These Are the Best and Worst-Performing Crypto Sectors in ‘Year of Expensive Lessons’ 2022: Arcane Research

Leading crypto market intelligence firm Arcane Research is weighing in on the performance of several crypto sectors after a year-long bear winter.

In a new annual review, the intelligence firm notes that the metaverse sector suffered an 89% drawdown this year after serving as one of 2021’s killer narratives.

Alternative layer-1s represented the second-worst performing sector of 2022. The Ethereum (ETH) competitors suffered a collective 78% drawdown, though that number balloons to 85% when Binance Coin (BNB) is excluded. BNB is down about 52% on the year, which is far less than other alternative layer-1s.

Conversely, privacy coins endured the least severe price plunge in 2022, witnessing a 47% decrease, according to the report. Arcane Research attributes the milder drawdown to the “sustained utility” of privacy-focused altcoin Monero (XMR) in making darknet transactions. XMR, the 26th-ranked crypto asset by market cap, is only down about 35% this year.

Arcane Research predicts that utility and demand will ensure privacy coins continue to be less impacted by bullish and bearish price swings than the rest of the crypto markets.

The intelligence firm also thinks exchange tokens will face regulatory scrutiny next year in the wake of FTX’s high-profile implosion. According to Arcane Research, certain exchange tokens will likely be labeled as securities.

Read Arcane Research’s full report here.

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