Bitcoin Bear Market Could Last 18 More Months: BitMEX CEO

Bitcoin prices and trading volume might keep plummeting, and the current bear market could last another 18 months. That’s the sobering assessment of Arthur Hayes, the CEO of the Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange (BitMEX), the world’s largest bitcoin derivatives trading platform. Hayes started trading crypto full-time in 2013 after losing his job as an equities trader at Citibank. The Hong Kong-based executive said the trading patterns today resemble the “nuclear bear market” he witnessed in 2014.

Cryptocurrency trading volumes recently plunged to a new year low following the summer slump. Hayes said volume could drop more in the coming months. “We think trading volumes could fall further from where they are now,” he said. This is a stunning about-face from the exuberant $50,000 year-end bitcoin price target Hayes set back in June 2018. At the time, he said BTC prices were just one positive regulatory decision away from rocketing past $20,000 on its way to $50,000 by December 2018. That does not appear realistic given current market conditions.

Jonathan Levi, the CEO of blockchain startup Hacera, agreed. “The price of bitcoin is undoubtedly in a bear market, but in the application of bitcoin and other blockchain projects we are in fact in a bull market,” Levi said. “Most of the EU banks are actively investing in blockchain, and that all originally stems from bitcoin.” While many in the crypto community are in panic mode over the market’s current downswing, cryptocurrency evangelists who have followed the market since its inception are not worried over short-term blips.