The present bear market is just not as dangerous as these from earlier years, in keeping with Matt Hougan.
“The parents saying this [crypto] winter is worse than 2018 or 2022 don’t bear in mind 2018 or 2022,” mentioned Bitwise Chief Funding Officer Matt Hougan on Tuesday.
In 2018, “we had $3,000 Bitcoin and a ‘international laptop’ [Ethereum] with no functions and restricted throughput,” he said earlier than including, “In 2022, we had a complete market collapse and a regulator that needed to place us out of enterprise.”
Issues are slightly completely different as we speak as we now have “stablecoins going to $3 trillion, tokenization going to $200 trillion, a optimistic regulatory local weather, and higher tokenomics,” he mentioned.
Moreover, BlackRock and Apollo are constructing on DeFi, there’s a “massively constructed out infrastructure,” ETFs, and “rising considerations about fiat forex.”
“So, yep, I’m optimistic. It doesn’t imply clean crusing, however I’m excited for the journey.”
Earlier Bear Markets Have been Apocalyptic
The present bear market has seen whole capitalization decline 49% from its peak of slightly below $4.4 trillion in October to its low of $2.23 trillion on Feb. 6. That is a lot shallower than earlier bear markets, however it isn’t over but. In 2018, markets collapsed by 88%, and in 2022, they crashed by round 73% from the earlier cycle peak to the bear market bottoms.
The 2022 FTX crash “was darkish,” and 2018 “was borderline crypto extinction sentiment,” commented the Kobeissi Letter. The March 2020 Covid crash was additionally apocalyptic, with markets tanking 56% in lower than a month.
The distinction this time, as identified by Hougan, is that the basics for crypto are a lot stronger. Many analysts imagine the present market droop is pushed not by crypto-native elements however by broader macroeconomic and geopolitical considerations.
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Glassnode reported that Bitcoin’s crash to $60,000 on Feb. 6 “imposed drastic psychological strain on ‘diamond fingers’ corresponding to the Could 2022 Luna crash.”
“Merely put, long-term holders realized important losses — a uncommon shift in conviction sometimes seen in deeper phases of bear markets.”
The latest drop to $60k imposed drastic psychological strain on “diamond fingers,” corresponding to the Could 2022 LUNA crash.
In each instances, the 7D EMA of Lengthy-Time period Holder SOPR fell under 1 after buying and selling for 1-2 years above it.
Merely put, long-term holders realized important… pic.twitter.com/xc6bXzwPYx— glassnode (@glassnode) February 16, 2026
Lengthy Time period Holders Nonetheless in Revenue
Alphractal founder Joao Wedson said on Monday that the Web Unrealized Revenue/Loss (NUPL) for long-term holders stands at 0.36, “which means long-term holders are nonetheless, on common, in revenue.”
“When Lengthy-Time period Holders’ NUPL enters detrimental territory, it means even probably the most convicted contributors are holding unrealized losses. Traditionally, this marks the part of most market melancholy.”
In earlier cycles, “this was the ultimate part earlier than the beginning of a brand new bull run,” he mentioned, noting that we’re not there but.
Bitcoin was buying and selling round $68,000 on the time of writing after failing once more to prime $70,000 on Monday.
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