Cryptoverse: Bye-bye to the year that broke bitcoin

FILE PHOTO: A representation of bitcoin is seen in an illustration picture taken on June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

(Reuters) - Bitcoin staggered into 2022. It ends the year slumped in an alleyway, robbed of its cocktail of cheap money and leveraged bets, shunned by the establishment.

The preeminent cryptocurrency has lost 60% of its value, while the wider crypto market has shrunk by $1.4 trillion, squashed by rising interest rates, vanishing risk appetite and corporate collapses including Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX.