The 2021 bear market which is still ongoing has seen the demise of many crypto projects, platforms, startups, and businesses.
These projects and businesses have had to close down due to the troubling effects of the bear market.
The reasons for their closure include a design flaw in tech or business, which was built to only survive, provided the market was going up, but silted by the jarring teeth of death as soon as the market came crashing, the inability of startups to meet business commitments made to investors and a lack of capacity to maintain further business development.
Some crypto businesses have also had to reduce their employee workforce in order to stay afloat.
These interrelated reasons are tied to the cascading blows of the bear market.
What is a Bear Market?
A bear market also known as crypto winter is a period in which there is a massive decline in the prices of crypto coins and assets from their previous all-times-high (ATH).
This may be caused by recession, skyrocketing inflation, political instability, and other economic reasons.
This period is characterized by fear, panic, an onslaught of projects, and chaos.
The crypto bear market began when Bitcoin, the most valued crypto asset, took a nosedive after reaching a price peak of $69,000 per coin in 2021 and has since then traded downwards even in recent times.
The 2021 market crash saw the value of altcoins like Ethereum and Cardano plummet due to a strong price correlation.
Other medium and small-cap assets were not left out in the onslaught as their prices crashed in line with the value of top assets, falling off the rooftop.
Several crypto coins lost over 90% of their previous value, and are struggling to recover, with recovery far from sight for many.
The crypto market has seen massive selloffs of assets, which created fear and panic and pushed more investors to sell, crashing prices even further.
Fear has saturated the market as more and more investors continue to offload their assets and attempts made by buyers to salvage the already crushed market fail in futility since the selling pressure of sellers outweighs the purchasing power of buyers.
The crypto market is now battered, with no significant activity pricewise. Although a few rallies occur occasionally they also quieten down after a while.
This market condition has lingered for months-long while developers build infrastructures that will be well-positioned to benefit from the next bull run.
To get a glimpse of how we got to this point in time, let us take a look at the previous state of the crypto market.
The Crypto Market Before the Crash
Typically, newbies enter the crypto market out of social excitement. This is seen on social media platforms like TikTok where dogecoin for example was largely promoted.
These newbies enter the market with the notion of making quick money off the market. They are sold the dream of a quick path to success with little to no effort.
They are seen chasing different crypto coins and projects irrespective of the project’s lack of fundamentals.
They throw money into different platforms that propose unrealistic returns.
This is not beside the fact that many new players do not understand the underlying technology behind crypto currencies. They do not realize the purpose for which blockchain technology exists nor the mission propelling development thereon.
They simply know crypto coins as magical Internet money through which money can be made.
This lack of a proper understanding of crypto and blockchain technology geared shadow-chasing of any type of coin or project, in the hopes of printing gains from these subpar projects
Subsequently, ‘project builders’ were tokenizing substandard ideas as projects. Enticing and luring new money, and sometimes old players too.
Developers designed flawed systems that farmed money provided the market was going well.
With access to lots of cash flow, “developers” could not be bothered about the quality of projects put out.
All kinds of projects surfaced, making a mockery of crypto’s underlying tech.
Projects without fundamentals mooned at the times they did, while a lot prevailed on the oxygen of hype.
When the strike of the bear market came thundering, both developers and investors became casualties of their own undoing.
While this was the order of the day, it is important to note that the crypto market was not a complete menace of ill-fated ideas, there are sound and healthy projects solving problems that will weather through the market storm.
These are however expected, especially in a new industry as there will be many players attempting to build, but only infrastructures that resonate with an audience by solving a challenge of theirs will be elevated above the others who become forgotten over time.
Crypto Market In the Bear Market
The crypto market in the market crash is one filled with tales of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The skeletons of abandoned “projects” litter the industry while some investors have completely exited the market.
The market is now left with only industry builders who are resilient against the effects of the bear market and communities who have a strong conviction in the projects they support.
While the bear market has been brutal both to new players and industry builders, since no one likes to watch the value of their portfolio trickle down in depreciation, the bear market does have some positive undertones.
Positive Undertones of the Bear Market
- For one, the bear market weeds out projects lacking fundamentals.
- It reveals shady practices that would have gone unnoticed.
- Investors who come in to get rich quickly either exit the market or convert to true believers of blockchain technology and are helping push its adoption.
- Bear season affords the market a healing time to reverberate for the next spring.
- Crypto bear markets remind us yet again of the main purpose of blockchain technology and set everyone right on track, working in line with the vision.
Now that we have seen some positive undertones of the bear market. Let us take a look at how the bear market drives innovation and expands our thinking during tough times.
The Demand for Change and Innovation
Pre-bear market, businesses were not risking much innovation as many things seemed fine, but the onset of the bear market uncladded deficiencies within the industry and exposed the inefficiencies of even those that seemed well positioned.
The demand for change and innovation becomes a factor driving invention and broadens our thinking even in a difficult bear period.
This becomes essential because if the industry must grow, it cannot continue to be filled by the same quality of projects and infrastructures that have failed.
As was seen in the past, poor schemes are unsustainable and hinder industry growth in many ways.
The bear market indicates that the predominant status quo is afunctional and therefore, a change through a reset is needed.
To foster this change, industry builders are compelled to critically think about innovative ideas that bring positive changes in the industry.
Over-tokenization of/and ideas/projects that solve no real-world problem cannot propel industry growth as the bear market has shown.
The industry needs to invent blockchain applications with use cases that solve problems in the real-world economy, which is the backbone on which traditional enterprises are succeeding, if the crypto industry is to succeed too or at least achieve widespread adoption.
On the blockchain side of things, there are one too many blockchains repetitively scrubbing basic features off each other with little to no innovation.
Some chains lagged badly in the previous run due to accelerated transactions causing congestion on the chain which in turn led to exorbitantly high fees.
This problem delayed or outrightly hindered the development of some projects as developers could not bear the costs. Transactions gradually reduced and the bear market set in.
As we call for widespread adoption through the onboarding of diverse developers and businesses to set the crypto market back on track, there’s a demand for innovation and change in the ways onchain building is conducted.
Without a change, ideas and businesses that could potentially propel adoption and industry growth remain unexplored.
Klever, taking the onboarding of developers, businesses, or enterprises who wish to integrate elements of blockchain technology seriously, tackles this problem from the root by creating a new and innovative blockchain technology.
Klever does this by removing the onerous task of smartcontracts writing and instead, codes smart contracts directly into the native chain.
Developers and businesses who wish to integrate blockchain features, without the technical know-how of the workings of a blockchain, and who cannot afford blockchain professionals to build smart contracts for them, can utilize Klever’s technology and get onboarded unto blockchain building.
With Klever’s innovative technology, builders can create resourceful applications with real utilities that can help bolster the change and innovation the industry direly needs, and which could potentially appeal to the next bullrun.
Creation of More Market Space
The bear market creates more market space by weeding out bad projects and businesses.
The bull market saw bad projects and scams that sucked up cash flow in the industry.
Their death, while it may be devastating to their investors, benefits the industry in the long run.
The spaces created by their demise could position genuine and useful projects who are hard at work to lead the next market run.
Some crypto businesses have also had to close up during the bear market due to a shortage of operational costs or unethical business practices.
This closure inspires underdogs to be hard at innovation and think of new ways to be different, creating room for more efficient and inventive businesses and a new market order.
In addition to this, high-quality talents from failed businesses or massive layoffs are released into the open market who could help these new inventive businesses attain success.
The Need To Continue Building and Stay Relevant
The need to continue building and staying relevant is a propelling factor that drives innovation in the bear market and expands our thinking during difficult times.
In a fast-growing industry where several companies are developing or enhancing their products at a fast pace, the need for innovation becomes highly crucial.
This is because a failure to detect market trends and build in line with it can make a business obsolete.
Several years ago, Nokia and Blackberry Limited were leading giants in the mobile telephone industry. It was thought impossible to dethrone or overthrow them.
Surprisingly, an underdog at the time, Transsion holdings, went “smart” before Nokia and BlackBerry Limited, dethroning these two giants and their mobile phones became phones of the day in African markets, the Middle East, and some parts of Asia up till this day.
On the other hand, Apples Inc stayed innovative, continually improved their Apples phone and other products, and has remained a huge player in the mobile phone market.
The same analogy is applicable to the crypto industry even though it is still a new industry.
Industry relevance does not care that it is a bear market, builders must keep building.
The bear market inspires innovation and critical growth thoughts if players want to remain in the market and continue building.
In addition to this, the bear market allows builders to focus on their community and products instead of token prices.
This focus allows them to refine, evolve and polish their products to industry standard and have a chance at product-induced success in the near future.
The Light at The End of The Tunnel
In what may seem like the end for the crypto market, there is light at the end of the tunnel as has been repeatedly shown in the history of all financial markets.
The bear market is a time for long-term builders to commit to building and bringing all their innovative ideas to life.
This will put them as front-runners when the market eventually reverses.
The builders who take advantage of this period will reap the fruits of their hard work, as will investors who have the forbearing to stick it out while picking up coins with fundamentals at the huge discounts they are currently trading at.
Bear markets inspire resilience, innovation, and creative ideas in us despite the difficult times. The resilience inspired in us helps us to shoulder the storm, while innovative ideas help to put us a step ahead of our peers.
