Crypto News, rétrospective 2022 [EN]

Weekly overview dedicated to crypto assets and blockchain-related regulatory, economic and technological breakthroughs.
Market Data 2022
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Bitcoin (BTC) Price : € 15,424.34 / -62% YTD
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Global Market Capitalization : € 742 billion / - 61% in 2022
BTC dominance began and ended the year at 40%
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FUSEKI Indices : between -64% (FUSEKI 5 Performance) YTD and -58% (FUSEKI 10 and FUSEKI Liquidity) YTD
Crypto Assets
Markets
- Crypto asset markets see their worst year since 2018, due to both:
- Macroeconomic events : Russian war, global economical uncertainties, inflation and increasing interest rates
- Crypto-specific events: Terra’s collapse, leading in several bankruptcies (Three Arrows Capital, Voyager, Celsius) and FTX collapse due to gross mismanagement, fostering mistrust in centralized exchanges
Major Assets
- The 19th million BTC is mined
- Ethereum deploys its long-awaited Merge, its energy consumption drops by 99.99%
- Among others, Cardano and Eos also undergo major upgrades
- USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle launches a euro-backed stablecoin* named Euro Coin (EUROC)
NFTs* & Web3*
- Instagram integrates Ethereum, Polygon NFTs
- Rakuten launches an NFT marketplace
- The gaming (Square Enix, SEGA) and music (Warner, artists) sectors get deeper into blockchain and NFTs
Adoption
Democratization
- 8% of French people own crypto assets (when 6.7% own stocks), and 33% of British people
- Emerging markets lead global crypto adoption
- Fidelity allows BTC in retirement savings in the US
Payment Services
- Among others, Telegram, Paypal, Stripe, Robinhood, Shopify, Rakuten, Google Cloud and Visa go further in integrating crypto asset payments
Payment use cases
- BTC becomes legal tender in Central African Republic
- Large firms start accepting crypto asset payments, including McDonald’s, Chipotle , Emirates , famous luxury brands Balenciaga and Gucci
- Among others, US state of Colorado and Rio de Janeiro start accepting tax payments in crypto assets
Ecosystem
GOin
- GOin gets registered as a PSAN (French for Crypto Asset Service Provider) and launches its new offer designed for wealth management advisors and their clients
Institutional investment solutions
- CME Group launches euro-denominated BTC and ETH futures - BlackRock and Grayscale launch crypto-exposed ETFs
- Fidelity rolls out ETH trading for institutions
- The SEC keeps delaying and rejecting the applications for spot BTC ETFs
- Goldman Sachs offers first BTC-backed loan
Custodians
- BNY Mellon launches BTC and ETH custody services for investment firms
- Société Générale gets registered as a PSAN, gets ready for crypto custody service
- Nasdaq announces its institutional crypto custody service
Investment
- Crypto fundraising hits $ 30.3 billion in H1 2022, outpacing all of 2021
- Crypto remains largest investment sector in 2022 , outpacing Fintech and Biotech
Regulation
European legal framework
- The EU finalizes the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) and Travel Rule (TFR) Regulations. The final vote is expected for February 2023
- The EU also reaches an agreement on an Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) for supervising all cross-border financial entities, including CASPs
- The EU bans all crypto asset-related services to Russians
Other regulators
- US: White House releases a ‘ comprehensive framework ’ for crypto regulation and development; the Fed releases new guidelines for crypto banks; US Treasury department sanctions controversial crypto mixer* Tornado Cash
- Central Banks to set standards on banks’ crypto exposure limits
CBDCs*
- IMF recommends eco-friendly CBDCs and non-PoW* mechanisms for payments
- BIS releases full report on mBridge wholesale CBDC platform after successful pilot
- The European Central Bank issues halfway report on its digital euro investigation, and chooses 5 companies to prototype the digital euro app
- Chinese e-CNY transactions beat out Visa at Winter Olympics venue; e-CNY can be used to pay taxes and charges
Vocabulary
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CBDC / Central Bank Digital Currency: Digital form of a fiat money, issued and regulated by the competent authorities
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Mixing / mixers: On public blockchains where every transaction can be traced, mixers are services used to anonymize fund transfers, both for legal (incl. privacy) and illegal (incl. money laundering) purposes
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NFT / Non-fungible tokens: Special type of cryptographic token that uses blockchain technology to link with a unique crypto asset that cannot be replicated
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PoW / Proof of Work: Consensus mechanism used to confirm that network participants, called miners, calculate valid alphanumeric codes to verify crypto asset transactions and add the next block to the blockchain
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Stablecoin: Digital asset whose value is tied to a fiat currency (often the US dollar) or a commodity (like gold)
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Web3: Next evolution of the internet. Web3 is built upon the core concepts of decentralization, openness, and greater user utility.