We’ll come right out and say it: Web3 did not have the year it had in 2022.

The fledgling space entered 2023 like a battered race car heaving into a pit stop, hardly two months removed from the dramatic collapse of FTX. An ongoing crypto winter, a shrinking market for NFTs and a graveyard metaverse further conspired to make the new year a bearish one.

Yet in spite of all its impediments, Web3 still managed to deliver some fascinating outcomes. Brands continued to offer quirky virtual experiences, opting mostly for tried-and-trusted platforms such as Roblox. Crypto companies, advertising at a much lower volume, warred with each other.

And Meta, the self-proclaimed harbinger of the metaverse, made moves that will inform the space’s future—for better or worse.

Ad Age has chosen the top five Web3 moments from the past year. Some are promising, some are not, but each demands our attention in its own way.

No. 5: Kraft’s mayo-themed virtual bonanza

Kraft did not skimp on the mayonnaise when it came to the Mayoverse, a virtual activation that is as messy and marvelous as it sounds. Developed with Wieden+Kennedy, Kraft first sourced mayonnaise-themed fantasies from fans on Reddit and Twitter. The result was a branded experience that digitally brought to life a few of these ideas.

Mayocean, for example, allowed fans to peruse a mayo-covered beach, with the option to drop more mayo on features such as beach chairs and a diving board. The experience also included a Mayo House, Mayobot and Mayo Bash—all of which offered chances to take selfies and collect a gift shop item. Mayoverse was accessible via a microsite, social media and QR codes on out-of-home placements.

Read more food marketing news from Ad Age

No. 4: Meta’s metaverse metastasis

If 2022 was the year that Meta went full steam ahead into the metaverse, 2023 is when that vision started to unravel. Concerns about long-term viability metastasized, leading to Meta shifting its attention to the healthier prognosis for AI as well as making some reversals to its Web3 plans.

In March, U.S. Senators sent CEO Mark Zuckerberg a letter urging him to prohibit children from accessing its Horizon Worlds platform, citing Meta’s poor track record in protecting young people online. The following month, Meta wound down NFT functionality on Instagram and Facebook—an experiment that lasted barely one year.

Then, on a call in August discussing Meta’s quarterly report, investors berated Zuckerberg with questions over why he was still investing so much money in the metaverse. 

“I kind of get that a lot of investors might want to see us spending less here in the near term,” Zuckerberg said. “My view is that we are leading in these areas. I believe that they're going to be big over time.”

In October, Meta laid off a portion of its metaverse division, Reality Labs. The cuts, unclear in size, affected employees in the Facebook Agile Silicon Team, which is tasked with creating custom silicon chips to power hardware such as Meta’s AR glasses.

No. 3: Apple enters the metaverse … maybe

After much anticipation, Apple finally jumped into the metaverse-adjacent world with the unveiling of its Vision Pro mixed reality headset in June. The device, which will be released in early 2024 for $3,499 a pop, can switch between an augmented reality setting and a more immersive setting, and will ultimately cater to hundreds of applications spanning gaming, productivity and entertainment. It will compete with similar though hitherto unsuccessful headsets from companies including Meta and Sony.

But while digital avatars—considered an integral part of metaverse identity—will be enabled in FaceTime, Apple’s explicit embrace of the metaverse remains dubious. Apple never once used the term “metaverse” or “virtual reality” to describe Vision Pro at its unveiling, preferring instead “spatial computing.” The omission seems intentional; CEO Tim Cook has previously criticized the metaverse for being inscrutable to everyday people. 

No. 2: OKX scraps Super Bowl ad over FTX fallout

FTX’s collapse brought many aftershocks, one of which was rival exchange OKX’s decision to scrap its ad for the Super Bowl.

“It just feels like bad manners,” Haider Rafique, OKX’s chief marketing officer, told Ad Age at the time, mere days before the game. “No one wanted to hear from a crypto brand except an apology, which [at the time] was missing.”

While OKX had not officially bought a placement from Fox, it had budgeted $15 million and deliberated ideas for the spot with BBDO New York, its agency of record. One such idea was to cast Jonah Hill as Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX’s disgraced former CEO, although Hill was never formally contacted for discussion.

The conservative move by OKX is quite a contrast from the previous year’s Super Bowl, in which numerous crypto-related companies aired ads during the big game. Dubbed by some as “Crypto Bowl,” the blitz was one of the last major advertising pushes seen by the crypto industry before relative silence set in.

No. 1: Mastercard NFT lead mints NFT resignation letter

One of the sadder realities of Web3’s faltering has been the attrition of many workers, some of whom experienced difficulties beyond those caused by mere market disruption. One such individual is Satvik Sethi, the former product lead of NFTs for Mastercard’s blockchain and digital assets department, who resigned from his position in February after alleging he faced harassment and emotional distress at the hands of the credit card giant.

But as he was departing, Sethi did one really interesting thing: He minted his resignation letter as an NFT, and used the proceeds to financially support himself. The move, which of course felt like a delicious jab at his former employer, was also an innovative twist to a quite unfortunate situation.

At its worst, the world of NFTs can feel exclusive, pretentious and dumb, but Sethi showed a different side to the technology, namely, its usefulness. By minting his resignation letter, Sethi was able to create a simple crowdsourcing effort, resulting in the sale of 169 tokens for 0.023 ETH a piece. That’s a pool of over $8,000—if he hasn’t sold any of it—that could go a long way.

Like the top spot in last year’s final roundup, this year’s No. 1 gestures to something deeper than drama or creativity. It suggests a possible goodness in Web3, bolstered by innovation, artistry and community. At the very least, moments like Sethi’s give hope that maybe this whole space is onto something after all.