Vitalik Buterin: Another cold winter could be good news for cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been on a downward trend since hitting an all-time high in November. Bitcoin, the world's most popular cryptocurrency, has once again fallen below the $40,000 mark and is currently trading at $38,432.32, down 3.44% in the past 24 hours and 44.4% from its all-time high of $69,000.

As Bitcoin fell below $40,000 for the second time this year, Ethereum, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency, also fell to just over $2,600. Bitpush terminal data shows that ETH is currently trading at $2,638, down 3.68% in the past 24 hours and 46.5% lower than its peak in November.

$30,000 is the next support level that analysts are now eyeing for Bitcoin. If this level fails to hold, the price of Bitcoin could plunge further, just like the 80% correction during the 2018 bear market.

As buyers dry up, in the short term, technical analysts believe a deeper pullback could be on the cards.

However, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is actually quite optimistic about this market drop. He further elaborated on his thoughts on this downturn.

While the ongoing market correction has devastated many cryptocurrencies, Vitalik Buterin said the massive “purge” is actually good for the long-term health of cryptocurrencies.

True crypto believers “welcome” crypto winter

While naysayers like Peter Schiff gleefully cheer the current dire market conditions as Bitcoin is completely doomed to fail, Buterin said true believers and committed engineers would be surprisingly open to another bear market.

Why? Because what remains in the industry after the bloodbath are hardcore enthusiasts and innovators, not eccentric crazy speculators. Buterin said in an interview with Bloomberg: "They welcome the bear market because when prices rise sharply over the long term - which obviously makes a lot of people happy - it also tends to attract a lot of very short-term speculative attention."

The Ethereum co-founder added that hype projects are likely to die during a bear market as only sustainable projects (in terms of structure, team, and community) will be able to weather the storm.

The ongoing bear market is obviously frustrating for cryptocurrency investors. To survive, they need to hold on and maintain a long-term mindset. Buterin noted that depressed prices will help those building on crypto to turn their full attention to improving infrastructure and technology to encourage greater adoption.

Buterin said that all true cryptocurrency enthusiasts and a large number of large cryptocurrency investors usually welcome such a cryptocurrency winter. This is because only in such a winter will all the truly real and legitimate projects and cryptocurrencies in the market emerge.

Additionally, many investors believe this is the best time to get as much cryptocurrency as possible at a low price.

In addition to this, Buterin also pointed out that the Ethereum Foundation is further developing the Ethereum blockchain. Buterin is quite confident that the Ethereum blockchain will always be the leader.