How did Bitcoin drop from $47,827 in January to a staggering $16,800 in December? Meanwhile, BTC is still pretty bearish as the year is about to end. However, there is a positive outlook for the leading cryptocurrency in 2023.
The leading crypto started the year with high hopes, but…
cryptocoin.com As you follow, Bitcoin has been on a difficult path for most of 2022. While sentiments for the new year are still positive, Bitcoin may have followed some turbulent patterns that have led it to its current price point. Bloomberg covers the many ways Bitcoin has fallen to its current price level of $16,530 at the time of this writing.
Back in January, Bitcoin had what could almost be labeled as smooth sailing. BTC started the year at $47,827. By February, the SEC penalized BlockFi. Also, Wormhole, a popular cross-chain protocol, was hacked. Hackers managed to steal $30 million (120,000 Wormhole Ethereum (WeETH) worth of Ethereum). Bitcoin closed this month with a price of $ 43,760. On March 23, the Ronin hack was recorded. The hacker stole 173,600 ETH and 25,500,000 USDC from the platform and moved it to his own Ethereum address.
Key events pushing Bitcoin (BTC) further down
May was even more hectic for the cryptocurrency market. Key players claim that the events of May marked the crypto price and the broader market. The Terra (LUNA) ecosystem collapsed in May, with plans for revival. The CFTC suing the Gemini exchange has not at all helped mitigate the market FUD. Another highly reliable crypto exchange, Binance, has come under the SEC’s lens. Meanwhile, the SEC and Ripple lawsuit was still ongoing.
12 events from June to October revealed the severity of the bear market. Coinbase, one of the major cryptocurrency exchanges, has decided to lay off 18% of its staff. Voyager and Celsius filed for bankruptcy. Apart from these, Michael Saylor, a key figure in the market, left his role at Microstrategy as the market hit rock bottom. Jesse Powell, Kraken’s CEO along with Saylor, said goodbye to his role at the company. This came shortly after Alameda co-CEO Trabucco stepped down in August. While this was happening, the market was bearish for all assets and Bitcoin was sitting at $20,420.
October closed with the SEC putting Yuga Labs under investigation. November began with Binance announcing a possible FTX Token (FTT) sale. This event served as a trigger. At this time, opinions from investors, critics and even prominent players in the cryptocurrency industry reflected the uncertainty. November ended with FTX and Blockfi filing for bankruptcy. Both bankruptcies fed the sense that the ‘Crypto Bubble’ was beginning to descend.
In December, the arrest of Sam Bankman Fried (SBF), the former CEO of bankrupt FTX, was on the agenda. However, SBF was released on bail of $250 million after extradition from the Bahamas to the United States. Still very unstable for other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as the year is about to end. On the other hand, the forecasts for the new year are largely positive.
