By nearly any metric, 2022 was for just about every cryptocurrency. As a result of sudden market implosions and spectacular crypto collapses, there was a serious erosion of investor trust in crypto as an asset class. In a year that saw both Bitcoin and Ethereum plummet by more than 65%, risky altcoins were hit even harder, with some falling by 90% or more.

The big question, of course, is whether investors oversold some of those coins as part of a panicked flight to quality. If you're looking for a contrarian approach to 2023, then it's time to start looking for the hidden values in the crypto market. Here are three contrarian plays for the year ahead, with a brief explanation of why each could take off in 2023.

Solana (CRYPTO: SOL), which declined almost 95% in 2022, was one of the worst-performing cryptos. The year started off poorly, with a series of network outages for its blockchain, and it got steadily worse. For one, there was a collapse of the non-fungible token (NFT) market, where Solana had been making steady progress as a potential Ethereum challenger. And second, there was the spectacular meltdown of crypto exchange FTX in November, when investors panicked after realizing how prominent a role former FTX Chief Executive Officer Sam Bankman-Fried played in funding and promoting Solana.

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Source Fool.com