The year 2022 is coming to an end, and in the last 12 months, the crypto economy has lost approximately $1.486 trillion in value against the US dollar. On December 20, 2021, bitcoin was trading at $46,406 and has lost more than 63% of its value year-to-date, while another leading crypto asset, ethereum, has lost 69% against the greenback over the past year.
Top 10 Cryptocurrencies of 2022 Lost Billions While Some Played Musical Chairs
About 365 days ago, on December 20, 2021, the crypto economy was worth much more than it is today. The 12-month statistics show that $1.486 trillion has been wiped from the cryptoeconomy since that day, sliding from $2.334 trillion to a value of $848 billion on December 20, 2022.
At that time, the nominal value of bitcoin (BTC), measured in US dollars, was about 46 thousand dollars per coin, and last year the price of ethereum (ETH) was 3847 dollars per unit. The 24-hour global trade volume was also much higher, with $118 billion worth of trades recorded on December 20, 2021.
Today, global trading volume has halved, with approximately $48 billion of swaps recorded on December 20, 2022. Last year at this time, the market capitalization of the top ten cryptocurrencies was quite different.
Many tokens were pushed out of the top ten while new coins were added. Last year’s top ten largest crypto market caps included bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), bnb (BNB), tether (USDT), solana (SOL), usd coin (USDC), xrp (XRP), cardano (ADA ), terra (LUNA) and avalanche (AVAX).
12 months later, SOL was pushed out of the top ten, LUNA imploded and fell below the US penny per coin, and AVAX was also pushed out of the top ten. On December 20, 2021, there were only two stablecoins in the top ten, but today – and for the first time in history – three stablecoins are included in the top ten.
At the time, the top ten stablecoin assets were USDT and USDC, and in June 2022, BUSD managed to break into the top ten. New entries in the top ten currently include dogecoin (DOGE) and Polygon (MATIC).
Last year at this time, tether (USDT) had a much higher market cap of $77.39 billion, while today it stands at $66.22 billion. USDC’s market capitalization increased from $42.21 billion in the last 12 months to a market value of $44.43 billion on December 20, 2022.
365 days ago, the market capitalization of BUSD was $14.54B, and today it is $18.06B. In addition to LUNA, two coins that were once top ten contenders – solana (SOL) and avalanche (AVAX) – have suffered significant losses over the past 12 months.
Year-to-date, SOL has lost 93.2% against the US dollar and AVAX has lost 89% over the past year. SOL dropped from the fifth largest market capitalization to the current 18th place. AVAX held the tenth place last year, but currently AVAX is in 20th place.
While dogecoin (DOGE) is a top ten contender today, it had a much larger market cap when it was not included in the top ten. Dogecoin’s market cap slipped from $21.78 billion to $10.22 billion today.
Polygon, which is now in the top ten coins, also had a market capitalization of $14.7 billion on December 20, 2021, but today the market value has fallen to $7.16 billion. The only anomaly among the small handful of cryptocurrencies that were added to the top ten and managed to increase their market cap was the stablecoin BUSD.
12 months ago, when the market cap of the crypto economy was $2.334 trillion, BTC had a dominance rating of around 38.4%, and today it stands at 38.3%. While BTC’s dominance hasn’t really decreased, ETH’s dominance on the other hand has moved from 20.2% to 17.3% over the past year.
What do you think of the ten biggest changes in cryptocurrency in the last 12 months? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.
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