Bitcoin’s Bear Attack is Scary—But the Bull Run Isn’t Dead Yet

Bitcoin takes a hit, but the long-term trajectory remains unshaken. Here's why.

The Fear is Real—But So Is the Resilience

Another bear attack sends shivers through the crypto markets. Prices tumble, weak hands panic, and the usual doom-mongers declare Bitcoin dead—again. Yet beneath the surface, the fundamentals haven’t budged.

Same Old Playbook, Same Old Outcome

History rhymes: every major correction gets branded as 'the end.' Meanwhile, institutional adoption keeps climbing, Lightning Network usage hits new highs, and—shockingly—Tether still hasn’t collapsed. Funny how that works.

Wake-Up Call for Paper Hands

Volatility isn’t a bug—it’s a feature. While traditional investors hyperventilate over 10% swings, crypto natives yawn and stack sats. After all, what’s another bear raid when you’ve survived a 90% drawdown?

The Bottom Line: Zoom Out

Short-term pain? Sure. Trend reversal? Hardly. The real damage is to overleveraged degens and hedge funds who still think crypto moves on 'macros.' Spoiler: it doesn’t.

Market overview

The crypto market is clearly struggling to move upwards, as historic highs are also attracting sellers. On Friday morning, the total capitalisation of cryptocurrencies stood at $4.03 trillion, reflecting a 3.4% decline over 24 hours. Although this is unpleasant for bulls, it looks like a necessary correction to let off steam while the market remains above the July highs of $3.90-3.95 trillion, a break below which would signal a trend reversal.

Bitcoin fell to $117K on Thursday, becoming the first domino to fall, which subsequently pulled down the entire cryptocurrency market. This is further evidence of increased selling pressure shortly after the historic highs were updated. We believe that the fairly coordinated attack by bears is a cover for careful but abundant purchases on dips. It is worth sounding the alarm if there is a break below the 50-day average at $115K and the area of recent lows at $112K.

News background

The leading cryptocurrency is facing serious competition from Ethereum. The US Congress's adoption of the stablecoin bill has opened the door to the mass adoption of these tokens. About half of them use the ethereum blockchain.

The Ether rally is outpacing Bitcoin's upward movement since it correlates more with US stock indices than Bitcoin. Specialised exchange-traded funds focused on Ether attracted $1.7 billion in August. During the same period, Bitcoin ETFs faced an outflow of $436 million. The reserves of crypto treasuries working with Ether grew to $17 billion.

The growing popularity of the second-largest digital asset has allowed Standard Chartered to raise its forecast for Ethereum from $4,000 to $7,500 by the end of the year.

The fate of cryptocurrencies still depends on changes in global risk appetite. Therefore, a continuation of the S&P 500 rally will push both bitcoin and Ether to new record highs.