This DeFi Token Soars 102% In 2022 Even As Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin Miss Out On Market Gains
By Benzinga
As 2022 draws to a close, it is clear that decentralized crypto exchange’s native token GMX (CRYPTO: GMX) is the biggest gainer, surging over 102% and trading at $45, as per Benzinga Pro data.
What Happened: Apex crypto Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) and Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) did not even make it on the list of top 100 gainers by market capitalization, recorded at 2:30 a.m. EST on Dec. 26.
| Cryptocurrency | Gains | Price |
|---|---|---|
| GMX | +102% | $45 |
| Trust Wallet | +72% | $1.38 |
| LEO | +1.3% | $3.60 |
The rise in GMX can be attributed to the collapse of FTX, as users became aware of the importance of decentralized exchanges as a safer way to safeguard their funds and guard against the risk of being locked out.
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The second on the list is Trust Wallet's native token (CRYPTO: TWT), which saw a massive 72% surge on the news of FTX's self-custody wallets becoming necessary for users as exchanges were temporarily suspending withdrawals due to a shortage of funding.
Another DeFi platform that rallied over the year even as the overall market bled was the UNUS SED LEO token (CRYPTO: LEO). Although it witnessed only 1.3% gains, it outperformed the top 100 cryptos by market capitalization.
Biggest Losers: On the losers' front, Terra Luna Classic (CRYPTO: LUNC) took an alarming 100% hit in value.
The Luna crypto crash was unprecedented, and the cause lies in its connection to TerraUSD (UST), the algorithmic stablecoin on the Terra network. On May 7, over $2 billion in UST was unstaked (taken off the Anchor Protocol), and this ripple effect caused hundreds of millions of Luna tokens to be liquidated quickly.
| Cryptocurrency | Losers | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Terra Luna Classic | -100% | $0.000148734717 |
| Solana | -94.1 | $11.31 |
| Axie Infinity | -93.8% | $6.83 |
| The Sandbox | -93.5% | $0.439886 |
| Filecoin | -93.2% | $2.96 |
The second place goes to Solana (CRYPTO: SOL), which was tied to a blockchain backed by Sam Bankman-Fried. It has declined over 94.1% since the beginning of 2022. Once lauded as an Ethereum killer, Solana has been plagued by multiple outages and massive hacks in recent months.
One of the major causes of SOL's falling price was the FTX crash. Several digital assets associated with FTX and Alameda Research were significantly impacted after Bankman-Fried announced bankruptcy and resigned as CEO of the troubled firm.
The sudden departure caused a chain reaction of events that dragged the prices of many tokens lower.
Axie Infinity (CRYPTO: AXS) has seen a dramatic decline of 93% in 2022, making it the third biggest loser. This has been largely attributed to the fact that millions of vested tokens were about to be unlocked, sparking fears of a massive dump on the market. However, data from DappRadar also shows that interactions with the game have been down.
The Sandbox (CRYPTO: SAND) and Filecoin (CRYPTO: FIL) made it to Nos. 4 and 5, respectively, down over 93.5% and 92%.
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