism to an energy-saving Proof-of-Stake (PoS) algorithm as part of the long-awaited Merge update. The Merge update was the most significant in the history of Ethereum, but by no means the final one.
The upgrade was also accompanied by several hard forks of varying degrees of success.. The new branches of the network were aimed at continuing to work on the basis of PoW and thus allow miners to continue to mine ETH in the traditional way.. However, of all the alternatives to the updated Ethereum, its oldest alter ego, Ethereum Classic, is still doing best.. Perhaps this is due to the fact that many Ethereum miners switched to the classic network in advance, without waiting for the Merge.
Previously, the editors of BeInCrypto compared these two coins in detail and their prospects for 2023.
Another alternative for ex-ETH miners is to change the type of activity to staking coins. This gives a more modest return, but is more sustainable in the longer term.. Overall, after the Merge update, the Ethereum network continued to show healthy fundamentals.
Non-fungible tokensPrices for non-fungible tokens (NFT) in 2022 turned out to be more stable compared to cryptocurrencies. NFT trading volumes mostly stagnated, posting only 0.41% YoY growth, according to on-chain metrics. However, the number of unique traders soared by a dizzying 876% to 10.6 million users.. At the same time, the total NFT sales increased by 10.6% to $68.35 million.
The main feature of this year was the massive development of this space by traditional heavyweight brands.. At the very beginning of 2022, it became known that the NFT segment began to master Twitter, and PayPal announced its integration with MetaMask.
In November alone, Nike, Adidas, Reebok and BMW were added to the list of famous players in this industry, and in December Mercedes-Benz joined them.. The German Automobile Corporation has also filed five trademark applications in the NFT and Metaverse areas.
Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana, Moncler also invested in NFTs despite the market crash. In addition, the famous Swiss watch company Rolex has also applied for trademark registration in the NFT and NFT marketplace segments.
Earlier, the editors of BeInCrypto published a special article: “Brand Loyalty and DeFi: How the NFT Segment Will Develop in 2023.”
Web3Despite the drop in cryptocurrency rates in 2022, blockchain technology continued to develop in other directions. In particular, this applies to Web3.
One important evidence of continued interest in this topic is the number of downloads of two key open source JavaScript libraries that allow developers to interact with the Ethereum blockchain.. Ethers.js and Web3.js libraries downloaded 1,536,548 times per week in Q3 2022. This is an increase of 178% year-on-year.. At the same time, the weekly rate of developers installing these libraries has been consistently growing since 2018. This year, it has more than 10 times exceeded the 2018 high of 145,799.
In the meantime, increased interest in Web3 projects in the metaverse segment from well-known luxury brands (such as Nike) is a promising factor for the industry, as it will increase the mass adoption of NFTs and Web3 technologies among the general public.
Previously, the editors of BeInCrypto compiled a list of the top 10 metaverses to watch in 2023.
StablecoinsDuring periods of increased volatility in cryptocurrency rates, stablecoins pegged to the rate of traditional assets (for example, USD) traditionally attract increased attention. However, in 2022, market participants had to deal with such unpleasant phenomena as the decoupling of stablecoins from the dollar.. The TerraUSD depeg in May was a real shock to the crypto market this year and led to the collapse of a number of crypto companies.
Algorithmic stablecoins have mostly been affected by the problem, though, while fiat-pegged coins continue to do quite well, according to data from The Block:
Source: The Block
As we recently reported, some analysts believe that stablecoins will surpass Visa in terms of transaction volume in 2023.
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