The year 2022 presented huge challenges for the crypto market. Large companies have gone bankrupt, and major crypto asset prices have accumulated a sharp devaluation over the past twelve months.
Since the end of 2021, the price of bitcoin has plummeted in the crypto market, ushering in a bear market period for crypto asset stocks. For example, some altcoins have fallen by more than 90% since the beginning of 2022.
Besides the drop in prices, the total capitalization of the crypto market lost more than US$2 trillion in this same period. With no signs of much recovery, the bear market period may extend into the early months of 2023.
Bitcoin price
On November 10, 2021, the price of bitcoin renewed its all-time high in the crypto market, approaching US$69,000, according to TradingView data.
But since then, the crypto asset has faced a sharp devaluation, losing more than 75% of its value compared to the last all-time high reached. Over the past twelve months, the price of bitcoin has fallen by more than US$ 50,000 through the BTC/USD pair.
Although it benefited from the dollar’s appreciation against the Brazilian real, the bitcoin price also suffered a sharp drop in Brazil. In the BTC/BRL pair, the digital asset is currently quoted at around R$ 87,000.
By the end of March 2022, the bitcoin price was still trying to maintain values close to US$ 48,000, driven by the strong appreciation in the previous year. But in the subsequent months, the crypto asset fell, reaching less than US$ 30,000 in May this year.
And it was in September 2022 that the bitcoin price lost the resistance level of US$ 20,000. This value represented the crypto asset’s last all-time high, reached at the end of 2017. In the previous twelve months, the digital asset has been quoted below US$ 16,000, recording its lowest at the end of November.
In total, bitcoin has fallen approximately 80% in 2022, since the crypto market began experiencing a bear market affecting prices. The crypto asset’s capitalization has also fallen and is now worth around US$ 353 billion. Before that, the digital currency reached over US$ 1 trillion in capitalization when a strong valuation was still in effect in the crypto market.
Crypto Market Capitalization
The crypto market reached over US$3 trillion during strong crypto assets valuation in late 2021. But, in 2022, that market value fell, as did bitcoin.
If in 2021, bitcoin’s market value exceeded US$1 trillion, by the end of 2022, that value dropped to US$ 353 billion. Meanwhile, the total crypto market capitalization went from US$3 trillion to US$ 811 billion, considering current values.
Falling altcoins
The bear market is a feeling of pessimism in the crypto market, representing a moment of strong price devaluation. As such, we can consider that this movement began in March 2022, right after the price of crypto assets faced consecutive drops with no signs of recovery.
Like bitcoin, the price of the ethereum network’s ether (ETH) fell in 2022. Currently quoted at US$1,200, the digital currency is down 75% from the last all-time high of US$4,800, recorded in November 2021.
The bear market has also affected the price of solana (SOL) this year. Currently priced at US$ 11.20, this altcoin has fallen by more than 95% from the record high of US$ 260 reached last year.
Another altcoin that has suffered heavy devaluation in the crypto market is dogecoin (DOGE). Considered a memecoin, the digital asset has fallen from US$ 0.7376 in May 2021 to US$ 0.07545 currently, a devaluation of almost 90 %, in a bear market period. Learn more about what a bear market is by accessing this link.
