I may not list in order of hotness and how it drove the space but I think I noticed this events
1. Bakkt
2. Libra coin
3. Craig wright as satoshi
4. Hack on exchanges like binance
5. Ethereum hardfork
Bakkt was a damp squib. Most people simply ignored Craig Wright. As for hacks, they happen so often, again no-one takes any notice.
Libra was the big event of the year - because it upset governments and started them thinking about regulation. Govts were not threatened by bitcoin or the other alts. But they hate the idea of stable coins which are pretending to be backed by fiat. And they hate Facebook and Zukerberg. So the two things coming together was explosive.
They basically hate anything that can take their power away. In cases like these we always watch bipartisan condemnation with speeches and news coverage. Be it Bitcoin or Zuckerberg they feel threatened and in need to regulate or ban. I have ethical reasons to disagree with the issue and use of a facebookcoin, because of their history of collecting private data and selling them to third parties and intelligence agencies. Governments have completely different reasons to oppose it.