2019 may not go down as a year of breathtaking highs for cryptocurrency markets, but major strides accept been made for mass adoption of digital payments and blockchain technology.

A quick look at major headlines over the past 12 months highlight the shortcomings of the sector as well equally the potential for cryptocurrencies to completely shake up the global payment system.

One demand wait no further than social media giant Facebook announcing plans to launch its cryptocurrency Libra and digital wallet Calibra. The motility sent shockwaves around the world and led to the Usa Congress enforcing a moratorium on the project.

Security concerns continued to be a concerning topic amid some of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges and platforms falling casualty to hacks and thefts.

Bitcoin had a lackluster yr in terms of trading and marketplace value, as the preeminent cryptocurrency saw periods of both resurgence and decline. Meanwhile, Ethereum's developers carried out a number of crucial upgrades that form part of the ongoing progression of the world'due south 2d most-valuable cryptocurrency.

Of import moves were fabricated on the regulatory front end every bit the United states of america Securities and Exchange Commission made pivotal announcements regarding the likes of Ethereum and went afterward projects such as social media startup Kik as well as Telegram's highly predictable Telegram Open Network.

Regulators in the United Kingdom took a softer stance toward Bitcoin and Ethereum, leaving the cryptocurrencies unrestricted in the country.

In this article, Cointelegraph delves into these stories while exploring the biggest highlights of every calendar month of 2022.

Bitcoin'southward lowly kickoff

The dawn of 2022 constitute Bitcoin, the world's preeminent cryptocurrency, trading beneath the $4000 mark post-obit a difficult year for the global cryptol marketplace.

The toll of Bitcoin summed up the slump in the sector, but the low cost would shortly pick upwards as the year began.

Ten days into the new year, news broke that Ethereum Classic's network had fallen victim to a fully-fledged 51% attack. An unknown entity managed to gain a majority share of the network's hashing power.

The incident was serious enough to prompt American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to end all ETC transactions. Their own blockchain analysis claimed that a "deep chain reorganisation" had occurred and included 12 double-spends amounting to 219,500 ETC, valued at over $1 million at the time.

All the while, the Ethereum network neared a planned upgrade that was so postponed on Jan. 19. The Constantinople hard fork was due to be activated at the end of the month, incorporating a number of Ethereum Improvement Proposals that would aid in the move from the currently used proof-of-work consensus algorithm to a proof-of-stake organisation.

A major feature of the upgrade would abolish out backwards compatibility in the network by requiring nodes to update along with the remainder of the system. If non, those nodes would be running on a seperate blockchain.

The curious case of Cotten'south QuadrigaCX

Early on in Feb, Canada's Ontario Securities Commission initiated a probe into missing funds at the at present-defunct QuadrigaCX cryptocurrency substitution.

Late in 2022, founder Gerald Cotten died in Republic of india and took with him the cognition of crucial wallet passwords that held millions of dollars worth of his clients' cryptocurrency holdings. Adding intrigue to the situation was the fact that Cotten had fabricated changes to his volition, which was released 12 days before his death. Cotten'southward married woman Jennifer Robertson was named as the sole beneficiary of his estate.

The Ontario Securities Commission eventually launched an investigation into the situation equally clients sought to recover their lost digital assets.

While QuadrigaCX users fought to recover their lost cryptocurrency in Ontario, an American pension fund in Virginia announced that it would straight invest a portion of its funds into the cryptocurrency and blockchain space through the Morgan Creek Digital firm.

The movement is considered to be the offset instance that a United States pension fund direct invested into cryptocurrency assets. 2 funds in the Fairfax County's Retirement Systems invested a total of $xl million into the Morgan Creek Blockchain Opportunities Fund.

Tesla'southward founder Elon Musk too plant his style into crypto news headlines afterwards giving Bitcoin a proverbial "thumbs upward" during a podcast interview in Feb. Musk gave credit to the "structure" of Bitcoin while highlighting the downside of the energy-intensive requirements of the cryptocurrency.

Musk too said that cryptocurrencies are a far meliorate way to transfer value than traditional paper means.

Ethereum cleared at the U.S. SEC; Tether and Bitfinex in the crosshairs

But days after finally implementing its Constantinople hard fork, Ethereum received a regulatory dark-green light that had been hanging in the balance for some time.

The Usa Securities Commutation Commission had been because the nature of Ethereum's original initial coin offering dorsum in 2022 and whether it had broken longstanding laws of securities offerings.

But on March 12, the SEC finally announced that Ethereum was non considered a security, and therefore wouldn't be regulated as such. The motion set a big precedent for token offerings that are similar to Ethereum which would otherwise be subject to stringent securities laws that have led to major lawsuits against ICOs over the past 24 months.

If the findings had been the other mode round, Ethereum may accept had to pay the SEC millions of dollars for conducting an illegal token offering.

While things looked up for Ethereum, the wider cryptocurrency community shifted its attention to Tether, the stablecoin that is linked to the U.S. dollar at a 1:one ratio.

Over the past two years, questions have been raised nigh the veracity of Tether'southward greenbacks reserves to back the amount of USDT in apportionment. A lack of an official third-party audit of its accounts was a major reason for the attention.

On March 14, users noticed that Tether had changed the terms of its reserve policy on its website. The website's fine print had changed to state that Tether tokens were backed by "traditional currency and greenbacks equivalents."

The move garnered plenty of suspicion from the cryptocurrency community regarding the fashion in which Tether was maintaining and managing reserves.

In Apr Tether and its affiliated cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex were back in the headlines. Bitfinex had been accused of using $850 million of Tether'southward cash reserves to cover losses and meet client fiat withdrawals.

The New York Attorney General's role requested a number of documents to be provided past Bitfinex in relation to the transfer of funds between the companies. Information technology was too suggested that the transactions had included a trade of shares and the residuum of the cash funds would be repaid with interest — points that were argued by both companies.

By the end of the calendar month, Tether's lawyers addressed concerns around the visitor's reserve policy. Legal documents given to the New York Attorney General showed that Tether but had enough cash reserves to comprehend 74% of outstanding USDT.

On the other side of the world, a written report revealed that an arm of the Chinese authorities had developed plans to curb cryptocurrency mining in the country as office of an industrial revision plan.

Binance hacked while Facebook's crypto project is unveiled

Early on in May, one of the world'south biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance, confirmed that it had been the victim of cyber theft in which over $40 million worth of Bitcoin was stolen from a hot wallet.

Hackers had reportedly obtained a variety of information including ii-cistron hallmark codes and API that allowed the attackers access to i of Binance'south hot wallets. A total 7000 BTC were stolen in the attack.

The attack was a reminder that even the biggest exchanges could fall prey to malicious forces. Binance had to suspend all deposits and withdrawals while it reviewed its safety systems in the wake of the incident.

All the while, ane of the biggest stories in the cryptocurrency space of 2022 began to unfold.

A report on May iii claimed that social media giant Facebook was officially looking to heighten $1 billion for an ambitious cryptocurrency and wallet project. The company was reportedly in talks with Mastercard and VISA about the launch of a native payment system for its users.

A month later, Facebook finally released the white paper for its proposed cryptocurrency and blockchain projection. Facebook'south Libra cryptocurrency was unveiled to the world alongside the digital wallet Calibra, created to support the token.

Buoyed past the positive sentiment in the space, Bitcoin also climbed above the $ten,000 mark for the get-go fourth dimension since March 2022. The bull run came to an unceremonious end that was directly attributed to the technical bug and crash of cryptocurrency commutation Coinbase on June 26. The price of BTC plummeted past over $i,400 just minutes afterward Coinbase's operation crashed.

Congress halts, grills Facebook over Libra plans

Facebook'southward plans for Libra came to a screeching halt at the beginning of July as the Usa congress requested a stop-order on the project.

The financial services committee laid out serious concerns in a letter to Facebook's leadership, saying that the project threatened the "privacy, trading, national security, and monetary policy concerns for non merely Facebook's over 2 billion users, but also for investors, consumers, and the broader global economy."

None other than president Donald Trump added a voice of detraction on Twitter, going as far every bit saying Libra would have "piddling standing or dependability" while slamming cryptocurrencies in general.

Ii weeks subsequently, Facebook was subjected to a three-day hearing by the U.S. Congress. Calibra's caput David Marcus was grilled for two days over the details of Libra and Calibra'due south plans. Congress was specifically interested in how Libra would be associated to Facebook and how it would work.

While Facebook'southward Libra dealt with a regulatory crackdown, Uk's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced at the cease of July that information technology would not regulate Bitcoin or Ethereum.

The regulator released an updated policy statement on cryptocurrencies labeling Bitcoin and Ethereum equally decentralized tokens that mainly act equally a means of exchange. The documentation confirmed that neither cryptocurrency fell under the jurisdiction of the FCA.

Proficient news for crypto traders

Cryptocurrency traders in America were given some good news as Digital asset platform Bakkt announced the launch engagement of its highly-anticipated cryptocurrency futures markets.

The company had a long battle to meet regulatory requirements in gild to provide the first regulated Bitcoin options and cash-settled futures and gear up its sights on a launch in late September.

The Bitcoin mining network hitting a major milestone equally the year rolled into September. Bitcoin's overall hashrate surpassed 100 quintillion hashes — a measure out that indicates the combined computing ability of the Bitcoin network.

Busy Oct as Zuckerberg enters the Congress–Libra fray

At the get-go of October, global payment processor PayPal appear its withdrawal from the Libra association.

The visitor was one of a number of heavyweights involved in the association, but the first loftier-profile one to pull out of the project. PayPal went on to tell Cointelegraph that it would keep options of future collaboration open.

A couple of days subsequently, Tether and Bitfinex were back in the news. The companies were the target of a class activity lawsuit instituted by Roche Freedman in the U.S.

The law firm alleged that both companies were responsible for defrauding investors, market manipulation, and hiding illicit earnings. Part of the lawsuit accuses both organisations of manipulating cryptocurrency markets by issuing unbacked USDT and using them to pump and dump markets.

Meanwhile, global messaging service Telegram found itself in the firing line of the U.S. SEC for its record-breaking token offering for the Telegram Open Network project. The SEC announced information technology would sue Telegram and TON for the unlicensed sale of GRM tokens in 2022.

The TON ICO raised over $1.seven billion through two private token sales, which required an investment of at least $1 million from prospective, accredited investors.

Issues started when Telegram's Gram Asia began selling the rights to its GRM tokens through a Japanese-based cryptocurrency substitution. The sale bankrupt the agreement of the original ICO and caught the attention of the SEC as an unregistered token auction.

Toward the end of the month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was called to bear witness before the U.S. Congress in order to farther discuss the Libra projection.

Zuckerberg assured Congress that Libra would not exist launched unless it was given full regulatory blessing in the U.Southward. and suggested that talks over Libra having a majority backing by the U.South. dollar could exist considered.

Positive moves for crypto in China and Bharat

November started off on a stronger note for the cryptocurrency industry as Chinese regime officially scrapped plans to enforce the ban on mining in the land.

Post-obit reports published before in 2022, an updated written report on Communist china's proposed industrial construction adjustments removed cryptocurrency mining from the list of undesirable industrial activities.

Meanwhile, India's parliament decided to delay a sitting that would await at its "Banning of Cryptocurrency & Regulation of Official Digital Currencies" bill. It is understood that the bill proposes a complete ban of cryptocurrency use in India while encapsulating details of a planned central bank issued digital rupee.

The delay was met with positivity from the wider cryptocurrency customs, because the massive population in India and the postponement of stifling laws.

ETH one step closer to PoS, exhumation central to unlocking QuadrigaCX funds?

Dec 2022 brought down the curtain on an interesting year for the cryptocurrency and blockchain sector.

Ethereum closed the yr past rolling out the Istanbul hard fork network upgrade. A cardinal part of the upgrade enables interoperability with Zcash every bit well as improves scaling and privacy functionality of the network.

On Dec. 9, Bakkt celebrated the launch of the commencement regulated Bitcoin options and cash-settled futures in the U.S.

Up in Canada, lawyers representing victims who lost funds in the defunct Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX filed to take the late Cotten's torso exhumed to prove his death.

Law business firm Miller Thomson accept requested that the Canadian Mounted Police perform a mail service-mortem autopsy to assuage concerns that Cotten is indeed deceased. Given the dubious circumstances surrounding his death and the loss of individual keys to cold wallets storing millions of user funds, lawyers want terminal proof that there has been no foul play.

A constantly irresolute landscape

The cease of 2022 brings down the curtain on an all-important decade for cryptocurrencies and blockchain. In the space of 10 years, Bitcoin has led the way for a wide variety of projects that have continued to milkshake upwards the space.

As the past 12 months have shown, some of the world's biggest institutions and businesses are actively looking to employ blockchain technology to improve the services they're offer to users around the world.

The challenge seems to exist keeping regulators happy with a variety of projects. Facebook's Libra plans are the perfect case of this, as the U.South. Congress went as far as proverb the project could form a new global financial system.

Digital payment systems of this calibration could well challenge the dominance of traditional fiat and global banking systems. The fact that Libra is being congenital on blockchain technology is simply another plume in the cap of the cryptocurrency movement.

Some things seemingly don't change. Security concerns volition always exist a challenge for cryptocurrency exchanges, while the cryptocurrency community volition continue to be openly critical of projects that aren't completely transparent about their operations.

Given the developments in 2022, the new year holds a lot of promise for the space. The likes of Facebook and Libra could well exist the large news makers once again adjacent year.