‘Crypto winter’ won’t end in 2023 — Bitcoin advocate David Marcus

It will be “another tough year” for crypto in the wake of the FTX scandal, suggests the former Meta executive turned Bitcoin Lightning Network advocate.

Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto will need until at least 2024 to “recover from the abuse of unscrupulous players,” says one of the industry’s best-known names.

In a blog post released on Dec. 30, David Marcus, CEO and founder of Bitcoin firm Lightspark, disappointed bulls with his outlook for the coming years.

Marcus: “Crypto winter” will likely last until 2025

Less than two months after the FTX meltdown, the repercussions continue to unsettle sentiment and price performance alike.

For Marcus, famous for his crypto role at Meta and before that PayPal, bad actors have a lot to answer for, and their specter will remain with the crypto industry beyond 2023.

While mentioning FTX only once, he referenced what he called “unscrupulous players” dragging out market underperformance even beyond next year.

“We won’t exit this ‘crypto winter’ in 2023, and probably not in 2024 either,” he summarized.

“It’ll take a couple of years for the market to recover from the abuse of unscrupulous players, and for responsible regulation to come through. Consumer trust is also going to take a few years to rebuild, but ultimately I believe this will prove to be a beneficial reset for legitimate industry players over the long run.”

Should hodlers need to wait for their “silver linings,” this could further disrupt the historical patterns Bitcoin in particular has stuck to throughout its existence.

Specifically, its four-year halving cycles, which tend to produce growth in specific years, may see a challenge. 2024, the year of the next halving, is increasingly tipped to be a period of bullish price action, with some predicting the uptrend starting a year earlier — in Q2, 2023.

Even if the recovery takes longer than expected, however, Marcus believes that a new and stronger industry will be in place once this happens.

“In crypto, years of greed will make room for real-world applications,” he continued.

“The years of creating a token out of thin air and making millions are over. The music has stopped. We’re back to our regular programming of having to create real value and solving real world problems.”

He reserved special attention for the Bitcoin Lightning Network, which he said “will start to show promise as the world’s most effective open, interoperable, cheap, real-time payments protocol.”

Optimism thin into yearly close

As Cointelegraph reported, other big names have also come out in support of crypto’s long-term prospects post-FTX.

Related: Bitcoin ‘not undervalued yet,’ says research as BTC price drifts nearer to $16K

Among the most vocal has been investment giant ARK Invest, the CEO of which, Cathie Wood, did not mince her words reacting to the events of nearly two months ago.

“The Bitcoin blockchain didn’t skip a beat during the crisis caused by opaque centralized players. No wonder Sam Bankman Fried didn’t like Bitcoin: it’s transparent and decentralized. He couldn’t control it,” a widely-circulated tweet stated in mid-December.

In terms of price action, meanwhile, opinions continue to diverge over how the first quarter of 2023 might play out.

Some believe that the worst of Bitcoin’s latest bear market is already over, while others continue to warn of a deeper BTC price dive to $10,000 or lower.

BTC/USD traded at around $16,500 on Dec. 31, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView  showed, continuing to shun major volatility with hours to go until the 2022 yearly candle close.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.