Lex Sokolin is Head Economist at major blockchain company ConsenSys.
__________
To say the cryptocurrency market has been on a rollercoaster ride is an understatement. In January 2021, barely nine years after it began trading, the aggregate value of the cryptocurrency market reached $1 trillion (USD) – the fastest asset by many standards to reach this milestone. Ten months later, on November 10, 2021, the asset class nearly tripled to $2.9 trillion as several tokens reached all-time highs.
Rocks and pixels regularly sold for millions, profile pictures on Twitter were awash with laser eyes, and Euphoria had no limits.
However, just one month later, the market cap dropped to $2.3 trillion, a drop of -21%. By mid-June 2022, the entire market class had fallen to a market cap of $800 billion, more than -70% off its all-time high.
The takeaway? Crypto winter is here, with much of the euphoria evaporated for anguish and bafflement.
With apologies to Mark Twain, reports of Web3’s death have…