Bitcoin’s precipitous plunge in price helped it become the world’s the most hated virtual currency in 2022, according to a survey by crypto education website Coin Kickoff.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value was the most disliked coin in 16 countries, led by Canada, Qatar and Finland.
Ethereum and solana were the world’s most loved, led by Indonesia, Russia and Uzbekistan.
Coin Kickoff came up with its love/hate ranking by analyzing more than 835,000 Twitter posts with the artificial intelligence algorithm HuggingFace.
Bitcoin lost 70% of its value in 2022, causing investors to vent their frustration on social media. Ethereum, crypto’s second-largest currency, fell almost as much, dropping by 67.5%, but was spared the backlash.
Coin Kickoff noted, in contrast to bitcoin, many of ethereum’s projects are based around decentralized finance (DeFi) — which aims to broaden the usage of cryptocurrencies for more complex transactions such as loans.
Solana was also loved, despite losing 94% of its value. Its network suffered over five outages, numerous hacks and fallout from FTX’s bankruptcy with FTX and sister company Alameda Trading holding 10.7% of its tokens, according to Coin Telegraph.
Recent rally
Sentiment for bitcoin may improve with its recent price recovery.
Ian Wright, the crypto expert behind Coin Kickoff, told FOX Business: “While it is still 67% down on its all-time high, investors are confident that the current economic climate in the U.S. and bitcoin’s standing as the pre-eminent crypto coin will yield further gains as the year progresses.”
FxPro senior market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich was more cautious. “Despite the positive performance of the U.S. stock indices, bitcoin continued its unsuccessful attempts to consolidate above $23,000 on Wednesday. The crypto market has, at least, paused after rallying since the beginning of the year,” he said.
Wright added that investors will look to see whether etherum can hit $5,000 in 2023.
“Like bitcoin, its value is rallying as a result of economic conditions. It is still highly regarded within the U.S. crypto community because of its long-term potential and the blockchain base for many of the industry’s most exciting prospects,” he told FOX Business.
Solana is benefiting from bonk, a new coin launched on its blockchain in December. Bonk rocketed 5,000% by early January, but has since fallen back, though it was up 910% year-to-date as of last week.
Surprisingly, bitcoin was not America’s most hated virtual currency.
America’s Top 5 hated by percentage of negative tweets:
1. Axie Infinity (32.34%) lost 90% of its value in 2022. Hackers stole $625 million from its Ronin Network and the player base for its games dwindled due to competition for virtual 3D worlds.
2. 1inch Network (31.59%) saw its value peak in 2021 at almost $7.50 against the dollar. Its performance was much more sluggish in 2022 as a result of the wider turmoil in the crypto market.
3. Terra (27.35%) was one of crypto’s high-profile casualties of 2022. Despite a promising introduction where startup Terraform Labs secured $200 million in funding, the blockchain collapsed in May 2022 — wiping out $45 billion of market capitalization in a week. Its founders Do Kwon and Daniel Shin have been sued in Singapore, Korea and the U.S. for alleged financial irregularities, and authorities in Seoul issued an arrest warrant for Shin in November 2022.
4. Uniswap (22.00%) peaked at $42 against the dollar and has yet to see its value move past the $10 mark.
5. Holochain (21.24%) is billed as a more ethical alternative to the centralized crypto offerings. Holo allows customers to make their own choices and create more transparency around its blockchain technology. However, the coin is still valued at just $0.02 against the dollar.
