The heroes and villains of 2022

From an outside perspective, 2022 has been a rollercoaster ride for crypto. The market reached a total valuation of $3 trillion during the bull market of 2021, only to scale back to its current level of around $810 billion. While this poor performance can be partly attributed to the pervading macroeconomic environment — compounded by rising inflation rates and the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict, among other factors — one cannot deny the role that the recent slew of insolvencies has had on the sector. 

That said, below is a list of arguably the most notable heroes and villains who have undeniably impacted this rapidly evolving industry over the past year.

The heroes

Changpeng Zhao

At a time when some of the biggest players in crypto crumbled, Changpeng Zhao, also known as “CZ,” ensured that his Binance crypto exchange held its own, even playing a role in the collapse of its closest rival, FTX.

CZ has refused to tie down the crypto exchange to the regulatory framework of one country or several. As a result, governments across the globe aren’t too big on Binance’s approach and repeatedly pressure the exchange with regulatory requests. However, despite the continued stress, Binance has grown in influence and stature. Amid a harsh crypto winter when staff layoffs were commonplace, CZ claims to have not made any major layoffs, with the exchange even looking to hire more people in the near term.

Full disclosure: Binance never shorted FTT. We still have a bag of as we stopped selling FTT after SBF called me. Very expensive call. https://t.co/3A6wyFPGlm

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) November 14, 2022

Lastly, CZ’s digital presence has grown over the past year, with a worldwide Twitter following of more than 8 million. Moreover, the Canadian entrepreneur recently announced that he has invested a whopping $500 million in Twitter.

Brian Armstrong

It’s been an up-and-down year for Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, with the firm laying off several employees while…