No, Bitcoin is not in its ‘longest ever bear market’ — Here’s why

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) are not in their “longest ever bear market” and probably are not even in a bear market at all, according to some industry observers.

MN Trading founder Michaël van de Poppe took to X (formerly Twitter) on Aug. 27 to claim that Bitcoin is currently in its “longest bear market” in history.

“Right now, the price of Bitcoin is nowhere near the valuation of the peak in November ’21. It’s down more than 50% and in a bear market of 490 days,” the trader wrote.

Van de Poppe’s statement has brought much attention from X users, amassing 1.3 million views and nearly a thousand reposts at the time of writing. Some crypto enthusiasts, however, are confident that Van de Poppe’s information is not the case.

To determine the length of the current “bear market” in crypto, it’s necessary to understand that there are different interpretations of the term.

“Thing is, the terms ‘bull’ and ‘bear market’ are entirely subjective,” Quantum Economics founder Mati Greenspan told Cointelegraph. “It can mean either the price has moved in the past or that the price is expected to move in a certain direction in the future,” Greenspan said, adding:

“The ambiguity creates endless opportunities for analysts to make pointless arguments in perpetuity.”

According to Cointelegraph’s market editor Allen Scott, one may view the current market situation as a “multi-year bear market now until a new all-time high is broken.” Such a perspective suggests that Bitcoin has been in a bear market since reaching its historic peak near $69,000 on Nov. 10, 2021, or for 659 days. The period is even longer than the one mentioned by Van de Poppe, but it’s still not the longest “bear market” based on such an approach.

As previously mentioned by Cointelegraph, Bitcoin once saw its price below its previous highs for a period of 37 months — or about 1,125 days — between November 2013 and January 2017. For over three years, Bitcoin’s price failed to reclaim $1,000 after hitting the price mark in 2013.

After reaching $20,000 for the first time in December 2017, Bitcoin again lagged behind the price level until December 2020, or for 1,095 days. But does that mean that Bitcoin was in a “bear market” during this period at all? Looking at the charts, one could say that Bitcoin was actually on the trajectory of hitting its all-time peak of $68,000.

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