Hey there, fellow crypto fan!

With the new year around the corner and holidays still winding down, we decided to put together a special issue of First Mover to recap all the wild happenings in the cryptocurrency markets over the recent months.

There was hardly a dull moment! And we've been here to capture it all in First Mover. Here were some of the highlights that we covered during this time...

The market continues to digest the FTX collapse contagion as it led to the bankruptcy of BlockFi. Also, Binance agreed to buy bankrupt Voyager Digital's assets for $1.02B. The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) has traded in a range this month - hitting a high of 879 on December 14 and reaching a low of 772 on December 19.

A wave of miner bankruptcies could keep bitcoin under pressure in the first quarter of 2023, VanEck's Matthew Sigel said. But he forecast a bull revival in the second half of the year.

Bitcoin has never seen a death cross on its weekly chart before and the ominous-sounding indicator has a bad reputation of trapping sellers on the wrong side in traditional markets.

Back in August, when FTX stepped in to rescue BlockFi from bankruptcy after the Terra meltdown, it helped restore confidence in the crypto markets and the CMI stood at just above 1,000.

Flash forward to November, FTX collapsed, sparking outrage among customers and raising questions about Sam Bankman-Fried and the level of corporate controls at the exchange. The incident sparked renewed calls for stronger regulation in the crypto industry.

The FTX token (FTT) plummeted from $25 to $1.5. The CMI fell to a low of 795 as investors continued their exodus.

The stagnant dominance rate represents several developments, including an exodus of investors from the market. One analyst said investors are turning to cash.

Previous bear markets ended with the majority of addresses being out of the money, on-chain data shows, indicating bearish momentum could subside.

Following the shocking (and still-unfolding) developments in the crypto industry involving the rapid unraveling of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX exchange and Alameda Research trading firm, analysts with CoinDesk Indices worked with CoinDesk journalists to put together an annotated chart of the movements in the 162-asset CoinDesk Market Index (CMI). The chart (featured above) shows how digital-asset traders scrambled to keep up.

Elon Musk closed his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, sending Dogecoin's (DOGE) price over 100% for the month.

DOGE led the pack among cryptos in October with 17 times bitcoin's gains.

After years of development and delay, the Ethereum Merge successfully migrated the digital machinery at the core of the second-largest cryptocurrency to a much more energy-efficient system. Ether (ETH) rallied to $1,175 before selling off.

While Ethereum’s switch to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism from proof-of-work (PoW), a transition known as the Merge, doesn't address concerns about the blockchain’s scalability or high transaction fees, it has implications that reach beyond simply acting as a precursor for the next stage in the process, the Surge. The notable reduction in energy consumption after the Merge may allow some institutional investors to purchase ether (ETH) for the first time.

The CoinDesk Market Outlook: 4Q Crypto Gloom Spills Into 2023 provides a comprehensive fourth-quarter review and outlook of crypto markets, based on the CoinDesk Market Ex Stablecoins Index (CMIX) and sector indices.