From Sam Bankman-Fried’s arrest to bitcoin plunging, here are the 9 craziest crypto stories of 2022

In June, bitcoin dropped below $20,000 for the first time since 2020, increasing its losses for the year to over 60%.

Investors see $20,000 as a key psychological level for bitcoin — that is, it signals something meaningful about the leading crypto’s direction.

That’s because the token surged dramatically to about $20,000 in 2017, during that year’s bull market, to set a then-record high. But it then went through a series of crashes in 2018 that pulled its price down to below $4,000.

Bitcoin’s fall weighed on the wider crypto market in 2022. By the end of June, ethereum was hovering just above $1,000. Meanwhile, while altcoins solana and polkadot traded at 90% below the record levels they reached in 2021.