Crush of Bitcoin: is crypto winter for long or coming to an end?

Crypto market is going through wild changes, and record drawdown of key coins during the last five months has made people nervous. However, the current decline is a natural and, in my opinion, temporal event. Vitalik Buterin proclaimed the beginning of the crypto winter in February 2022. In his interview for Bloomberg, he said that the stagnation period would help to concentrate on the development of the technology, and only the projects targeting a long-term result would stay afloat. 

Since November 2021, Bitcoin and Ethereum have decreased by 70%, followed by others: price of Binance Coin (BNB) by 57%, Ripple (XRP) by 60%, and Cardano (ADA) by 65%. 

The unrest on the crypto market was not limited by the downfall of key coins. Singapore cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital has collapsed. Babel Finance and CoinFLEX have frozen withdrawals. The Voyager Digital crypto broker, the Zipmex crypto exchange, and Celsius, a platform for cryptocurrency crediting, have declared bankruptcy. Many may think that crypto world is breaking down. 

I believe that we should follow the rate of main coins, look for tokens with the potential for growth and new prominent regions for crypto trading. North America, Asia, Africa, and Latin America are leading in the aggregate bitcoin trade. These are optimistic regions for the development of crypto trading in the long run. 

The volume of the cryptocurrency trading has increased in the USA, India, and Kenya. Nigeria has become the biggest crypto market on the African continent: the volume of P2P trading has reached $1.5 billion (there exists a ban on cryptocurrency trading for banks and financial institutions). Bitcoin is confirmed as a means of payment in the Central African Republic. In July, a public sale of the Sango Coin, a national digital currency, was opened here.  

Bitcoin is incredibly popular in countries with crisis economy — Argentina and Venezuela — where many use crypto as an asset to get protected from inflation. If Europe and the USA were panicked when facing the drawdown, the Latin American countries are used to volatility and defaults. Digital assets holders in this region lose less than when investing in local money. The regulation of a crypto market in Latin America differ for each country: if in Columbia and Peru there is no legislation on virtual currencies, in Salvador, Bitcoin is a legal tender.  

In Asia, everything is aimed to increase the level of investors’ trust to digital assets. Bitget, Singapore exchange of cryptocurrency derivatives, has announced the launch of a fund aimed to prevent hacks and theft of cryptocurrencies. Cambodia joins the list of countries with the rules to regulate cryptocurrencies (Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, and Singapore). SERC together with Binance crypto exchange have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of cryptocurrency rules. 

While Asia is becoming more crypto-friendly, the Bank of England stated that legal and regulatory framework and law enforcement must be tightened, since the integration of cryptocurrency in the financial system has its risks. In Great Britain, crypto assets can be used as a medium of exchange, while in Japan, Australia, Bermudas, Singapore, Hong Kong, Salvador, the USA, Malta, Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada, Norway, Ukraine, Czech, Slovenia, Lithuania, Estonia, Gibraltar, Switzerland, Netherlands, Georgia cryptocurrencies are recognized as a means of payment. 

In July 2022, EU nations and the European Parliament adopted the draft law on the market of cryptocurrencies, where the rules regarding all participants of the crypto field were fixed: transparency, user safety, responsibility to investors, assurance of digital assets produced and traded, compulsory permit from EU for providers of crypto services. 

In spring and June, major cryptocurrency holders were selling Bitcoin, but in July, we can observe other tendencies traceable by the biggest savings of BTC (BitInfoCharts statistics). In the second half of July, the biggest Ethereum whales started to invest in ETH, USDC, USDT, BUSD, and other digital currencies. 

The market is cyclical: growth is followed by decline, therefore the drawdown is temporal. The crypto sector is influenced by too many factors, including geopolitical ones. From my perspective, it will recover, but be shaken not once. Yes, many are calculating losses, but we should develop with an eye to prominent peaceful regions with crypto-friendly legislation. I recommend all participants of the crypto market to go to regions that are not troubled with political conditions and everything is calm. Crypto exchanges and other companies in the crypto field should think about Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The crypto winter is not over yet, but the signs of stabilization are already visible: follow positive dynamics and small strengthening of the crypto market instead of the drawdown.