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Bitcoin (BTC-USD) experienced its worst first half of a year in its 12-year history, dropping 60.3% in the first half of 2022, according to CoinMarketCap data.
That compares with bitcoin’s (BTC-USD) second-worst half in 2018 (-54.7%) when retail investors jumped out of the world’s largest digital token by market cap as quickly as they hopped in it, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Since bitcoin’s (BTC-USD) peak of $68.8K in November, the token has since fallen around 65%. Some $2T of global crypto market cap vanished, bringing it down to just $853.9B as of June 30, as per CoinMarketCap. The slump in crypto comes in the wake of shrinking liquidity and tighter financial conditions. A raft of prominent crypto-focused firms like Celsius, BlockFi and Three Arrows Capital have been trying to survive crypto winter in recent months amid liquidity issues.
Looking at different time frames, bitcoin (BTC-USD) is off -59.2% on a Q/Q basis and -40.2% M/M, according to CoinMarketCap. Across the crypto market, many tokens are seeing similar drawdowns as investors keep shunning riskier assets.
Ethereum (ETH-USD), the largest altcoin by market cap, is down a whopping 73% in the first half of this year; -70.6% Q/Q and -47.3% M/M.
Looking ahead to the second half of the year, bitcoin (BTC-USD), on a purely technical basis, could bottom out in July as the weekly and monthly charts point to a possible trend reversal, Mark Newton, head of Technical Strategy at FSInsight wrote in a note on June 29.
Meanwhile, ether (ETH-USD) is expected to transition to a Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism from energy-intensive Proof-of-Work in a move that could improve transaction speeds as well as the ability to scale. But nobody knows exactly when that “Merge” takes effect.
“My own take is ether price will probably rise into the Merge. But once the state comes out, it will settle back a bit,” Wave Financial Chief Executive said in a recent interview, as quoted by MarketWatch. “I don’t think it’s that seismic of a shift that ether will suddenly be worth more than bitcoin or reach $10,000,” he added.
Take a look at the table below showing how the top five biggest losers and “winners” for the first half have fared throughout different time periods, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Unsurprisingly, crypto-focused stocks were slammed in the first half as well. For example, Coinbase (COIN) — America’s largest crypto trading platform by daily volume — stock is off 81.4% in H1, -76.1% Q/Q and -39.8% M/M. The company recently cut its headcount by 18% to manage its expenses.
Similarly, shares of Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy (MSTR), a high-profile HODLer of bitcoin (BTC-USD), plunged 70.5% in H1, -67.2% Q/Q and -37.9% M/M. The bitcoin slump doesn’t seem to bother the company as it continues to buy more tokens. Meanwhile, SA’s Quant Rating in the beginning of April warned investors that MicroStrategy is at high risk of performing badly due to negative EPS revisions.
By comparison, shares of bitcoin (BTC-USD) miners such as Marathon Digital (MARA) (-84.3% in H1, -81.9% Q/Q, -47.8% M/M) and Riot Blockchain (-81.8% in H1, -81% Q/Q, -41.7% M/M) have been hit even harder throughout 2022, as BTC mining revenues broadly swoon.
Previously, (June 39) Three Arrows Capital ordered to liquidate.
| 2022 (losers) | ||||
| Cryptocurrency | Ticker | M/M % | Q/Q % | 1H % |
| TerraClassicUSD | USTC-USD | 134% | -95% | -95% |
| Fantom | (FTM-USD) | -39% | -85% | -91% |
| Curve DAO Token | (CRV-USD) | -52% | -77% | -90% |
| Gala | (GALA-USD) | -36% | -80% | -89% |
| Kadena | (KDA-USD) | -31% | -77% | -88% |
| 2022 (winners) | ||||
| UNUS SED LEO | (LEO-USD) | 9% | -4% | 52% |
| ApeCoin | (APE-USD) | -35% | -67% | 0% |
| BiTorrent | (BTT-USD) | -29% | -64% | 0% |
| STEPN | GMT-USD | -32% | -73% | 0% |
| PAX Gold | PAXG-USD | -2% | -6% | -1% |
