The 2018 winter started after a huge bull run in December 2017, following the ICO boom and entry of tons of new “promising” crypto projects. The industry was still immature, and Bitcoin’s cyclical decline to $7,700 in the summer of 2018 washed away the investors’ certainty, putting the whole crypto market’s existence into question.
This crypto winter shares many similarities with the 2018 winter season, ushered by a 55% decline in the BTC price since its all-time high of $69,000. However, this time, the winter was triggered by several macroeconomic events, like the approaching post-COVID recession and the war in Ukraine. The situation was exacerbated by the dramatic crash of the Luna blockchain and its stablecoin UST in March 2022. Therefore, the crypto market is currently experiencing pressures different from those of the 2018 winter, including the recession and uncertainty about stablecoin pegging and resilience.