Crypto adoption in 2022: What events moved the industry forward?

It’s nary concealed that the crypto marketplace was gripped by bearish unit for the entirety of 2022. However, amid each the volatility and chaos, galore affirmative quality stories appeared arsenic good — particularly regarding the planetary adoption of integer assets and crypto-related technologies successful general.

Looking backmost astatine 2022, present are immoderate cardinal adoption-related events that helped thrust the manufacture past year.

Polygon accrues 200 cardinal addresses contempt challenging 2022

Even though an aerial of fiscal uncertainty has shrouded the crypto marketplace since the extremity of 2021, Polygon — a layer-2 scaling solution moving alongside the Ethereum blockchain, allowing for speedy transactions and debased fees — continued to witnesser a batch of maturation successful 2022. To this point, the network’s unsocial code number precocious surpassed the 200 cardinal mark, reaching a caller all-time precocious of 205,420,908 connected Dec. 31.

Additionally, the Polygon ecosystem saw its unsocial code number surge by a whopping 8,783,568 betwixt Dec. 1 and Dec. 31, suggesting that implicit the past period of 2022 alone, an mean of 283,340 caller Polygon-related web addresses came into beingness daily. Moreover, it bears mentioning that the fig of transactions taking spot wrong the web has continued to hover astir the 3 cardinal mark.

Growth successful Polygon code number passim 2022. Source: PolygonScan

Lastly, the proof-of-stake task precocious announced the merchandise of its last testnet, an improved iteration of its zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine.

Major brands proceed to participate the Web3 arena

The nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace and the metaverse manufacture person continued to pique the involvement of respective manner and luxury brands. For example, successful October, Rolex — a fashionable ticker matchmaker with a planetary beingness — filed for aggregate NFT-related trademarks successful summation to 1 for a cryptocurrency exchange. Popular sporting goods giants specified arsenic Reebok, Nike and Adidas besides made akin moves.

Nike launched a metaverse task called .Swoosh, a Web3-enabled level wherever customers tin bargain and merchantability virtual products. The level volition reportedly initially look astatine assemblage gathering portion hosting the motorboat of the company’s archetypal virtual postulation — comprising footwear, apparel and accessories — sometime during January 2023. Upon its launch, the level volition lone let the usage of cash, not integer currencies, with each transactions recorded connected the Polygon blockchain.

Adidas released a caller enactment of virtual cogwheel past twelvemonth on with a picture-for-proof dressing instrumentality allowing avatars from compatible spouse collections, specified arsenic Bored Ape Yacht Club, to beryllium dressed up with their gear. Reebok filed galore trademark applications successful the United States for a wide scope of virtual apparel, including footwear, headwear and sports equipment.

Lastly, luxury car shaper BMW announced that it, too, had decided to participate the metaverse fray by applying for a trademark for its logo that volition beryllium utilized successful narration to its upcoming virtual vehicles, integer retail and different related services.

Total measurement of staked Ether continues to grow

Throughout 2022, the full measurement of Ether (ETH) locked wrong the Ethereum ecosystem has continued to ascent steadily. Between February and June, the magnitude of staked ETH roseate from conscionable implicit 9 cardinal to astir 13 million. As seen from the illustration below, the inclination plateaued betwixt June and September, lone to muster steam erstwhile again astir mid-September, conscionable earlier Ethereum’s much-awaited modulation to proof-of-stake.

Total worth of ETH staked. Source: CryptoQuant

Within the discourse of the Ethereum network, staking refers to the enactment of depositing 32 ETH into the network, which allows individuals to accrue validator rights and affords them the quality to gain further ETH. As a validator, users indispensable execute respective duties, specified arsenic storing data, processing transactions and adding caller blocks to the blockchain to assistance support the web for each participants.

Meta integrates enactment for NFTs

Earlier successful May, societal media behemoth Instagram revealed its investigating programme for sharing NFTs for prime users crossed the United States. At the time, a typical for the steadfast stated that it would make much monetization opportunities for influencers connected the level portion introducing NFTs to a larger lawsuit base. A fewer months later, successful August, Instagram decided to grow its NFT operations to implicit 100 countries crossed Africa, North America and Asia.

Meta besides announced that it would integrate enactment for third-party projects, including Coinbase Wallet and Dapper Wallet, portion extending its NFT offerings to its different halfway societal media platform, Facebook. In November, Instagram’s improvement squad announced that it was testing the quality to mint and merchantability NFTs with a prime radical of integer creators. The diagnostic volition spell unrecorded connected the Polygon network, with creators and collectors not having to ammunition retired immoderate state fees initially.

Starbucks’ blockchain-based loyalty programme goes live

Starbucks announced the launch of its blockchain-based loyalty program and NFT community, Starbucks Odyssey, to a radical of testers successful the United States successful September. The inaugural builds upon the company’s existing loyalty programme but uses a decentralized operation built atop the Polygon blockchain.

Starbucks Odyssey is simply a rewards programme that allows users to gain perks and whose scope extends beyond the realm of simply earning escaped drinks. Odyssey allows customers to interact with a wide array of game-style offerings, allowing them to gain NFTs (referred to arsenic Journey Stamps) successful the process. These assets tin aboriginal beryllium traded and redeemed.

VCs proceed to determination wealth into the Web3 ecosystem

During Q4 2022, Animoca Brands — the steadfast down respective palmy crypto projects, including The Sandbox — created a multibillion-dollar fund to put successful assorted metaverse projects.

According to Animoca co-founder Yat Siu, the money volition spur the inferior of the metaverse and blockchain gaming market. “More radical are joining crypto each day, particularly successful gaming,” helium stated, adding: “I’m hoping that this volition besides thrust a script wherever integer spot volition beryllium recognized similar carnal spot successful the ineligible system.”

In summation to Animoca, different fashionable firms that person invested heavy successful the burgeoning metaverse system see South Korean task superior elephantine Daesung Private Equity. The institution precocious announced that it had allocated a full of 110 South Korean won ($83.9 million) toward its metaverse-centric fund.

JPMorgan partners with Ripple

American banking elephantine JPMorgan Chase joined with halfway Ripple spouse Al Fardan Exchange successful 2022 successful an effort to supply users crossed the United Arab Emirates entree to faster transaction colony and transportation services.

Al Fardan’s clients volition beryllium capable to behaviour crypto transactions via respective fashionable fiat assets, including the U.S. dollar, British lb and euro.

It is worthy highlighting that this concern comes amid Ripple’s ongoing suit with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The regulatory bureau continues to allege that the project’s associated crypto offering, XRP (XRP), is simply a information and, therefore, taxable to the ineligible and regulatory implications associated with specified assets.

Reddit users mint 5 million-plus NFT avatars

Social sharing website Reddit saw its users proceed to follow NFTs astatine a furious gait past year, adjacent though its income declined immensely. It is estimated that the Polygon-backed inaugural has already witnessed the minting of much than 5 cardinal collectibles to date.

Moreover, it bears mentioning that these avatars aren’t concentrated among high-value NFT collectors (ala whales) and are alternatively dispersed retired among much than 4 cardinal unsocial wallets. Lastly, a immense bulk of the aforementioned minted NFTs person been offered to Reddit’s high-value users escaped of cost.

Tiffany enters the crypto sphere

Luxury jewelry and specialty retailer Tiffany & Co. announced successful August that it was releasing a limited NFT postulation called NFTiff, each of which would beryllium disposable for a basal terms of 30 ETH (approximately $36,000). In all, a full of 250 of these NFTs were produced.

Earlier successful March, Tiffany purchased an Okapi NFT from Tom Sachs for a reported sum of $380,000. The representation has been the company’s Twitter illustration photograph ever since.

Positive authorities continued to summation traction

Late successful 2022, Brazil’s Congress approved a measure seeking to modulate the usage of integer currencies for regular payments wrong its borders, thereby perchance boosting the adoption of crypto wrong the South American nation. The measure provides ineligible presumption to payments made successful cryptocurrencies for goods and services but does not assistance them presumption arsenic ineligible tender.

In a somewhat akin vein, Abdellatif Jouahri, the politician of Morocco’s cardinal slope — Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM) — announced that his country’s cardinal regulatory agencies would soon finalize a broad crypto governance framework. The applicable agencies see the Moroccan Capital Markets Authority and the Supervisory Authority of Insurance and Social Welfare.

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Jouahri revealed that the BAM worked connected the papers alongside the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Other countries that person either tabled favorable regulations successful 2022 oregon are readying to bash truthful successful the adjacent aboriginal see India, Germany, Australia and the United Kingdom, among others.

Crypto adoption soars crossed MENA, Asia and Latin America

According to a survey conducted by blockchain analytics steadfast Chainalysis, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) portion was the fastest-growing marketplace for cryptocurrency adoption past year.

Between July 2021 and June 2022, the portion received $566 cardinal successful crypto transactions, a emergence of astir 49% from the twelvemonth prior. To enactment things into perspective, determination were increases of 40% successful Europe, 36% crossed North America, and 35% crossed Central and South Asia.

Similarly, Latin America made up 9.1% of the full crypto worth received during 2022, reaching a cumulative full of $562 cardinal portion showcasing a maturation of 40% betwixt Q3 2021 and Q3 2022. Also, a full of 4 Latin American countries entered Chainalysis’ apical crypto adopters list.

Lastly, Vietnam presently has the world’s highest crypto adoption rate, followed by the Philippines and Ukraine. Other emerging nations that dominated Chainalysis’ adoption scale successful 2022 see India, Brazil, Thailand and Pakistan.