The start of 2022 has been less encouraging for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, where prices have plummeted. Even some experts worry that the crypto 'winter' is coming.
Bitcoin as the largest cryptocurrency experienced a drastic decline to its lowest point since July last year, which was USD 33 thousand. Indeed, it has started to rise again to USD 36 thousand, but it is still far from the highest value of USD 69 thousand last November.
Quoted from CNBC, the entire crypto market was cut in value by more than USD 1 trillion. In addition to Bitcoin, Ether and Solana also saw their value cut quite sharply.
That's what makes some investors talk about the possibility of a 'crypto winter' or crypto winter, a term in which the value of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin plummets for a long time. This happened in 2017 and 2018 when the Bitcoin price fell by 80%.
Even David Marcus, former Head of Crypto at Facebook, thinks that crypto winter has arrived now. "Precisely during this crypto winter the best entrepreneurs build better companies," he wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Nadya Ivanova, COO at BNP Paribas, assesses that the crypto winter has yet to come even though the crypto market is indeed in a period of decline. "Maybe it's not so bad," he said.
"Last year, many developers were distracted by the ease with which they could profit from speculation in NFTs and other digital assets. This cooling period may be an opportunity to start building the foundations of the market," he said.
Meanwhile, Vijay Ayyar as Vice President of Luno believes that the current decline in the value of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin is more of a correction and not for a long period of time.