Crypto in 2023: Top Winners and Losers

For this article I decided to do something different, reflecting on the past year and making two lists: the winners and the losers of 2023.

Let’s start with the ones who hoped for a better year.

2023 Losers

1. SBF

The inclusion of SBF here probably represents a bigger category, the smartasses who think they can just cheat their way up and cover up their sins with bribes and stacks of money. Well, SBF now is a first-person example that this is not always the case.

The previous bear market cycle has shown those who were bathing without a suit, with the most classic revolving door becoming between crypto firms and jails.

The US is trying to prove that anyone making their way up by cheating will be eventually brought to justice.

Nonetheless, SBF is also a testament to the issues plaguing our system, where media and governmental protection can be bought, and everyone can turn a blind eye if they pay enough to cover them.

As mentioned above the SBF category honestly includes any other scammer out there, who was acting all cool and cocky (I see you Do Kwon) and has finally been put in jail for good.

2. Gary Gensler

   

I feel sorry for this man, I can only think about a couple more examples of embarrassing politicians to the extent he does. The fact that he’s acting in bad faith is clear and proven by his past declarations. His crusade against crypto is his blood sacrifice to make it to the top, showing his soulless masters that he’s a good boy and will do everything in his power to safeguard the status quo.

I really pity this guy, I am quite sure he cries out loud when he goes back home.

For me, the biggest loser.

3. Elisabeth Warren

   

Imagine being anti-banks and anti-crypto.

Imagine making your whole career as an anti-bank Democrat, going against the biggest tool that can help decentralize the banking business, and probably offering them the only real competition.

You can, by selling your soul.

Is there anything else to say? Someone, please explain to her how crypto works. She doesn’t know it, but she advocated for crypto solutions for years, until those solutions were developed, and now.. back to the status quo.

What a loser….

4. CZ

   

Makes only sense to put CZ as number 4 on this list.

The person who has been the face of our industry for so long has pleaded guilty and reached an agreement for a multibillion-dollar fine to Binance. And this is not over yet, as CZ will have a trial in Q1 2024 and is currently prohibited from leaving the US.

In retrospect, this was probably either granted or unimaginable, depending on where you land on the Binance-sympathy spectrum. For the crypto as a whole is the removal of a systemic risk, of an exchange possibly considered too big to fail.

Nonetheless, I cannot but empathize with CZ.

It’s hard to operate an exchange like Binance across multiple regulations.

The message here is clear: you may be able to resist in the short term, but if they want the US authorities will get you, even if you are an off-shore entity operating in the US.

5. Maximalism

   

Probably the biggest loser of 2023 is maximalism.
The continuation of the Ethereum Scaling Roadmap, with the development and deployment of Layer 2, Optimistic and ZK Rollups, new Data Availability Solutions, Retaking, and new Layer 1s focused on Gaming and Parallelization (Monad, Blast, Neon) have set out a clear path for the evolution of blockchains.

One which is made by modularity and interoperability, and not siloed ecosystems.

Those who have bet on their own closed systems fatigue to leverage network effects across protocols and networks alike.

Those who made a living out of advocating for the technical superiority of their network are now with their backs against their wall, concerned about the survival of their arguments across a cross-chain ecosystem.

On the other hand, those who have bet on cooperation and coordination are benefiting the most, from a win-win approach that is not always about self-interest.

Being a maximalist in 2024 will be embarrassing.

and now onto the biggest winners!

2023 Winners

1. Coinbase

   

Brian is by far our favorite tech baldie.

We don’t have enough room in this piece to highlight every positive development at Coinbase this year. Nonetheless, in my eyes, Coinbase is the biggest company that is still aligned with the cryptocurrency ethos. We have repeatedly seen how they questioned the SEC judgments, bringing them to court.

Aside from the fact that they are a CEX and of course care about their own business, Coinbase is a force for good within the industry and deserves the spot among the 2023 winners. Admitting a limited relevance of numbers themselves, Coinbase stock has been performing godly since the beginning of the year.

In a year of trading troubles, Coinbase managed to shift the majority of its revenues to non-trading income. Within those, their Custody is especially set to have a great 2024 given that most ETFs propose Coinbase as their custodian.

2. Justin Sun

   

Justin Sun is one of those god-like OG personalities within the crypto world. The lines between him and Tron are more blurred than ever.

However, we cannot neglect Justin Sun his spot among the 2023 winners.

Tron USDT has established itself as the stablecoin with the most volumes and is significantly used in third countries plagued by inflation.

Arguably, this is the best use case of crypto as a whole nowadays and provides practical benefits to countless people worldwide.

We don’t know whether this was Justin’s plan all along, or if he even cares at all, but he deserves his spot - what a humble king!

3. Paolo Ardoino

Together with Pizza and Pasta, Paolo is another of the great Italian heritages starting with P.

Crowned with the role of CEO, the king of Tether continues to be a trailblazer in the industry. In 2023 Tether reported over $32b in excess reserves and is one of the biggest holders of US treasuries, holding over $70b.

The Tether dominance has found an unsuspected ally: the failure of US Banks (Silicon Valley Bank etc.) that hosted the accounts of USDC, USDT's main competitor.

Tether’s hybrid structure merging offshore compliance and billions of US treasury holdings with close regulatory relationships (even with secret services), makes it an interesting example. Paolo has a golden aura within the sector: he’s a strong libertarian Bitcoiner, however, his company single-handedly has the shitcoin market on its shoulders, as well as having close ties with US regulators and regularly confiscating and freezing funds.

We have seen other Bitcoiners fail from their thrones for much less, why does Paolo always get a pass within the community?

4. Layer 2s (L2)

   

Chances are, you spent most of 2023 transacting on L2s.

First Optimism and Arbitrum, then ZkSync or others like Scroll, Linea, or Layer Zero.

The Ethereum scaling roadmap is moving forward and there’s a lot of new kids on the block!

While many argue that this contributes to taking volume and attention from Ethereum, this is exactly the whole point of scaling the system.

A successful constellation of L2 is, in fact, a testament to the success of Ethereum.

There’s not much else to say here: this is one of the most active areas in the whole sector, with some of the most obsessive innovations shipped recently.

Stay tuned for 2024, when many of these networks will launch their mainnet.

5. Solana

   

We cannot avoid putting Solana on the throne.

What comes down must go up, and this was especially true for the price and activity of Solana, which exploded this year

What was regarded as a ghost-town network at the beginning of the year has managed to go through a re-invention including:

1. Removing ties with bad actors

2. Reorganizing along community lines

3. Creating new tools and infra benefiting clients etc.

Building a suite of DeFi products adding new use cases as well as avenues to stake and use SOL within DeFi

This combination resulted in renewed activity and volumes on-chain.

In case you didn’t know: the dog has a hat.

Solana is back.

6. Friend Tech

The dApp of the year! RIP to my article during the first week of Friend Tech's inception, mentioning how I thought it had no future.

Friend Tech went to capture most of the attention during a period that was narrative-dry. The situation slowed down eventually, raising concerns about the future of “Social Media in Web3”

However, I am quite confident that the Friend Tech hype will return in 2024, as we get closer to the airdrop.

This is my top 10 winners and losers.

Of course, I have forgotten many … Who do you think I should have mentioned?