What's happening in the crypto world in 2022?

Since the beginning of the year, the cryptocurrency market seems to have been in a cyclical downturn. According to data from the Statista portal, the capitalization of the entire market has fallen by about 58% since the beginning of the year, from $2.3 trillion to $0.97 trillion. Still, in terms of capitalization, bitcoin tops the list, accounting for about 40% of the cryptocurrency market's turnover, according to Coingecko statistics. Additionally, more than 90% of all 21 million bitcoins have already been dug up.

The biggest winners since the beginning of 2022 among the TOP 200 according to the current capitalization of the Cryptorank portal are:

• BinaryX (116% YTD)
• Trust Wallet Token (57% YTD)
• ABBC coin (31% YTD)
• Bitgert (15% YTD)
• UNUS SED LEO (14% YTD)

Green cryptocurrencies?

After numerous votes and statistics regarding the CO2 emissivity of the system for digging cryptocurrencies, of which bitcoin is one, many projects have decided to change their computing architecture to "Proof of Storage" or "Proof of Stake." The largest project that has done this is Ethereum. It is estimated that ETH's energy consumption has decreased by 99.99%. Additional examples of green cryptocurrencies include: Cardano (-81% y/y)., Stellar (-67% y/y), and IOTA (-80% y/y).

The most volatile cryptocurrencies since the beginning of 2022, according to the Cryptorank portal, are:

• Bankera (OLD) (41990% YTD)
• Tierion (15588% YTD)
• Insolar (12286% YTD)
• smARTOFGIBING (4890% YTD).
• AREON (4027% YTD)

As it turns out, the current year has been extremely difficult for the broad market. Someone could get the feeling that cryptocurrencies have become one of the biggest beneficiaries of low interest rates and global additions. Presently, they seem to appear as one of the biggest casualties. Additionally, this seems not to be helped by the damaged confidence towards stablecoins. Until countries change their monetary policies and attitudes towards the cryptocurrency market, there seem to be no positive signs for them.

What might 2023 bring?

According to current interest rate market assumptions, 2023 could see stabilization in U.S. interest rates above 5 percent. At that time, inflation could also fall below the interest rate. This could, in theory, bring calm to the financial markets. Meanwhile, bitcoin could begin a new halving cycle, which will take place in 2024. Perhaps the current cyclical downturn comes to an end by 2022, and 2023 may be more kind to cryptocurrency holders.

Author Bio

Daniel Kostecki is an award-winning senior market analyst and a Director of the Polish branch of Conotoxia Ltd. He is a victor of the FxCuffs statuette for “Blog of the Year” and “Personality of the Year”. He has 15 years of experience on the financial markets and a diploma in Economics from the University of Szczecin in Poland. Daniel isprivatelyconnected to the financial markets since 2007 and professionally - since 2010. Author of numerous commentaries and analyses of the situation on the financial markets and a guest on Polish TV, press and radio.