Who were the smallest losers in crypto this year? We’ve listed 2022’s top crypto performers that have withstood the test of bear market conditions.
In a year of liquidity crises after crises, who would emerge as the top of the coins?
Many tokens are still lucky that they’re alive and functioning, despite huge losses. In 2022, CoinGecko reported that Bitcoin (BTC) – the largest coin by market capitalisation, has stooped down 75% from its all-time market high of $69,045 recorded on November 10, 2021, to lows of approximately $17,000. At the start of this year, BTC was at $46,320.
As Ethereum also saw steep declines – from $3,686 to $1,215 recorded on December 21 this year, crypto’s two market leaders haven’t been immune to this year’s terrible market conditions.
As the crypto space largely remains unpredictable, some coins managed to still stay afloat and perform well. However, this doesn’t mean that these coins are worth including in your portfolio.
Lido Staked ETH (stETH), DeFi token
Lido is an Ethereum (ETH) staking protocol that lets users stake any amount of ETH through smart contracts. These smart contracts are automated financial contracts, and can self-operate. With Lido, users can earn yield in stETH – a token that’s pegged to ETH at a ratio of 1:1. stETH can also be lent out, staked, and traded for other tokens participating in the DeFi ecosystem.
Lido Staked ETH (stETH) has maintained a two-year streak in being the top-performing DeFi token – beginning the year with a market cap of $5,793,073,491, and wrapping up the year at around $5,793,073,401: a mere 3% decline.
Even though Lido was one of 2022’s top crypto performers, the token experienced plenty of bad press as it was used by downtrodden crypto lender Celcius to stake customer funds. Not to mention it being one of the three trading platforms that ruptured Three Arrows Capital (3AC).
As in how much stETH is used – 30% of 15.7 million ETH that’s currently being staked throughout all staking platforms is now in Lido.
Honorable mentions:
Dai (DAI): down 42% ($8,945,308,969 to $5,178,770,761)
Uniswap (UNI): down 48% ($7,753,293,079 to $3,987,950,916)
Trust Wallet (TWT), Coin
Trust Wallet is a governance token that’s made for users to vote on new developments for a self-custody wallet that’s owned by Binance and was another one of 2022’s top crypto performers
Trust Wallet managed to stand despite terrible market conditions – and various crypto firms, lenders, and exchanges are now turning to self-custody solutions due to recent developments in crypto. TWT may be on the up-and-up in 2023.
Trust Wallet’s value jumped 116% from January 1 – from $0.71 to $1.54 as of December 21.
Honorable mentions:
GMX (GMX): up 103%
LEO Token (LEO): up 6.5%
Dogecoin (DOGE), Memecoin
Everyone’s (and Elon Musk’s) beloved memecoin. Created in 2013 in the heydays of minting altcoins, DOGE has gained many imitators throughout the years – including Shiba Inu (SHIB).
One of 2022’s top crypto performers, Dogecoin, fell 58% since the start of this year: from $0.17 at the beginning of the year, to $0.07 as of December 20.
Honorable mentions:
Shiba Inu (SHIB): down 75% ($0.00003345 to $0.00000825)
Dogelon Mars (ELON): down 81% ($0.00000156 to $0.000000296875)
Suggested: 2022’s Biggest NFT Collections.
Block (SQ), Publicly traded crypto company
Formerly known as Square – Block, Inc., the crypto-friendly payments giant run by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey – experienced a softer blow in comparison to other crypto payments companies out there.
SQ stock has shot down 56% since the start of this year – from $141.54 to $61.41 per share, recorded on December 20.
Honorable mentions:
Coinbase (COIN): down 85% (from $232.33 to $35.12)
MicroStrategy (MSTR): down 64.5% (from 482.95 to 171.52)
