Quésaco: a “crypto winter”, or when the price of crypto freezes

(ETX Daily Up) – Bitcoin losing 65% of its value since its all-time high in November 2021, a cryptocurrency market falling below $1 trillion, planned layoffs at major cryptocurrency players.. For the past few weeks, all the indicators in the sector have been red. To the point of talking about a “crypto winter”.

Has the cryptocurrency market come to an end or is it just a bad patch? The sector is clearly contracting, after an incredible rise in 2021. Specialists do not hesitate to use the term “crypto winter”. In English, the expression really takes on its full meaning. “Crypto Winter” is a nod to the series “Game of Thrones” and the motto of House Stark “Winter is coming” (“Winter is coming”). A kind of warning that a lasting conflict could happen at any moment. This is exactly what is happening to cryptocurrencies.

The notion of crypto winter appeared for the first time at the end of 2018, right in the middle of the “crypto winter” period. From January 2018 to December 2020, the price of cryptocurrencies had fallen sharply and remained for many months at a more or less stable level. A “winter” which had then lasted almost two years, before prices soared again. In fact, the original term “crypto winter” qualifies this long period of price cooling, which can last several months.

After an upturn in 2021, the prices of all cryptocurrencies have not stopped collapsing since last January. Bitcoin, which is one of the main indicators of the health of the sector, hit an 18-month low. In November 2021, it reached its record level, exceeding $68,000 for a time. Now it has fallen below $25,000.

Bitcoin is no exception. All cryptocurrencies suffered, at the same time, a comparable fall. The global crypto market has fallen to 1,000 billion dollars, while it was valued at 3,000 billion dollars just seven months ago, according to the Coingecko site, which lists more than 13,000 different cryptocurrencies.

The consequences are therefore direct in the portfolio of investors, but also in the main market players, in great financial difficulty, like Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange platforms in the world, which is extending its freezing hiring and canceling job offers. Crypto companies across the world in general are downsizing to survive this “winter”.

But it is characteristic of cryptocurrencies to be volatile and therefore to experience such “winters”, more or less long, more or less “icy”. Despite indicators in the red today, prices may rebound faster than expected. The outcome of this “winter” will partly depend on the evolution of the war in Ukraine, as Russia is a major player in cryptocurrencies, particularly in terms of mining.