Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin (BTC) kept traders guessing to the last minute into the 2022 yearly close as volatility remained absent from the market.

BTC price: Where's the volatility?

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD clinging to a familiar area around $16,500.

The pair continued to disappoint players on both sides of the trade after a sideways Christmas, ignoring the potential significance of the simultaneous weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly candle close.

“Technical resistance and overhead liquidity suggests sub $17k local top, but anything goes in the Wild Wild West,” on-chain analytics resource Material Indicators wrote in part of commentary on the Binance BTC/USD order book.

An accompanying chart nonetheless showed a lack of significant support above $16,000, with resistance overhead at $17,000.

2022 was supposed to be the year crypto went mainstream, with a significant chunk of traditional venture capital firms betting heavily on the ecosystem in 2021. However, with one disaster after another, 2022 turned out to be a catastrophic year for the nascent crypto ecosystem. Some of the biggest names touted as pivotal to taking the crypto ecosystem forward turned out to be the orchestrators of its worst year in recent memory.

That said, quite a few protagonists rose to the occasion. These winners proved that crypto is not just about a few select individuals and companies but a vibrant ecosystem that can survive significant setbacks.

Let’s start with some of the biggest winners of the crypto ecosystem in 2022. The list includes individuals, companies and anonymous groups working for the betterment of the industry.

The winners

In a year that saw the multibillion-dollar collapses of the Terra ecosystem, FTX and Three Arrows Capital, it’s hard to pick winners. However, crypto has faced adversaries before, and 2022 was no different. Several positives came out of the year despite the collapse of several centralized entities.

Ledger and Trezor

When Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin (BTC), a core idea was to give people financial sovereignty that made them less dependent on centralized intermediaries.

Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto will need until at least 2024 to "recover from the abuse of unscrupulous players," says one of the industry's best-known names.

In a blog post released on Dec. 30, David Marcus, CEO and founder of Bitcoin firm Lightspark, disappointed bulls with his outlook for the coming years.

Marcus: "Crypto winter" will likely last until 2025

Less than two months after the FTX meltdown, the repercussions continue to unsettle sentiment and price performance alike.

For Marcus, famous for his crypto role at Meta and before that PayPal, bad actors have a lot to answer for, and their specter will remain with the crypto industry beyond 2023.

While mentioning FTX only once, he referenced what he called "unscrupulous players" dragging out market underperformance even beyond next year.

Investors have faced a tumultuous year in 2022 as stocks, bonds, and the cryptocurrency sector have all witnessed sharp declines. As of Nov. 30, the performance of a traditional portfolio comprising 60% stocks and 40% bonds has been the worst since 1932, according to a report by Financial Times.

The next big question troubling crypto investors is whether the pain in Bitcoin (BTC) is over or will the downtrend continue in 2023.

Analysts seem to be divided in their opinion for the first quarter of the new year. While some expect a drop to $10,000 others anticipate a rally to $22,000.

While the near-term remains uncertain, research and trading firm Capriole Investments said in its latest edition of the Capriole Newsletter that Bitcoin could copy gold’s explosive bull move in the 1970s and if that happens, Bitcoin could soar past $600,000 over the next few years.

Could Bitcoin and altcoins start a recovery in the short term? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.