The 2022 Crypto Winter: Where Are the Key Players Now?
It’s hard to forget the chaos of 2022—the year the crypto market froze over. Billions vanished almost overnight, and trust in the industry crumbled. Some called it a necessary reckoning. Others saw it as pure carnage. Either way, the fallout was brutal.
Three years later, the market has clawed back much of its value. But for the people at the center of the storm, the consequences are far from over. Some are in prison. Others are fighting legal battles. A few are still dodging accountability. Here’s where they stand now.
Sam Bankman-Fried: The Fallen King of FTX
Sam Bankman-Fried, once the golden boy of crypto, is serving a 25-year sentence in a California federal prison. His exchange, FTX, collapsed in late 2022 after it was revealed that customer funds had been funneled into risky bets at his hedge fund, Alameda Research.
There’s a chance his sentence could be trimmed by a few years for good behavior. But even if that happens, he won’t see freedom until the 2040s. Meanwhile, FTX’s bankruptcy process has been surprisingly effective—creditors might actually get all their money back, plus interest.
Caroline Ellison: The Cooperating Witness
Ellison, who ran Alameda Research, got off lighter than her former boss. She cooperated with prosecutors, testifying against Bankman-Fried in exchange for a reduced sentence. She’s now serving two years in a low-security Connecticut prison.
Alameda, like FTX, is long gone. Its remains are tangled up in the same bankruptcy proceedings.
Do Kwon: Still Waiting for Judgment
The man behind Terraform Labs—and the catastrophic collapse of TerraUSD and Luna—isn’t in prison yet, but he’s close. After being arrested in Montenegro for using fake travel documents, he was extradited to the U.S. last December.
His trial on fraud charges starts in early 2026. In the meantime, Terraform Labs has been liquidated, and Kwon’s been banned from the securities industry.
Alex Mashinsky: The Celsius Collapse
Mashinsky, the former CEO of Celsius Network, is serving 12 years for fraud. His platform promised safe, high-yield crypto deposits but turned out to be anything but. When Celsius froze withdrawals in mid-2022, it was a wake-up call for the whole industry.
The company has since reorganized, paying back some creditors and even launching a Bitcoin mining venture. But for Mashinsky, the damage is done.
Su Zhu and Kyle Davies: The Hedge Fund Flameout
The founders of Three Arrows Capital (3AC) were once crypto royalty. Then their hedge fund imploded, taking lenders down with it. Zhu served a short prison stint in Singapore. Davies has mostly stayed out of reach.
Both are banned from Singapore’s financial industry for nearly a decade. 3AC’s liquidation is still dragging on, with billions in claims left unresolved.
The 2022 crash feels like ancient history now—unless you were one of the people who caused it. For them, the reckoning isn’t over yet.
