The Top Five Crypto Gainers (And Losers) Of 2022

[ad_1]

Cointelegraph looks back at the best and worst performing cryptocurrencies of 2022 among the top 100 assets by market cap. We used the highest and lowest year-to-date (YTD) yields through the December 25, 2022 close.

Overall, Cryptoindex.com 100 (CIX100), an index that tracks the top 100 performing cryptocurrencies, has fallen nearly 68% since the start of the year, suggesting that most top coins underperformed in 2022.

CIX100 weekly price chart. Source: Trading View

Stablecoins are naturally omitted from the list below. Similarly, coins that track the value of gold and similar traditional assets have also been ignored.

Instead, the coins mentioned below include decentralized currencies, smart contract tokens, exchange tokens, and others.

Top Five Cryptos of 20221. GMX Yield (GMX) YTD: 111% Sector: Decentralized Exchange Market Cap: $379.4 Million

GMX acts as a utility and governance token within the GMX decentralized exchange (DEX) ecosystem and is the top performing digital asset among the top 100 coins (excluding stablecoins).

The upward trend in GMX prices is mainly inspired by the collapse of FTX, a centralized exchange, and its listing on popular trading platforms, including Binance and Huobi Global, in 2022. Uniwap, in fresh daily trading.

GMX price performance since the beginning of the year. Source: CoinMarketCap2. Trust Wallet Token (TWT) YTD yield: 92% Sector: Payment platform Market cap: $570 million

Trust Wallet Token (TWT) serves as a utility and governance token within the Trust Wallet ecosystem. The token has been declining in tandem with the rest of the crypto market, mostly in 2022, but like GMX, its bullish momentum has accelerated amid November’s FTX exchange slump.

Daily TWT/USD price chart. Source: Trading View

As Cointelegraph has reported, the FTX crash has heightened distrust of centralized exchanges, which may have prompted investors to move their funds to self-custody wallets like Trust Wallet. Speculation could have played a major role in increasing the valuation of TOPs.

3. YTD Unus Sed Leo (LEO) Yield: -3.5%Sector: Centralized Exchange Market Cap: $3.44 Billion

Unus Sed Leo (LEO) is native to the iFinex ecosystem. The token suffered losses in 2022, but at -3.5%, they were small compared to most major coins, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), which lost over 65% over the course of 2022. the same period.

Daily LEO/USD price chart. Source: Trading View

One of the reasons LEO has outperformed most top-tier assets could be the promise of iFinex. Notably, the company said at the time of LEO’s private sale in 2018 that it would use 27% of its revenue to buy back the tokens until the entire supply of 985.24 million units is gone. withdrawn from circulation.

IFinex also said it would use funds lost in the August 2016 Bitfinex hack to purchase LEO tokens. This explains why LEO was up more than 100% at the start of the year, given that the upward trend came after the United States Department of Justice recovered 94,000 BTC from Bitfinex hackers.

The rally took the price of LEOs to a year-to-date high of $8.15 in February. However, the token has since fallen 55%, while remaining one of the best performers in 2022.

Click Collect under the illustration at the top of the page or follow this link.4. OKB (OKB)YTD yield: -19%Sector: centralized exchange Market cap: $1.38 billion

OKB is the native token of the OKX exchange. It offers users discounts on trading fees, access to OKX’s initial exchange offering (IEO) platform, and voting rights for tokens to be listed on the exchange.

OKB has moved in sync with the broader crypto market in 2022, including its 150% rally after hitting a low of around $9.50 in June. The bullish retracement for the tokens occurred despite the lack of a major event driving the market, suggesting that it had been mostly speculative.

OKB/USD daily price chart. Source: Trading View

Overall, OKB’s volatile recovery has helped it limit its year-to-date losses against most top-tier assets.

5. Open Network Return (TON) YTD: -33.5%Sector: Smart Contracts Market Capacity: $3.52 Billion

The Open Network is a layer 1 blockchain ecosystem developed by the founders of Telegram, Nikolai Durov and Pavel Durov. Its native token, TON, trended lower in line with other major crypto assets for most of 2022, but rallied impressively before the years were out.

TON/USD price performance since the beginning of the year. Source: CoinMarketCap

TON’s recovery period coincided with back-to-back bullish news. For example, in October, Telegram announced that it would use the Open Network to auction usernames. Similarly, Open Network built a bot next month that allows Telegrams users to trade cryptocurrencies within the app.

Nonetheless, TON failed to recoup all of its losses, still down 33.5% year-to-date at $2.36.

Related:The Five Most Searched Cryptocurrencies on Google Worldwide in 2022

The five worst cryptos of 20221. Performance Terra (LUNA)YTD: -99.99%Sector: Smart contractsMarket capacity: $604 million

Terra (LUNA) became a debacle for the cryptocurrency sector after its market valuation crashed 99.99% in May. The denouement began with the implosion of the algorithmic stablecoin Terras TerraUSD (UST), marking one of the biggest collapses in the history of the crypto industry.

Daily LUNA/USD price chart. Source: Trading View

The implosion of Terras prompted its founder Do Kwon to propose a fork to revive the project. Eventually, Terra underwent a chain split, with the old chain existing as Terra Classic and the new chain as Terra 2.0.

Luna Classic (LUNC) jumped almost 100% after its launch in late May 2022 while LUNA (LUNA2) fell around 40% during the same period.

2. FTX (FTT) token year-to-date performance: -98% Sector: Centralized exchange Market cap: $307 million

FTX Token (FTT) served as the native token of FTX, which crashed after facing a liquidity crunch in November.

FTT/USD daily price chart. Source: Trading View

The token continues to trade on multiple exchanges, but comes with poor liquidity and volume. It is technically dead given the obsolete status of FTX.

3. Solana (SOL)YTD performance: -93.35%Sector: Smart contractsMarket capacity: $4.11 billion

Solana (SOL), a layer-1 blockchain protocol, has crashed 93.35% year-to-date due to a streak of bad news throughout 2022. This includes six network outages within the year, a $200 million hack on a Solana-based wallet and an association of Solanas with FTX.

SOL/USD daily price chart. Source: Trading View

Worse coverage came in the form of accusations that Solana isn’t as decentralized as it claims, making SOL one of the worst performers of 2022.

4. Axie Infinity (AXS)YTD Performance: -93% Sector: Gaming/Metaverse Market Cap: $775M

Axie Infinity Shard (AXS) primarily serves as a governance token for Axie Infinity, a play-to-earn (P2E) gaming ecosystem. It also acts as legal tender in the Axie Infinity marketplace, where non-fungible in-game tokens (NFTs) can be purchased.

The AXS market has always been on a downward trend in 2022 due to disappointing player participation (which reduces the demand for tokens), a $650 million hack of Axie Infinitys Ronin blockchain, end March and fears surrounding the release of 8% of supply in October.

AXS/USD daily price chart. Source: Trading View

AXS is down around 93% year-to-date, becoming one of the worst performing assets in the current bear market.

5. YTD Sandbox (SAND) Performance: -92.50% Sector: Gaming/Metaverse Market Cap: $690M

Like Axie Infinity, The Sandbox is a virtual platform where users can create, own, and monetize their gaming skills using NFTs and The Sandbox (SAND), the platform’s utility token. But, despite the initial success, the platform now has fewer than 500 unique users, according to data from DappRadar.

The drop in participation rate has affected demand for SAND on spot exchanges, which, in turn, has lowered its price by 93.50% since the start of the year, as shown below. Other factors driving the decline in interest include a general lack of demand for riskier assets in a higher interest rate environment.

SAND/USD daily price chart. Source: Trading View

Other tokens that have fallen over 90% since the start of the year are Fantom (FTM), Avalanche (AVAX), Algorand (ALGO), Decentraland (MANA), BitTorrent (BTT) and others.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

[ad_2]