How TechCrunch+ followed the roller-coaster crypto market in 2022

In 2022, the crypto community rose to new heights — and then it crashed. We noted this as early as June 2022, before the FTX fiasco (which we’re using as the catchall term for the crash, alleged fraud, bankruptcy, congressional hearing, Sam Bankman-Fried‘s arrest in the Bahamas, the call for his extradition, etc.).

However, this isn’t supposed to be an article chronicling FTX’s downfall from the past year — it’s a recap of our 2022 crypto coverage, which could also be seen as a Jacquelyn Melinek highlights reel with a feature from Alex Wilhelm.

Here’s some of our top 2022 crypto coverage:

Terra community passes proposal to revive LUNA cryptocurrency following stablecoin-led implosion

In May, LUNA nosedived, and the market followed suit. Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon shared a plan to revive the Terra Ecosystem, including the formation of a new blockchain. Jacquelyn noted: “The launch of LUNA 2.0 will be a test of whether the community is as strong as it says it is. But many are wary of trusting Kwon and the Terra team again after the LUNA and UST downfall.”

Ethereum drops more than 17% after ‘way overhyped’ Merge

In early to mid-September, whispers of “the Merge” were everywhere we turned an ear. A quick refresher: The Merge was a highly anticipated event where Ethereum shifted from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. It may have been overhyped.

Blue-chip NFT owners explore alternative uses as sales decline

During the most recent crypto bull market, the NFT subsector also rose to new heights. As NFT sales slowed, blue-chip NFT holders began looking for new ways to profit. For the uninitiated: The term “blue-chip NFTs” derives from “blue-chip stocks,” which often refer to the most valuable companies on the market. In this case, they’re the most desirable or high-value NFTs. What are they worth amid crypto winter?

Terra’s UST crash will make life harder for crypto as regulation looms

In May 2022, Terra UST crashed, which led to a push for crypto regulation. “UST is an algorithmic stablecoin mainly backed by its sister cryptocurrency, LUNA, but was also backed by bitcoin. Founder Do Kwon previously told TechCrunch that plans were in place to back it with other cryptocurrencies over time. It’s unclear if that road map is still in place for UST as it tries to recover from its downfall,” Jacquelyn wrote. To regain the trust of traders and holders, the next move would be regulation … right?

Making sense of OpenSea at a $13B valuation

At the start of 2022, OpenSea raised a $300 million round at a $13.3 billion valuation. Alex did a deep dive to figure out how the new (in January 2022) OpenSea valuation squared up with its revenues. You can follow along with Alex’s collection of data and computations to determine whether the company is underpriced or overpriced.