Euphoria surrounding the cryptocurrency market has come to a sobering halt as the Bitcoin bull run, which began in January 2023, shows definitive signs of concluding after reaching unprecedented heights. The CEO of CryptoQuant has issued a stark warning to investors, predicting a grueling 6-12 month bear market following Bitcoin’s meteoric rise to over $100,000 in early 2025, a milestone that represented the pinnacle of a two-year bullish trend fueled by institutional adoption and regulatory optimism.
The euphoric cryptocurrency journey crashes as Bitcoin’s two-year rally concludes, with experts forecasting a painful bear cycle ahead.
Market analysts point to several converging factors indicating the bull cycle’s termination, including technical exhaustion patterns, diminishing trading volumes despite price increases, and the maturation of post-halving effects that historically signal market tops. The April 2024 halving event, which reduced Bitcoin’s mining rewards and constricted new supply, initially catalyzed substantial price appreciation but appears to have completed its bullish influence on market dynamics, consistent with previous cycle patterns. This conclusion aligns with CryptoQuant’s forecast of the market reaching its expected peak by Q1 2025. The predictable mining difficulty adjustments have maintained Bitcoin’s inflation rate at approximately 1.8%, significantly lower than many traditional currencies experiencing higher inflation.
Institutional involvement, which provided vital support through corporate treasury allocations and ETF demand, has begun showing signs of saturation, with new capital inflows decelerating markedly compared to the robust accumulation observed throughout 2024. Ki Young Ju’s assessment that a potential 30% price drop to 77,000 won’t derail the overall bull market contradicts the broader bearish signals emerging across multiple indicators. Trump administration policies that initially enhanced investor sentiment through favorable regulatory approaches may prove insufficient to counterbalance broader market fatigue and profit-taking behaviors.
CryptoQuant’s analysis suggests investors should prepare for substantial valuation corrections, potentially erasing 50-70% of recent gains as the market enters a protracted consolidation phase. This bearish projection aligns with cryptocurrency’s historical cyclicality, where expansive bull markets inevitably yield to extended periods of price assessment and accumulation at lower levels.
For retail participants who entered during the market’s exuberant phase, the impending bear market presents significant challenges but also strategic opportunities for long-term positioning. Experienced market participants recommend risk management strategies including strategic profit-taking, diversification into less volatile assets, and maintaining sufficient liquidity to capitalize on deeply discounted entry points that typically emerge during prolonged bearish conditions.
