1. Home
  2. crypto bear market

crypto bear market

Crypto bear market will provide ‘excellent’ M&A opportunities: White Rock CEO

“The sector has been here before and well capitalized and efficient miners will do just fine,” said White Rock CEO Andy Long.

White Rock Management CEO Andy Long believes bear markets "present excellent opportunities” for expansion via mergers and acquisitions in the crypto mining sector.

Speaking with Cointelegraph, the crypto mining company CEO noted that companies who have managed their balance sheets effectively are in “great shape” during this bear market, and will continue to do well even if there’s more volatility to come.

“The bear market has presented challenges for the miners who leveraged up at the top of the market, however, the sector has been here before, and well capitalized and efficient miners will do just fine,” he said.

Long suggested that the current bear trend will provide key merger and acquisition opportunities for such companies, as they will have proven to investors that they can survive extreme market conditions:

“Bear markets actually present excellent opportunities, so we expect to see M&A and consolidation activity in the mining sector involving both public and private players — to realize economies of scale and combine complementary operations.”

“We'll also see network growth picking up again, not to the level forecasted at the end of the year, but we'll likely be at least 20% higher by year-end,” he added.

Long also noted that the Texas mining sector has done well despite the ongoing heatwave. He noted the sector's effective coordination with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to overcome energy supply issues over the past couple of months:

“There's a ton of activity in Texas and the mining sector is in great shape. Grid-connected miners are working with ERCOT to provide demand response during challenging weather, and we see continued growth ahead across the state.”

White Rock is a crypto mining firm based out of Switzerland, that claims to have around 24 MegaWatts worth of plant capacity installed.

In June announced plans to expand its operations to the U.S., starting with Texas. As part of the move, White Rock partnered with Natural Gas Onsite Neutralization (NGON) to operate out of its facility which utilizes “environmentally responsible” methods to mine Bitcoin (BTC).

Heat waves

As previously reported on July 11, mining firms such as Riot Blockchain and Core Scientific powered down parts of their Texas mining operations in June to reduce stress on the energy grid following temperatures rising well over 100 degrees.

Both f were proactive in easing the pressure on Texas’ energy supply, but another contributing factor was that energy prices had soared amid the heat wave.

Related: Will the Bitcoin mining industry collapse? Analysts explain why crisis is really opportunity

As a result of the move, the firms suffered reduced mining productivity. However, with the price of BTC gaining 14.7% over the past month, and with temperatures looking set to drop slightly to around the 90-degree mark, there is a feeling that miners will be switching their machines back on as the BTC mining profitability will be too good to ignore.

“The Bitcoin price increase has led to increased profitability for miners and some miners who were pushed offline in June and July have likely plugged in their machines again,” noted Jaran Mellerud, a crypto-mining analyst at a research firm Arcane Crypto, in an interview with Bloomberg on Aug. 5.

The price of Bitcoin is sitting at $23,088 at the time of writing. 

These Catalysts Could Spark 6x Bitcoin Explosion During ‘Challenging Times’: Standard Chartered Executive

Bloomberg analyst tips bullish BTC recovery in next six months

The price of BTC could be set for a bullish rebound this year, says Bloomberg’s senior commodity strategist Mike McGlon, as the market shows similar signs to the bottom of 2018.

Bloomberg’s senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone is tipping that the price of Bitcoin (BTC) will rebound in the second half (2H) of 2022.

Sharing his thoughts to his 48,100 Twitter followers on July 6, McGlone saw positive signs in the data Bloomberg’s Galaxy Crypto Index (BGCI) and the 50-week and 100-week moving averages of BTC’s price. He suggested that the current indicators are showing similar signs to the bottom of the bear market in 2018, which preceded a strong rebound in the first half of 2019.

“With the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index nearing a similar drawdown as the 2018 bottom and Bitcoin’s discount to its 50- and 100-week moving averages similar to past foundations, risk vs. reward is tilting toward responsive investors in 2H.”

The BCGI is designed to measure the performance of the largest crypto assets to ascertain a general view of the market’s overall performance. Moving averages pinpoint the average price of an asset over a specific amount of time such as 50 or 100 days.

Crypto Winter in 2018 was a rough time for BTC, as the price plunged down from the $16,000 region in January to a market bottom of around $3,200 by mid-December according to data from Coingecko. Following the carnage however, BTC went on to pump to around $13,000 by late June.

McGlone predict in a follow up post that BTC is either on track for “one of the greatest bull markets in history at a relatively discounted price to start 2H” or that data is showing that the crypto market is starting to fail and scare away investors.

“Our bias is [that] Bitcoin adoption is more likely to continue rising,” he said.

McGlone likened the wash out in 1H to the “2000-02's bursting Internet bubble” which saw many firms tank but also paved the way for top companies like Amazon and eBay to grow.

Weighing over the analysis however is the fact the bearish conditions have been in large part in response to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s hawkish monetary policy and inflation reel-in attempts via a series of interest rate hikes.

In 2022, BTC and the overall crypto market has suffered from several macro factors such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, global regulation and unemployment rates. Meanwhile crypto projects and companies imploding has turned sentiment even more bearish.

Related: Crypto owners banned from working on US Government crypto policies

On June 5, McGlone noted that if the stock market keeps dropping in a “similar velocity as in 1H”, the latest interest 75 basis point rate hike from the Fed in June could be the last one of the year, as the government works to avoid a recession. Such an outcome could result in a bounce across asset classes as investors re-enter the market.

These Catalysts Could Spark 6x Bitcoin Explosion During ‘Challenging Times’: Standard Chartered Executive

The bottom is in: CNBC’s Jim Cramer says crypto has “no real value”

Mad Money host Jim Cramer has changed his sentiment on crypto again, predicting the total market cap will tank below $1 trillion as “there’s no real value there.”

Given his track record, some in the crypto community believe the market bottom may now be in after CNBC host Jim Cramer said there was “no real value in crypto” and predicted the market would tumble further.

Cramer is known for giving his investment expertise as the host of CNBC’s Mad Money, but has developed a reputation in the crypto community for giving stock and crypto tips that generally end up being wide of the mark, or the complete opposite of his prediction.

His predictions, along with his on-again off-again love-hate relationship with crypto have become a popular meme among the community over the past few years.

Appearing on a segment of CNBC’s Squawk Box on July 5, Cramer was commenting on the bearish performance of various asset classes in 2022. He stated that the current sector he is currently “most interested in” is crypto as he slammed it as essentially being worthless while predicting more carnage ahead.

"Crypto really does seem to be imploding. Went from $3 trillion to $1 trillion. Why should it stop at $1 trillion? There's no real value there."

“How many companies can Sam Bankman-Fried save?” he added.

The comments are in stark contrast to just two months earlier when Cramer enthusiastically stated that he was a “believer” in Ethereum, and “you could easily get 35-40%” return on investment in the near future.

This prediction occurred when Ether (ETH) was priced at roughly $3,000, and the price has since dropped 62% since then.

During the segment, Cramer also went after NFTs, as he questioned the amount of money that is being thrown around on such an “awful” asset class:

“NFTs, I mean, you look at these companies that you’ve never heard of and they blew up over the weekend, and you say to yourself, holy cow, there’s $600 million just going down the drain. [...] What an awful asset. NFTs sold to you. Made up."

In response to Cramer’s tips, user accounts such as the “Inverse Cramer ETF” have sprouted up on Twitter which tracks “the stock recommendations of Jim Cramer so you can do the opposite.”

The profile has obtained 62,800 followers so far and has recently observed the stock prices of Ford and Nike dropping 25% and 7% apiece since Cramer recommended buying them.

Cramer first bought Bitcoin (BTC) back in December 2020. During the bear market in June last year, Cramer stated he sold all of his BTC saying the price is “not going up because of structural reasons.” Four months later the price of BTC surged to its ATH of roughly $69,000.

Related: Bitcoin price swings 7.5% during intraday trading as US recession concerns mount

Another notable tip occurred in August 2021, when Cramer suggested buying Coinbase stock COIN as it was “cheap” at roughly $248. At time of writing, COIN is priced at $55.41 according to Yahoo Finance.

These Catalysts Could Spark 6x Bitcoin Explosion During ‘Challenging Times’: Standard Chartered Executive

Bitcoin ‘tourists’ have been purged, only hodlers remain: Glassnode

Active addresses, entities, and transactions on the Bitcoin network are all moving sideways while the number of wallets holding at least some of the assets continues to reach new highs.

So-called “market tourists” are fleeing from Bitcoin (BTC), leaving only long-term investors holding and transacting in the top cryptocurrency, according to blockchain analytics firm Glassnode.

In its July 4 Week Onchain report, Glassnode analysts said June saw Bitcoin have one of its worst-performing months in 11 years, with a loss of 37.9%. It added activity on the Bitcoin network is at levels concurrent with the deepest part of the bear market in 2018 and 2019, writing:

“The Bitcoin network is approaching a state where almost all speculative entities, and market tourists have been completely purged from the asset.”

However, despite the almost complete purge of “tourists,” Glassnode noted significant accumulation levels, stating that the balances of shrimps — those holding less than 1 BTC, and whales — those with 1,000 to 5,000 BTC, were “increasing meaningfully.”

Shrimps, in particular, see the current Bitcoin prices as attractive and are accumulating it at a rate of almost 60,500 BTC per month, which Glassnode says is “the most aggressive rate in history,” equivalent to 0.32% of the BTC supply per month.

Explaining the purge of these tourist-type investors, Glassnode revealed that both the number of active addresses and entities have seen a downtrend since November 2021, implying new and existing investors alike are not interacting with the network.

Address activity has fallen from over 1 million daily active addresses in November 2021 to around 870,000 per day over the past week. Similarly, active entities, a collation of multiple addresses owned by the same person or institution, are now approximately 244,000 per day, which Glassnode says is around the “lower end of the ‘Low Activity’ channel typical of bear markets.”

“A retention of HODLers is more evident in this metric, as Active Entities is generally trending sideways, indicative of a stable base-load of users,” the analysts added.

Source: Glassnode

The growth of new entities has also dived to lows from the 2018 to 2019 bear market, with the user-base of Bitcoin hitting 7,000 daily net new entities.

The transaction count remains “stagnant and sideways,” which indicates a lack of new demand but also means that holders are being retained through the market conditions.

“Transactional demand can be seen to move sideways throughout the main body of the bear,” - Glassnode

Related: Institutional investors shorting Bitcoin made up 80% of weekly inflows

Driving home its point, Glassnode concluded that the number of addresses with a non-zero balance, those that hold at least some Bitcoin, continues to hit all-time-highs and is currently sitting at over 42.3 million addresses.

Past bear markets saw a purge of wallets when the price of Bitcoin collapsed. Still, with this metric indicating otherwise, Glassnode says it shows an “increasing level of resolve amongst the average Bitcoin participant.”

These Catalysts Could Spark 6x Bitcoin Explosion During ‘Challenging Times’: Standard Chartered Executive

June gloom takes on a new meaning in another 2022 down month

The addresses mainly run by active human traders have notched more than 147,000 addresses for the first time since November.

The market cap of Bitcoin (BTC) dropped another 33% in June, which is now beginning to numb the Twitter community. On the upside, many crypto traders who wanted out did so fairly aggressively from March to May. But, the less optimistic news is that the stagnancy in address activity may need to change for prices to get a running start on recovery.

Unlike April and May, the altcoin pack didn’t struggle tremendously more than Bitcoin. BTC’s 33% drop was pretty middle of the road in terms of corrections. In a vacuum, crypto bulls would prefer seeing altcoins continuing to lag, pushing more traders back toward Bitcoin as a relative “safe haven.”

Nevertheless, June was a tale of two halves. June 1-15 saw a massive 25% further downswing for Bitcoin. Comparatively, June 16-30 was looking up until the very end of the month, which now exhibits an additional 8% slide.

The $20,000 price level has shown to be both psychological support and resistance area. Therefore, a drop below (which could very well occur by the time this article is published) may quickly change traders’ outlook. Panic selling and overly eager buying should occur as soon as the $19,500 to $19,900 range is hit.

Social dominance has returned to Bitcoin and away from altcoins

So far, 2022 has served as a reality check for altcoins whose market caps have ballooned to astronomic levels in the past two years. As mentioned, Bitcoin was nothing special compared to alts in June, but it has held up better than most projects and even a few stablecoins. As a result, the spotlight shines bright on Bitcoin, as evidenced by a healthy community focus.

This phenomenon was reflected in the whole last week of June. Bitcoin was mentioned on Santiment’s social platforms at its highest rate in about four months, while the discussion around other popular assets like Ether (ETH) and Cardano (ADA) continues to diminish.

Trading returns still point to a major undervaluation of Bitcoin and most altcoins

The average 30-day trading returns on the BTC network are still very negative. And, as long they are in the yellow-green or green territory in the below chart, there is less risk in entering a Bitcoin position (or adding on to) than historical results.

Price freefalls tend to reverse if they go into the extreme low (green) territory, and that would be the ideal setup to watch for on Sanbase.

The number of whale addresses is growing rapidly

Another positive note for patient crypto hodlers, regardless of the asset, is that more and more Bitcoin shark and whale addresses are returning to the network. The addresses, mainly run by active human traders, sized 10 to 10,000 BTC, have over 147,000 addresses for the first time since November. Meanwhile, the very top-tier addresses owned primarily by exchanges (10,000 or more) showed over 100 addresses for the first time since December 2020.

And, speaking of supply moving on and off-exchange addresses, the overall trend shows BTC continuing to move away from exchanges after a brief worrisome rise in May. Now, well below 10% of coins sitting on exchanges, there is far less selloff risk (based on historical trends). And, to add to this, the amount of Tether (USDT) moving to exchanges has skyrocketed, implying more buying power at these suppressed prices.

Ethereum seeing far more negativity than any other large-cap asset

Not to be ignored, Ethereum has had a well-documented 76% retracement since its all-time high in November. When looking at the ratio of positive vs. negative commentary being scraped by our social data algorithm, there appears to be a stunning dropoff in positive comments in early June. The 37% price drop between June 9 and 13 was the culprit and the last straw for many traders. As counterintuitive as it may seem, these “last straws” is what the community at Santiment expects to see for the market to stage a comeback.

Cardano is also seeing the equivalent of slowly rolling tumbleweeds around its network. The number of unique addresses interacting on the Cardano network is down to its lowest in about a year. The sentiment is gradually sinking for Cardano as well, which is likely due to a simple absence of discussion more than anything.

Traders heading into the second half with extreme skepticism

It is hard for the trading community to find any excitement in the abysmal price performances that continue to persist month after month in 2022. Yet, price surges happen when the mainstream casts the most doubts. Still, nothing is for certain in a sentiment-driven and often self-perpetuating sector like cryptocurrency. But, the more the crypto community is leaning bearish and proclaiming its crypto winter time, the higher the chance of a recovery underway.

Cointelegraph’s Market Insights Newsletter shares our knowledge on the fundamentals that move the digital asset market. This analysis was prepared by leading analytics provider Santiment, a market intelligence platform that provides on-chain, social media and development information on 2,000+ cryptocurrencies.

Santiment develops hundreds of tools, strategies and indicators to help users better understand cryptocurrency market behavior and identify data-driven investment opportunities.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the post are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security or investment product.

These Catalysts Could Spark 6x Bitcoin Explosion During ‘Challenging Times’: Standard Chartered Executive

Banking Giant JPMorgan Says Bitcoin and Crypto Meltdown May Be Short-Lived – Here’s Why

Banking Giant JPMorgan Says Bitcoin and Crypto Meltdown May Be Short-Lived – Here’s Why

Financial services giant JPMorgan says the latest Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto market meltdown may be fleeting. According to a new BNN Bloomberg report, JPMorgan analysts say the crypto market’s current deleveraging trend may not last much longer. The analysts also suggest that crypto firms going under shouldn’t be a surprise given the falling prices of […]

The post Banking Giant JPMorgan Says Bitcoin and Crypto Meltdown May Be Short-Lived – Here’s Why appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

These Catalysts Could Spark 6x Bitcoin Explosion During ‘Challenging Times’: Standard Chartered Executive

Bear market will last until crypto apps are actually useful: Mark Cuban

The billionaire investor said a bigger focus on applications and utility outside of finance would bring more back to the crypto space and possibly reverse the declining market.

Mark Cuban, the billionaire entrepreneur known for his role as one of the main investors on the reality television show Shark Tank, said the crypto bear market won't be over until there’s a better focus on applications with utility.

He also doesn’t think the market has hit “cheap” prices yet.

Cuban has stated in the past around 80% of his non-Shark Tank portfolio was in crypto. Appearing on a June 23 episode of the Bankless Podcast, he was asked how long he believes the current crypto bear market will last:

“It lasts until there's a catalyst and that catalyst is going to be an application, or we get so low people go ‘fuck it I'll buy some’”.

He believes a better focus on applications with utility will pull crypto from its slump and with so many apps focused on financial technology or collectibles, the launch of a business focused application would be one of such events that could spark a reversal for markets.

Using the example of a “decentralized version of Quickbooks”, a small business accounting management software, Cuban predicted a rush of users if something like that launched.

Despite analysts predicting that Bitcoin (BTC) as well as many other cryptocurrencies have hit a price bottom, Cuban says “it’s not cheap yet” when analyzing the high market capitalization of some projects.

“You look at the market caps, and you see it's a billion dollar plus market cap or $6 billion or $8 billion or $40 billion you don't look at that and go ‘that's cheap’. If you remember back to DeFi summer, these things were selling for less than a penny and their market caps were in the hundreds of millions.”

He adds even with lower market cap cryptos “there’s no utility”, and gives an example of the decentralized exchange SushiSwap (SUSHI) token as a “relatively cheap” buy with its $215 million market cap, but added:

“You get paid it if you're a liquidity provider, but then who's going to buy it from you? What's the reason to buy it from you?”

Cuban believes mergers between different protocols and blockchains will eventually see the crypto industry consolidate, as “that’s what happens in every industry”.

“I'd rather get with somebody who says ‘let's do a roll-up’,” with Cuban saying that he’d support a merge of various blockchains, close others and then move applications and communities over to just one and offer a token exchange or bridge from the closing blockchains to port users over.

“Now all of a sudden your user base is 10x, you still have a problem of better applications, you still have to have some reason people want to use that blockchain but at least you may be able to have a better community to come up with ideas because otherwise you’re gone.”

With the crypto space having various sub sectors such as Layer 1’s, Layer 2’s, NFTs and DeFi tokens, Cuban was asked which he was most optimistic on.

Related: Mark Cuban says crypto crash highlights Warren Buffett’s wisdom

Cuban said he was particularly interested in carbon offset DeFi tokens which he burns to offset his own personal carbon footprint. He added whilst not everyone cares about offsetting their carbon emissions, it was the “easiest way” in comparison to buying carbon offsets from a broker, which he claims is “a pain in the ass.”

Ultimately though, Cuban said “all of them have potential, that's why they got all this money, all of them have a reason why they think they're better and will succeed”.

These Catalysts Could Spark 6x Bitcoin Explosion During ‘Challenging Times’: Standard Chartered Executive

Top Crypto Strategist Details Bullish Scenario for Bitcoin As BTC Surges Above $21,000

Top Crypto Strategist Details Bullish Scenario for Bitcoin As BTC Surges Above ,000

A closely tracked crypto analyst is mapping out a potential scenario for Bitcoin (BTC) to trap bears and rally above $30,000. In a new strategy session, pseudonymous analyst Cred says that while Bitcoin still looks bearish, he sees a setup where BTC ignites a “meaningful” rally. “At its simplest, what this would look like is […]

The post Top Crypto Strategist Details Bullish Scenario for Bitcoin As BTC Surges Above $21,000 appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

These Catalysts Could Spark 6x Bitcoin Explosion During ‘Challenging Times’: Standard Chartered Executive

Coinbase Cancels Job Offerings and Pauses Hiring Process Amid Crypto Bear Market

Coinbase Cancels Job Offerings and Pauses Hiring Process Amid Crypto Bear Market

Top US crypto exchange Coinbase is altering its hiring plans as stagnating digital assets markets continue to put pressure on the industry. In a new blog post, Coinbase’s chief people officer L.J. Brock says that the exchange is going to be extending its pause on hiring new employees for the foreseeable future as well as […]

The post Coinbase Cancels Job Offerings and Pauses Hiring Process Amid Crypto Bear Market appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

These Catalysts Could Spark 6x Bitcoin Explosion During ‘Challenging Times’: Standard Chartered Executive