TOP 10 Largest Crypto Events in 2022

If you ask the average person on the street to rate the year 2022 in crypto, there is a high probability they would tell you this is the year the sector died. Thousands of investors who came ‘drunk’ on the euphoria of the bull market last year promised to leave the space forever in 2022 when the ‘hangover’ kicked in, but a good number of newcomers remained.

For those who did, it was hardly a quiet year. Of course, cryptocurrencies plummeted in value this year as the industry lost 2 trillion dollars, but there were many significant events that entertained us or, if they weren’t entertaining, certainly kept us busy.

As is typical for a bear market, some of the significant events of the year were also some of the most catastrophic. Many would agree that 2022 was one of the ‘worst’ crypto years yet. We watched in shock as Terra, Three Arrows Capital, and FTX fell like dominoes within just a few months. People suffered staggering losses, and it seemed like the industry had regressed years.

Yet, 2022 gave us a few positive shifts. Ethereum had a good year despite weak price performance of ether, as the ‘merge’ (transition to proof-of-stake) was finally delivered. We also saw governments around the world recognize crypto’s potential in the context of war and rising inflation.

2022 was one of the wildest years in crypto ever, but the industry survived. During the last crypto bear market, the question arose whether the ecosystem would pull through. In 2022, those observing more closely have no doubt that crypto is here to stay. And not just to stay, but after the tumultuous events of this year, the foundations should be stronger than ever in 2023 and beyond.

For now, however, the industry is still reflecting on what was, by all accounts, an unforgettable 2022 for the crypto ecosystem. Here are the 10 most important moments.

Canada Freezes Freedom Convoy Funds

The first major crypto event of 2022 did not happen on the blockchain, but in Ottawa, the capital of Canada. On January 22, hundreds of Canadian truckers set off from various parts of the country to begin gathering at Parliament Hill in protest against vaccine mandates and restrictions. As the government refused to negotiate with them, the so-called ‘Freedom Convoy’ took control of the streets. Law enforcement struggled to remove the protesters due to the size of the vehicles.

On February 14, in response to the protests, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act, which temporarily grants the government extraordinary powers to respond to public order and peace in emergencies. Trudeau’s administration then ordered Canadian financial institutions to freeze the bank accounts of the protesters, as well as all those supporting them with donations, in an attempt to reduce the influx of funds. Undeterred, the protesters turned to crypto, prompting Canadian authorities to blacklist at least 34 different crypto wallets linked to the Freedom Convoy. Shortly thereafter, joint police forces forcibly removed the truck drivers from the streets. By February 20, downtown Ottawa was completely cleared.

For the crypto space, the protests in Ottawa demonstrated the ease with which even Western democracies could weaponize their financial sectors against their own citizens. In this context, Bitcoin’s mission came to the forefront. Crypto enthusiasts highlighted that Bitcoin offers a global payment system resistant to censorship, as an alternative to state-controlled banking systems. With all their flaws, decentralized cryptocurrencies offer a crucial guarantee: your money is truly yours, and no one can stop you from using it.

– If you rely solely on the traditional banking sector, you might think you have a net worth of $100, but if the bank or government decides for any reason that you can no longer access the system, your net worth becomes $0 – as Arthur Hayes wrote in a Medium post in March.

Ukraine Begins Accepting Crypto Donations

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine had a significant impact on global markets this year, including crypto. The market fell when Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian military to invade Ukraine, and the war became the first in which crypto took its place.

Several days after the invasion, the official Twitter account of the Ukrainian government posted a message requesting Bitcoin and Ethereum donations with two wallet addresses included. The tweet immediately caused confusion, and Vitalik Buterin expressed his opinion warning people that the account might have been hacked.

However, the government’s Ministry of Digital Transformation quickly confirmed that the request was indeed legitimate. The Ukrainian government was genuinely seeking cryptocurrencies to fund its war relief efforts.

Donations poured in, and within three days, the government raised over $30 million worth of Bitcoin, Ether, Polkadot, and other cryptocurrencies. Someone even sent a CryptoPunk NFT.

The initial fundraising campaign was just one of the government’s moves to embrace crypto in a time of crisis. There was also an NFT museum, while UkraineDAO collaborated with the government to raise additional funds and awareness.

Crypto also came under sharp focus during the war due to Western sanctions against Russia, and politicians warned that Russian oligarchs might turn to crypto to hide their wealth. Individual citizens fleeing Russia relied on Bitcoin to preserve their money as the ruble collapsed, while major crypto exchanges like Kraken, Binance, and Coinbase faced calls to block Russian citizens following global sanctions. The three exchanges limited their services after EU sanctions.

Amid the destruction from the Russian attack on Ukraine, crypto’s role in the war demonstrated the power of borderless money clearer than ever. In times of crisis, online money served as a powerful tool for those in need. The Ukrainian request for crypto donations was the first in the world, but it can be confidently said that we will see other states adopting crypto in the future.

Biden Signs Executive Order on Crypto Regulation

On top of everything else that happened this year, authorities around the world, but especially in the U.S., ramped up their regulatory game to a whole new level. And frankly, it was about time. To be honest, the American approach to regulating cryptocurrencies has been scattered, and it’s hard to imagine an industry that is begging, just shyly begging, for a clearer set of rules.

As we entered 2022, it was pretty clear that the executive branch had not made any real coordinated progress in sorting out what exactly digital assets are, let alone how to regulate them. Are they securities? Commodities? Something entirely different? Perhaps they are somewhat like securities, but not like securities in other ways. Maybe some of them are commodities, and others are securities, and others are currencies… but what are the criteria by which we make those distinctions? Is Congress working on that? Who even makes the rules in this branch of government?

Thirteen years and three administrations after Bitcoin’s first block was mined, President Joe Biden issued an executive order directing nearly all federal agencies, including cabinet departments, to develop comprehensive plans for U.S. crypto regulation and enforcement. Biden’s order had been anticipated for months before it was finally signed in March, and when it was executed, it was generally seen as a boon for the industry. Far from the draconian approach many feared, Biden’s order was more of a research directive requiring each agency to come up with a plan and submit it to the White House.

While there is little disagreement that a comprehensive crypto regulation is needed, the government body with authority, Congress, has not indicated that it is in a hurry on this matter. As things currently stand, crypto can only be regulated within the framework of the laws as they are currently written, and that is the president’s job. It’s time for the president to at least get the ball rolling.

The executive order really doesn’t have much in terms of power and enforceability. It has about the same weight as an office memorandum. But when the office in question is the executive branch of the U.S., the importance of that memo cannot be overstated.

Hackers Steal $550 Million from Ronin Blockchain

Crypto suffered numerous high-profile hacks in 2022, but the nine-figure exploit that hit the Ronin bridge of Axie Infinity in March was the largest.

A group of attackers later identified by U.S. agencies as the North Korean state-sponsored Lazarus group used phishing emails to gain access to five of the nine validators of the chain. This allowed the criminal group to rob the bridge that connected the network to the Ethereum mainnet. The total damage was estimated at $551.8 million.

The strangest detail of the entire incident is that the hack occurred six days before the news was published. For almost a week, no one managing the bridge or providing liquidity realized that the funds had been drained. While this shows a troubling lack of attention from the creator of Axie Infinity Sky Mavis and its partners, the slow response can partly be explained by a lack of usage due to deteriorating market conditions.

The Ronin incident marked the beginning of a series of attacks by the Lazarus group on the crypto space. In June, the harmony blockchain lost $100 million due to a similar phishing scheme, while the founder of DeFiance Capital, Arthur Cheong, also fell victim to a targeted attack by North Korean hackers, costing him valuable Azuki NFTs.

Although most of those funds are still missing, about $36 million was returned with the help of blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis and Binance.

Yuga Labs Launches Otherside

Yuga Labs dominated the NFT sector in 2021, but the creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club did not slow down its winning streak entering 2022. The purchase of the CryptoPunks and Meebits collections in March sealed Yuga’s crown as the leading NFT company in the world. Members of the Bored Ape community treated themselves to the largest airdrop of the year when ApeCoin was launched. Owners of the original tokenized images of the apes received tokens worth six-figure amounts. The company also raised significant capital led by a16z, but the biggest performance of the year came in April when it turned its focus to the metaverse.

Yuga began its metaverse chapter by selling NFTs of virtual land parcels, offering community members the opportunity to own a piece of a mystical world called ‘Otherside’. True to Yuga’s playbook, existing community members received their Otherdeeds parcels for free as a reward for their loyalty, while others were left to compete for 55,000 parcels of virtual land in a public mint.

The launch of Otherside was the most anticipated NFT drop of the year. As expected, a transaction war ensued, and only those who could afford to spend thousands of dollars on their transaction emerged victorious. Yuga blamed Ethereum congestion issues for the launch and hinted that it might move away from the network, although those plans never materialized. Overall, the company netted around $310 million from the sale, making it the largest NFT drop in history. Prices briefly surged in the secondary market and subsequently fell due to overall market weakness, but it can be confidently said that all eyes will return to the collection if the metaverse hype reignites. In a year when interest in NFTs collapsed, Yuga once again proved that the technology remains. And the Otherside project has the opportunity like any other to take it to the next level.

*To be continued soon…