The surprising performance of Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2022
The data showed that Ethereum's total transactions in the previous year were more than four times that of Bitcoin. Nasdaq and Ycharts published that in 2022 there were 338% more ether transactions (408.5 million) than bitcoin transactions (93.1 million).
Still, Bitcoin has managed to retain its leadership when it comes to online search interest, according to Google trending searches.
Although the world's largest cryptocurrency by market value, bitcoin (BTC), has seen a year-over-year decline in value, research shows that bitcoin and ethereum's return per unit of risk in 2022 was about the same as that of stocks and significantly better than that of bonds.
However, transaction volumes on the Bitcoin network have been more stable and regular than on Ethereum, which has seen much more volatility in transaction volumes due to spikes in demand during certain periods.
So, Bitcoin and Ethereum seem to have been affected by the same forces that made investing in stocks a challenge last year, including high inflation and the threat of a downturn. Stocks were nearly twice as risky in 2022 as they were in 2021, according to CoinDesk data.
Looking at what caused this, managing director of Coindesk Baehr, said in a research report that liquidity has to be the number one candidate. "When you look back at the negative events in the cryptocurrency industry, it's not too difficult to draw an arrow to rapidly deteriorating liquidity conditions as a partial cause," he said.
It wasn't all bad for crypto though, and 2022 was also the year the Ethereum blockchain finally launched its upgrade. These innovations will make the Ethereum system easier to use for people around the world. Thanks to this progress, crypto predictions have an optimistic outlook until 2023.
Source: CoinDesk