Bitcoin recovers from “technical bear market” after climbing 10%

Bitcoin’s price recovered by 101% to trade at $94,003 on March 2, climbing out of the technical bear market, according to CryptoSlate data. Altcoins have also recorded massive gains on Sunday, with XRP up over 37% to $2.94108 over the past 24 hours.

Ethereum (ETH) climbed over 13% to $2,504.08 over the past 24 hours while Solana bagged gains of more than 23%.

February dip pushed Bitcoin into technical bear market

February was the worst month for Bitcoin (BTC) since June 2022. The price of the largest cryptocurrency fell by over 17% last month, from over $101,000 to around $84,350, according to CryptoSlate data.

The price of Bitcoin dipped as low as $78,867 on Feb 28.This was Bitcoin’s biggest monthly dip since June 2022, when BTC price fell by around 40% amid a string of crypto company bankruptcies in the aftermath of the Terra-LUNA collapse.

February’s price fall also pushed Bitcoin into a technical bear market (when the price of an asset declines by over 20%). Earlier today, BTC price was down by over 21% from its all-time high of $109,021.48 set on Jan. 20, the day of U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

While cryptocurrency had a strong start to the month, the Bitcoin fear and greed index still points to fear, indicating that the market enthusiasm triggered by Trump’s presidential election win in November 2024 has faded.

Why Bitcoin saw the worst month since June 2022?

Throughout his re-election campaign, Trump made bold promises to the crypto community. Trump promised to make the U.S. a Bitcoin mining superpower, add to the country’s BTC stockpile, create a strategic Bitcoin reserve, and replace anti-crypto leadership of federal agencies. Trump also gained the backing of major crypto companies and CEOs, who donated heavily to his campaign.

A day before Trump’s inauguration, Binance CEO Richard Teng told Bloomberg that Trump could usher in a “golden age” for crypto.

However, market sentiments have tempered since then. Bitcoin’s price decline in February is linked to the volatility in the larger financial markets, amid looming fears of a trade war. Stocks on Wall Street have tumbled and the U.S. dollar weakened last month.

As recently as this week, Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China. Trump’s aggressive trade efforts have set investors on edge as they scramble to move away from riskier assets, Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown, told The Guardian.

The crypto community is also jittery as it awaits a clear crypto regulatory framework from the Trump administration. Streeter added:

“Without any firm moves from Trump to show his support for the crypto sector, nervousness looks set to continue.”

Echoing the sentiment, Gabe Selby, head of research at CF Benchmarks, told Reuters:

“The initial excitement surrounding the Trump administration’s perceived pro-crypto stance appears to be in a phase of recalibration. For sentiment to shift decisively, a clearer regulatory framework or a major catalyst—such as further ETF approvals—seems necessary.”

Furthermore, Matt Simpson, senior market analyst at City Index told Reuters that inflationary pressures are increasing while growth prospects are fading. Amid the circumstances and Trump’s preoccupation with “anything except deregulating crypto,” Bitcoin traders “are not happy.”

Additionally, the massive hack of Bybit that led to the loss of around $1.5 billion worth of assets has also hurt industry sentiment.

Most of Trump’s promises to crypto are yet to be fulfilled

Trump has kept his word to the crypto community to a certain extent by nominating crypto-friendly individuals to run federal agencies like the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has yielded favorable results.

Earlier this week, the SEC announced that it is dropping its enforcement action against Coinbase. The crypto exchange was being accused of violating securities laws by offering unregistered securities.

The former chief of the SEC, Gary Gensler, who was known for his anti-crypto stance, resigned on Jan. 20.

Earlier today, a post on social media platform Truth Social surfaced in which president Trump said that his executive order on digital assets will direct the Presidential Working Group to create a strategic crypto reserve. He said that Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) will be at the “heart of the Reserve,” along with XRP, Solana (SOL), and Cardano (ADA).

However, pro-crypto changes have not yet manifested in several aspects of the crypto industry. For instance, speaking at ETHDenver, Custodia Bank CEO Caitlyn Long said that “nothing” has really changed when it comes to the crypto debanking issue. She noted:

“… [while the] perception is that there has been a loosening, none of the federal banking agencies have actually overturned any of the anti-crypto guidance.”

Despite the current decline and less-than-ideal market sentiment, Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick remains bullish. Kendrick believes that Bitcoin could still hit $500,000 before the conclusion of Trump’s second administration.

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