Bitcoin’s 60% year-to-date correction looks bad, but many stocks have fallen even more

Bitcoin’s (BTC) and Ether’s (ETH) agonizing price drops of 60% and 66% are drawing a lot of criticism from crypto critics and perhaps deservedly so, but there are also many stocks with similar, if not worse, performances.

The sharp volatility witnessed in crypto prices is partly driven by large centralized yield and lending platforms becoming insolvent, Three Arrows Capital’s bankruptcy and a handful of exchanges and mining pools facing liquidity problems.

For cryptocurrencies, 2022 has definitely not been a good year, and even Tesla sold 75% of its Bitcoin holdings in Q2 at a loss. The quasi-trillion dollar company still has a $218 million position, but the news certainly didn’t help investors’ perception of Bitcoin’s corporate adoption.

Cryptocurrencies are not the only assets affected by central banks withdrawing stimulus measures and raising interest rates. A handful of multi-billion dollar companies around the world have also suffered, with losses exceeding 85% in 2022 alone.

Cash-starved companies saw sharp declines in share prices

Unlike cryptocurrencies, companies, especially those listed on stock markets, depend on funding – whether the cash is used for mergers and acquisitions or day-to-day operations. That is why interest rates set by central banks dramatically affect debt-intensive sectors such as energy, car sales and technology.

Saipem (SPM.MI), an Italy-based provider of oil and gas engineering and exploration services for offshore and onshore projects, saw its shares fall 99.4% in 2022. The company had heavy losses that accounted for more than a third of its equity in 2021 and desperately needed cash to stay afloat as capital costs rose as interest rates rose.

Uniper ( UN01.DE ), a German energy company with more than 10,000 employees, faced severe impairments after the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project was suspended, forcing a 15 billion euro bailout in July 2022. But as energy prices continued to soar, Uniper could not fulfill its contracts and was nationalized by the German government in September 2022. The result was a 91.7% decline in its stock so far this year, down from a valuation of $14.5 billion.

Cazoo Group Ltd (CZOO) currently has a market cap of $466M, but the car retailer was valued at $4.55B at the end of 2021, a loss of 90%. Nevertheless, the UK-based company thrived under the restrictions imposed during lockdowns by offering a way to shop and rent cars online. Similarly, US car retailer Carvana ( CVNA ) saw its share price drop 87%.

Biotech companies I-Mab ( IMAB ) and Kodiak Sciences ( KOD ) lost 90% of their value in 2022. China-based I-Mab saw its shares sharply correct after partner AbbVie halted cancer treatment drug trials. Previously, the biotech company was eligible to receive up to $1.74 billion in success-based payments. North-American Kodiak Sciences also faced a similar fate after its lead drug failed in its Phase 3 clinical trial.

The technology sector is dependent on growth, which did not happen

Software services was another sector heavily impacted by lower growth and increased employment costs. For example, China-based Kingsoft Cloud Holdings (KC), a cloud service provider, posted a net loss of $533 million in the first quarter of 2022, followed by an even bigger loss in the following three months of $803 million. Consequently, shares traded down 87.6% year-to-date through September 22.

Other examples in the technology sector include Tuya Inc. (TUYA), an artificial intelligence and Internet of Things service provider. The company’s shares plunged 83.7% in 2022 despite a successful $915 million raise in March, as second-quarter revenue fell 27% from a year earlier. Tuya has also accumulated $187.5 million in losses over the past 12 months.

A handful of other tech companies saw 80% or larger corrections in 2022, including Cardlytics ( CDLX ), Bandwidth ( BAND ), Matterport ( MTTR ), and Zhihu ( ZH ). Every single one of these examples had a market cap of $1.5 billion or greater by the end of 2021, so these losses should not be dismissed.

There’s no sugarcoating Bitcoin’s lackluster performance, especially considering that many thought the digital scarcity would be enough to weather a turbulent year. Nevertheless, it cannot be said that the stock market has fared much better, adapted to the historical volatility and upswings in 2021.

Consequently, the volatility and sharp corrections are not exclusive to the sector, and investors cannot simply dismiss digital assets because of a 60% or 70% drop in 2022.