The crypto world’s decade-long existence has not been flawless. Like in any other market, there is always a bear trend that leads to massive losses. The 2008 market crash is one of the biggest bear markets in the financial world, and others occurred in the following years. 

Crypto has seen cases of long market crashes as well, some lasting over a year. This guide will be looking into 5 of the must-know crypto market crashes. Furthermore, it will highlight the reasons behind the bear markets. 

To see the bear trends clearly, look at the market charts in the periods mentioned. Although you will notice possible price recoveries, they lasted for very few hours or days, and the bears continued.

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October 2013 to May 2015

The longest bear market in the crypto world began in October 2013 and ended sometime in Mid 2015. This bearish trend lasted for over 550 days. The crypto world lost billions in market cap during the entire bearish pattern.

In fact, the market cap plunged from over $16 billion to about $3.5 billion. The value difference is nearly 80%. Its most primary cause of the market price drop was the general bitcoin bear market. Bitcoin’s value vastly dropped starting November 2013. What caused the bearish in Bitcoin?

About October the same year, before the beginning of the bear market, Silk Road was shut down. Silk Road was, at the time, the most prominent black market that sped up bitcoins adoption. Its ban had some severe issues in the market.

For instance, because of the ban, bitcoin trading volumes dropped vastly. The volume reduction had a direct impact on the coin’s value, effectively creating a bear market. This market was able to adapt after over one and a half years of losing value.

January 2018 to April 2019

Another one of the longest crypto bear markets began in early January 2018 and extended to early 2019. It’s the most surprising bear market in the crypto world. It occurred when bitcoin had just hit an all-time high of over $19 thousand.

However, around mid-January 2018, bitcoin began losing value. The entire crypto market followed the course. Crypto’s market cap dropped from $815 billion to $265 billion. The market cap changed course slightly, increasing to $446 billion but later declined to around $103 billion around January 2019. So what caused this price action?

There were a lot of issues behind the crypto saga in 2018. Some suggest that the crypto world began plunging because of regulatory issues. There were Cases of regulatory crackdowns against crypto assets, especially in Asian countries.

The national assembly of South Korea was creating a ban against crypto exchanges. Although the ban did not take effect, news about it vastly reduced the trading volumes in Asia and other countries globally.

July 2019-January 2020

Another popular bearish trend in the crypto market occurred between 2019 August and 2020 January. It’s the most recent continuous bearish batten in the crypto wallet and, most specifically, bitcoin. The market cap of crypto dropped vastly from July $361 billion to about $179 billion. Generally, the crypto world lost half of its value in less than six months.

Among the issues that drove the prices of bitcoin and crypto down included insecurity and the regulatory environment. Coinbase was hacked on multiple occasions. Furthermore, Ohio suspended its crypto payment options. Also, a South Korean man faced charges of running a child sex criminal organization.

The illegal activities and issues associated with crypto led to increased regulatory issues, effectively translating to diminishing trust. As trust declined, the values of BTC and crypto also plunged.

August 2012 to December 2012

Another one of the most common and very long bearish situations in the crypto markets was the August 2012 bearish. This bearish pattern lasted for about 111 days and was characterized by BTC prices plunging.

At this point, Bitcoin was the only famous crypto, with other small ones rising. Therefore, Bitcoin’s price drop signified a bearish trend in the entire market. In over three months, Bitcoin plunged from $13.35 to about $8.4, and over 37% drop. So, what caused the price to fall?

The main reason for this long bearish streak was a lawsuit filed earlier that year. Generally, crypto was so insecure at that time, and multiple hack and scams attacks had occurred. Thus, some crypto-connected platforms like Bitcoinica faced lawsuits for their issues. Those lawsuits led to declining trust, thus reducing BTC prices.

The 2021 Bearish: May 11- July 22

The most notable of all the bearish statements in the crypto market was the 2021 bearish attempt. This bearish streak lasted over 70 days, relatively shorter than others mentioned in this list. However, this bearish trend had a massive impact on crypto, reducing the market cap by nearly half.

Crypto, which was worth close to $2.5 trillion in May, plunged to less than $1.2 trillion in just eight weeks. Bitcoin, which was worth over $1.5 trillion at the time, dropped to just about $600 billion. So what caused this most recent price plummet associated with crypto?

The most significant issues were market manipulation and increased regulation in crypto. China is mainly blamed for the price actions since during the period, China began a crypto crackdown. On the other hand, Tesla dropped bitcoin, which had surged in value, immediately leading to price drops. 

Final Word

Although some may think that the recent bearish in crypto was long, the crypto world faced much worse. The longest bearish market happened between October 2013 to May $2015, and the crypto world lost over 80% market cap. Another one occurred between January 2018 and March 2019 and also led to severe losses. 

One thing that is common in all those bearish patterns listed is the issue of regulatory crackdowns. The increasingly harsh regulations have been the primary cause of bears in crypto. Once governments support cryptos, the blockchain world will develop very fast.