When Will This Bear Market End?

History has a lot to teach us about cryptocurrency bear markets. This is not crypto’s first time in the doldrums of value, and it’s unlikely to be the last. Just like the stock markets, the crypto markets experience times of extraordinary growth and loss. 

Since Bitcoin prices are as good an approximation of health as any, we’ll be tracing the rises and falls of Bitcoin up until this point to know just how long bear markets generally last. 

2011

The first real bear crash was when Bitcoin went from being worth around $32 to around $0.01.

In essence, the coin lost almost one hundred percent of its value. At the time, the coin was barely two years old and there was a lot less market support for cryptocurrencies as a whole. 

The extraordinary thing about that bear market was that the coin went from $1 to be worth $32 in about three months. This represents a 3200% growth.

And the crash to $0.01 happened in just a few days. The crash was largely due to security concerns at a Japanese exchange, which had lost around 850,000 bitcoins in a hack. This destroyed market support for Bitcoin. The crash did not last for too long however, as Bitcoin hit that $32 mark again in 20 months. 

2015

Bitcoin had an amazing time from February 2013 to November 2013. It went from around $32 to $1,000 in just a few months. That was extraordinary growth, and this cycle made a lot of financial institutions sit up. However, the coin, and the market it led, had not been tested at that level. 

And it almost fell apart when it experienced its first test. Shortly after getting to $1,000, another bear market was triggered. This time it was because the Chinese Central Bank was cracking down on crypto. The bank prohibited local financial institutions from handling BTC transactions, thereby driving BTC traders underground. 

That bear market continued for a while yet and drove the coin to a low of $170 in January 2015. However, Chinese distrust of Bitcoin wasn’t the only factor afoot. The same Japanese exchange that caused the bear market in 2011 got hacked again, which led to a prolonged bear market as crypto lost legitimacy. 

Bitcoin eventually returned to the $1,000 mark and the crypto market eventually got its mojo back around the same time, but this took a full three years.

2018

The next bear market came shortly after Bitcoin reached new dizzying heights. The coin, and the crypto market with it, blitzed past the $1,000 mark and reached $20,000. 

Several other coins reached all-time highs as well. By the end of 2017, ETH was trading at around $700, surpassing its ATHof $330 in June of the same year. 

But the next bear market hit by the beginning of 2018, and ETH went as low as $155. Bitcoin also hit $3,200 around the same period.

However, by the middle of 2019, the market was growing again. While the market would only reach previous highs at the end of 2020, the interim period was one of sure growth. 

The 2018 crypto winter, as it was called, was the most devastating crypto crunch up until that point. Interestingly, this winter also kicked off with another Japanese crypto exchange suffering a gigantic hack. 

As Facebook and Google banned ads for ICOs and token sales ads, things got even worse for the market. Global crypto regulations contributed to the market and the SEC began rejecting applications for BTC exchange funds.