This Expert Claims Crypto Winter Is Not Over But There’s A Catch

The ongoing crypto bear market seems like an unending journey, with more firms coming down with financial crises due to asset devaluations and other effects. Although some assets have seen brief rallies, many remain in decline.

Regarding the crypto bear effects, Kathleen Breitman, CEO of Tezos, a blockchain platform, shared her opinion. Breitman thinks the end of the crypto winter is not near yet, but she is confident about the survival of a few useful crypto applications.

The Tezos CEO argued that the recent rallies do not signify the end of the bear market. In her opinion, easy money from venture capitalists seeking profit and low-interest rates artificially hiked the valuations of many crypto companies.

Kathleen further said that even if the Feds stop hiking interest rates, only a few useful crypto applications that can grow organic users will survive.

The CEO also commented on the fall in the price of many digital assets in 2022. She said easy money going into the system inflated the values of digital assets. She cited examples of crypto devaluation in the industry using the OpenSea NFT marketplace as a case study.

According to data from Dune Analytics, OpenSea’s trading volume dropped from ~$3 billion in September 2021 to less than $350 million in September 2022. Kathleen explained that the cheap money phenomenon started and spread into many markets. She said OpenSea has a $13 billion valuation currently.

Other top industry players gave their opinions regarding the end of the bear market. Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano, Brett Harrison, ex-president of FTX US, and Brain Amstrong, CEO of Coinbase, predicted when the bear market would end.

According to the Tezos CEO, since the easy money is unavailable, get the communities (organic users). When asked if a pause in Fed’s rates hikes could revive the crypto market, Breitman said there would still be a shift in crypto and tech valuations. She said that the valuations would base on user growth and not the use of cheap tactics (easy money) that quickly goes.

Furthermore, Breitman said no metric had evaluated cryptocurrency or technology in the last ten years when interest rates were low. However, she maintained that practical crypto applications would thrive no matter the challenges.

As per Breitman, the demand for digital arts and their trading on blockchain was the driving factor for Tezos’ increased popularity in 2021. According to Breitman, the use case of blockchain in creating and trading digital arts is among the only sources of organic growth in the crypto industry.

Amid the crypto winter, the end of the easy money era has been a hot topic among analysts. Some believe the recent Bitcoin price stability is good for the industry. The founder of Nexo, a crypto lending firm, told reporters that BTC performance strongly indicates that the digital asset market has matured.