Bitcoin’s strong moves, whether bullish or bearish, are often exaggerated. When prices go up, the markets are euphoric and make the wildest predictions. Conversely, when prices fall, everything is over, everything is dead, cryptos are likely to disappear. Today we take a step back to go back in time, to (re)discover the various bear markets. Heading for the bear markets apart, from the newest to the oldest.
Bear Market #5 (Current): After High at $69,000, Bitcoin Falls Below $19,000
Catalyst : Russia and Ukraine conflict – Fed rate hike – Arbitrage attack and the fall of Terra – Massive leverage effects
fall : 72%
Top 5 before the bear market : Bitcoin (BTC) – Ethereum (ETH) – Binance Coin (BNB) – Ripple (XRP) – Cardano (ADA)
the bear market The current situation occurred in a particularly degraded macroeconomic context. The war in Ukraine, which began on February 24th, sent all the equity markets crashing. The equity indices, which rose sharply in 2021, wiped out almost all of them post-pandemic gains.
A logical consequence of a dramatic rise in the prices of raw materials related to the conflict: gas, oil, wheat, etc. In such an environment, large investors tend to flee from risky assets and take refuge in stable values (say “shelter”): AAA-rated government bonds (starting with United States Treasuries), US dollars, Gold…
In May, the TerraLuna ecosystem becomes a short selling attack which carries its stablecoin UST and its crypto LUNA. But the UST capitalized more than 14 billion dollars and was the 3th stablecoin market. The bankruptcy of the project has a ripple effect because several major players in LUNA / UST held large positions.
The foreign platform Celsius (12 billion dollars under management) was the first to announce the suspension of all its activities, ie especially freezing withdrawals of its 1.7 million customers. Two days later, it was Singapore’s fund turn Three Capital Arrows (up to 10 billion under management at the end of 2021) to lay down their arms, leaving many investors in distress there as well.
Bear Market #4 (2021): After peaking at $63,000, Bitcoin falls back to $29,000
Catalyst : Rumors About Mining Regulation – China’s Anti-Cryptocurrency Campaign
fall : 55%
Top 5 before the bear market : Bitcoin (BTC) – Ethereum (ETH) – Ripple (XRP) – Bitcoin Cash (BCH) – Cardano (ADA)
2021 was a bust year for BTC. The cryptocurrency crossed on February 18 the bar billion capitalists, having exceeded $53,700. This milestone follows 12 months of extreme volatility for Bitcoin, with the token’s capitalization rising more than 10 times since it emerged in the flash crash of “black thursday” in March 2020.
But shortly after hitting new all-time highs in mid-April, BTC fell back sharply to $29,000 within three months. What happened ? In retrospect, this minor bear market came amid a media story that suggested thethe devastating ecological impact of mining Bitcoin was worth a unprecedented turn of the screw from the states.
Tesla’s decision has made FUD around Bitcoin even worseAbandon BTC as a payment method in May, its CEO Elon Musk again arguing ESG concerns (just three months later, Musk admitted that about 50% of Bitcoin mining was powered by renewable energy).
The bear market did not last long. And this despite the fact that the Chinese state launched a major campaign of repression against local mining farms. The uptrend returned at the end of July as bitcoin finally hit its stride higher than ever $69,000 in November 2021.
Bear Market #3 (2018): Bitcoin falling below $3,300 after reaching $20,000 at the end of 2017
Catalyst : Coincheck Platform Hacks – Fed Rate Hike – Fraudulent EITs
fall : 84%
Top 5 before the bear market : Bitcoin (BTC) – Ethereum (ETH) – Ripple (XRP) – Bitcoin Cash (BCH) – Cardano (ADA)
Here again, a good year before a brutal fall. After rising to $1,000 in January 2017, BTC continues to rise and Cross $20,000 at the end of the year. However, the victory was short-lived: in a few months, he lost more than 60%, falling to 3200 dollars.
So it is in 2018 that we hear about it for the first timecrypt winter, refer to the series Game of thrones. And this winter begins with the difficulties associated with ConsecrationJapanese cryptocurrency exchange to undergo a mega-hack in January 2018. The attacker managed to steal nearly $530 million in NEM (XEM) tokens.
The impact in terms of reduced liquidity in the market is exacerbated by tech giants like Facebook and Google ban ads for EITs and crypto project announcements on their platforms in March and June 2018 respectively.
We can also attribute some of the bearish sentiment to the multiples Bitcoin spot ETF rejected Over there Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), despite the insistence of managers such as Grayscale, VanEck and ProShares.
Bear market #2 (2014): $1000 to less than $200 in early 2015
Catalyst : The closing of the Silk Road market – The bankruptcy of the Mt. Gox
fall : 85%
Top 5 before the bear market : Bitcoin (BTC) – Ethereum (ETH) – Ripple (XRP) – Litecoin (LTC) – Dash (DASH)
2013 is a very important year for the Bitcoin project. It is probably the most important of the project. First of all because in October 2013, the famous Silk Road platform officially arrested by the FBI. Silk Road was an online black market, the first modern marketplace for darkness. The importance of Silk Road must be emphasized because it represented in the history of Bitcoin the first form in which the token was widely accepted by users.
If Silk Road were taken offline on 25 October in the morningthe price of BTC continued to climb until the end of November before the market had fully digested the effects of the event.
Looking back over the years, it seems ironic that the media didn’t help paint a clear board reality. Even as the price of Bitcoin began to decline, the cryptosphere media remained eerily bullish …and not just any,”Bitcoin price hits $1,000 after doubling in 7 days. And after?” (CoinDesk), “Bitcoin Price Could Reach $98,500, Wall Street Analysts Predict” (still from CoinDesk).
The same during the long lateralization stage of BTC between January and May 2015. The general sentiment in the headlines was negative and many signs clearly indicated that the bottom had been recorded.
In the meantime, some aggravating events: the loss of 96,000 BTC on the Sheep platform (December 2013), the indictment of the CEO of the BitInstant platform for money laundering (January 2014) and of course the bankruptcy of the famous Mt. Gox led by “Bitcoin baron” Mark Karpelès (February 2014).
We left out on purpose bear market #1 (2011)who saw the first accident Bitcoin from $32 to $0.01. The price of Bitcoin broke its first psychological mark at $1 in late April 2011 to begin its first historic rally. But the joy of hitting $32 (on June 8) was cut short due to a hack on the platform of Mt. Gox (850,000 BTC) and a huge sales spiral.
Bitcoin price is hard to follow before 2013. Portals like CoinGecko Where CoinMarketCap BTC prices didn’t track until April 2013.
