Cryptocurrency-NFT And Metaverse Statistics 2022- Year In Review

In this article, you will see the list of up-to-date crypto statistics for 2022.

I combed the internet to find out what happened in the world of crypto in 2022. 

2022 was really a tough year.

The events that shocked the world, the shaking market cap of bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies, and the hopes and forecasts for the industry in the next year, you will see everything today.

Specifically, I managed to avoid the older numbers and get the current and up-to-date stats.

Without any doubt, 2022 can be called the worst year for cryptocurrencies for now. 

Let’s get right into the data and hear the story from the statistics.

Here’s a Quick Summary of Our Key Findings:

  • In 2022, the total market capitalization of crypto assets shrank by more than $2.2 trillion. (Source)
  • There are approximately 320 million crypto users worldwide in 2022,
  •  Over 40% of crypto users are Asian. (Source)
  • In 2022, 25 million users came into the crypto industry. (Source)
  • New user growth declined 87% to 25 million in 2022 from 194 million in 2021.
  • Bitcoin was the most searched keyword in the crypto industry on Google in 2022 followed by ‘bitcoin price’. (Source)
  • In 2022, $1.48 Billion worth of crypto was hacked. (Source)
  • Binance is still the world no largest crypto exchange. (Source)
  • Binance has the highest daily trading volume of 16.9 billion dollars. (Source)
  • The U.S. has the largest number of visits to CEX exchanges, with an accumulative share of over 22%. (Source)
  • The NFT market has a decrease of 42% in market cap. (Source)
  • The number of NFT active users has a sharp decrease of 88.9% in 2022. (Source)
  • Bitcoin was the most popular cryptocurrency in 2022. (Source)
  • The total amount of investment and financing in the primary market exceeded US$27.7 billion. (Source
  • The U.S. has the largest share in DeFi, with almost six times more traffic on Defi than the second, Brazil. (Source)
  • South America, South Africa, and the Middle East are highly interested in the crypto industry. (Source)
  •  The crypto population in Southeast Asia reached 46 million, second only to North America. (Source)
  • In South America and Africa, with more than 1/3 of the nationals use stablecoins daily. (Source)
  • The market cap of the NFT market dropped by over 40% from about 35 billion USD to 21 billion USD by over 40%. (Source)
  • Specifically, total crypto asset market capitalization declined by approximately 66%. (Source)
  • The U.S. has the largest BTC trading volume at $1.5 billion. (Source)
  • 56% of the total crypto users in the US are young adults between 18-34. (Source)
  • In 2022, cryptocurrency spot trading volume declined by approximately 27%, and the number of unique visitors declined by 24%. (Source)
  • The rate of decline in the United States, South Korea, Russia, Turkey, and Japan is 72.9%, 48.6%, 25.6%, 59.6%, and 38.6%. (Source)
  • Among them, the U.S. has the largest decline, and Russia has the least decline. (Source)
  • Japan and South Korea have contributed tremendous traffic to exchanges. Specifically, South Korea ranked second with 7.4% and Japan ranked sixth with 3.85% in Asia. (Source)
  • There are about 46 million crypto users in the U.S., accounting for 13.7% of the total population. (Source)
  • North America has 47 million crypto users. Representing 14.7% of the global crypto population. (Source)
  • According to the data, 1 in 5 young Koreans has an investment in Bitcoin. (Source)
  • On the Russian side, there are currently more than 14.6 million people holding cryptocurrencies, representing 10.1% of the total population. (Source)

Major Events In The World Of Crypto in 2022

Canada Freezes Freedom Convoy Funds

In January 2022, the main fundraising platform for the “Freedom Caravan” protest in Canada was hacked and suspended on Monday. A website collected extensive personal data about the donors involved.

Donor information such as email address. Name and phone number were obtained-

And the authorities froze the accumulated funds of more than 1 million of crypto.

Ukraine Begins Accepting Crypto Donations 

In March 2022, a senior Ukrainian minister stated that the Ukrainian government spent $54 million on military equipment, and the funds were raised through donations of cryptocurrencies. (Source)

The donation is said to have been provided by Everstake, FTX, and Aid For Ukraine.

Biden Signs Executive Order on Crypto Regulation

President Joe Biden on Wednesday, March 9, 2022, signed an executive order on government oversight of cryptocurrencies, urging the Federal Reserve to explore whether the central bank should jump in and create its own digital currency. (Source)

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the effort would “foster a better, more inclusive and more efficient financial system” while combating illicit finance and preventing threats to financial stability and national security.

Attackers Steal $550M From Ronin Network 

In March 2022, the Ronin network was hacked, and the hackers stole $550 million of funds.AxieInfinity suffered a $550+ million hack and nobody noticed for 6 days!

Yuga Labs Launches Otherside

In April, Yuga Labs announced the Otherside, a gamified, interoperable metaverse experience, where players could own land and turn their existing NFTs into playable characters. Yuga Labs sold 55,000 Otherdeed NFTs linked to virtual land ownership, raking in about $320 million in primary sales. (Source)

Terra Collapses And Washes Out $45Billion

The Terra network and its leader, Do Kwon, rose to the highest tier of the crypto world thanks to big-shot investors, only to fall apart within a few days in May 2022.

On May 7, the price of the then-$18-billion algorithmic stablecoin terraUSD (UST), which is supposed to maintain a $1 peg, started to wobble and fell to 35 cents on May 9. Its companion token, LUNA, which was meant to stabilize UST’s price, fell from $80 to a few cents by May 12. (Source)

Celsius, 3AC Fall in Major Crypto Liquidity Crisis

As recently as March, Three Arrows Capital managed about $10 billion in assets, making it one of the most prominent crypto hedge funds in the world.

Now the firm, also known as 3AC, is headed to bankruptcy court after the plunge in cryptocurrency prices and a particularly risky trading strategy combined to wipe out its assets and leave it unable to repay lenders.

U.S. Treasury Sanctions Tornado Cash

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash, which has been used to launder more than $7 billion worth of virtual currency since its creation in 2019. (Source)

Ethereum Ships “the Merge”

On Sept. 15, Ethereum switched from using energy-intensive technology to a more sustainable system in a major update called “the merge.”

FTX Collapses

Last week, the cryptocurrency exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy, and its chief executive, Sam Bankman-Fried, resigned a downfall that has stunned crypto insiders and sent shock waves through the industry.  (Source)

NFT

Throughout 2022, NFT’s total market cap declined from $31.14B in January to $21.73B in October, a decline of about 42%, and single-day closing declined from $842M in January to $48M in October, a decline of roughly 94%.

In 2022, the NFT market saw a decline in active traders from 45,000 at the end of 2021 to 5,000, with a correspondingly large decline in both buyers and sellers. 

In contrast, the cumulative number of NFT users reached 3,426,600 from 1,445,900 at the beginning of the year, a comparative increase of 138% (the NFT market embarked in the second half of 2021) (Source)

DEX

Among the top 10 DEXs, the total daily trading volume fell steeply from $19.19 billion max to as low as only $740 million.

Uniswap is in a monopoly-like position with 67.5% of the trading volume.

Metaverse

  • According to Statista, the market size of Metaverse reached $38.5 billion in 2021, and $47.48 billion in 2022, (Source)
  • Over 42 sovereign countries and regions worldwide, excluding mainland China, have issued 105 regulatory measures and guidance for the crypto industry since 2022. (Source)

By classification, the percentage of positive, neutral, and negative policies are 36%, 57%, and 7%, respectively, in 2022 compared to 23%, 59%, and 18% in 2021. (Source)