Not Everyone Will Survive the Cryptocurrency Bear Market — and that might be a good thing

You’re already starting to see it.

Bitcoin mining ops are shutting down. American-based ICOs like Basis are paying back investors out of fear of SEC intervention. Crypto Twitter saltiness as an ATH.

It’s become abundantly clear — we are pretty much exactly 12 months removed from Bitcoins ATH of $19,800 — that this crypto winter may be a long one. The models that worked in 2017 are completely broken.

Now, as we are about to flip the calendars to 2019, we are starting to see projects capitulate out of financial necessity. It’s become commonplace to see folks who raised money in 2017 leaving the space, pivoting, or shutting down operations.

Many crypto experts, like Ikigai Fund’s Travis Kling, predicted this and believe this type of correction is actually healthy for the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Kling talks about how the price drawdown this year now tracks most projects actual value. The top 100 coins (minus bitcoin) peaked at $547 billion in January 2018, now its about $50 billion. A much better reflection of network usage and fundamentals.

The bear market is also helping purge the space of the scammers and short-term hangers-on. Most of the folks that started projects just to make a quick buck have don’t have the patience or resolve to make through a bear market.

It’s those that stick around, continue to “BUIDL” and ship on time that will be left standing. And when the bearish sentiment eventually subsides, it’s those projects that will find product/market fit.

And they will decouple in value from the sea of garbage coins and tokens we see today. The Amazon’s will emerge, while the Pets.com’s will become cautionary tales.