Bitcoin(BTC) bulls and crypto enthusiasts have been forecasting that the market will rise by the year-end, as the year is coming to its close their predictions slid towards the first half of 2019. Amidst these predictions, Arthur Hayes, CEO of BitMex makes a claim that the current crypto bear market could last a further 18 months.
Bitcoin upsurged in December last year, the token and the market has since crashed and hasn’t been able to recover. Notably, the 2018’s bear market could be deemed as the worst year on record for bitcoin in terms of percentage decline. The CEO of the world’s largest bitcoin derivatives trading platform shared his insight about the current market conditions and the probable bitcoin bull in a discussion with Yahoo Finance UK at an event in London organized by The Spectator magazine,
“My view is the volatility environment that exists right now could persist for another 12 to 18 months, the flatness. I’m just basing it off my previous experience. I started in bitcoin in 2013 when the price went from $250 to $1,300 and then 2014 to 2015 was sort of the nuclear bear market. Price crashed, volume crashed — very, very difficult to make money.”
BitMex was co-founded by Hayes in 2014, a former Deutsche Bank and Citi trader. The platform enables users to trade peer-to-peer bitcoin derivative products such as futures. In talks with the publishing, Hayes stressed that situations could get even worse. He said:
“We think trading volumes could fall further from where they are now.”
Not all share the sentiments of Hayes
As mentioned above, many Crypto Bulls are much optimistic including the co-founder of crypto exchange 0x, Will Warren, told Yahoo Finance UK over a phone interview:
“Having followed this space since 2011, we’ve seen a number of different cycles where a large number of people start to get interested in the technology and it kind of winds up and then winds downs again. The market is blowing off some steam right now,” he added. “I think the market is probably going through some healthy consolidation but I do believe the long-term trend will be greater adoption of bitcoin and similar technologies.”
An analyst with trading platform eToro, Mati Greenspan said:
“In 2016 the gains started very gradually until it snowballed. Now that awareness and education have skyrocketed, I have a feeling that it’s going to happen a lot quicker the next time.”
Former Barclays and Goldman banker, who currently helps banks implement blockchain as CEO of startup HACERA, Jonathan Levi, told the publishing:
“I think when the bear market is put in context it gives you more clarity – you’re looking at a bear sized drop but from an astonishing height. 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. Most of the EU banks are actively investing in blockchain and that all originally stems from bitcoin.”
BitMex holds strong despite the Bitcoin de-valuation
The recent fall in volumes and volatility for bitcoin hasn’t hindered the daily trade, marginally, The platform still sees a daily trade on contracts with a notional $1bn each day. BitMex recorded its biggest ever day, with $8.5bn of contracts written, earlier this year. Hayes tells the publishing:
“We think we’re well positioned to weather the low volatility. There are some reports of other OTC dealers and exchanges letting go of employees because obviously volumes have fallen and they hired aggressively. Our expansion plans have not changed, we continue to hire across the whole organisation and we have the balance sheet resources to continue that activity.”
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