Definition

A bull market is generally a good thing that signifies a rapid & significant upward trend of the market. A bear market is the opposite, referring to falling prices & a downwards trend.

Understanding Bull/Bear Markets

Bull and bear markets are terms borrowed from the stock market, but they are widely used in cryptocurrency.

A bull market, or ‘bull run’, is a period of time where:

• The majority of people are buying and not selling
• Demand outweighs supply
• Market confidence is high
• The prices of assets are rising

A bear market is where:

• Market confidence declines
• People begin selling their assets due to widespread pessimism
• A prolonged period of depressed asset prices ensues due to fear and people rushing to cut their losses

If you’re ‘bullish’ on a market or an asset you think the prices will rise, and if you’re ‘bearish’ you think the market is headed for a crash.

Crypto Bull & Bear Markets

In the world of crypto, an asset’s price (and bull and bear markets in general) are  strongly influenced by speculative interest and public confidence. This results in a volatile market which hinges on what is known as ‘market sentiment’ (the overall attitude of investors).

Market sentiment (and thus bull/bear markets) is heavily influenced by:

• News announcements
• Mainstream/institutional adoption
• Media coverage
• Supply compared to the demand of Bitcoin & other cryptos
• Where we are in relation to the previous bull run
• Notable events (technology or regulatory updates, security breaches, economic setbacks, celebrity endorsement, etc.)

Previous Bull/Bear runs

Over the last decade, cryptocurrency bull and bear cycles have shown a tendency to follow a four-year pattern, largely influenced by Bitcoin’s halving events. Historically, each bull market has been larger in scale than the previous one, attracting more participants and driving new all-time highs.

However, while past cycles have provided a framework for traders to anticipate potential market upswings, predicting the exact start and end of a bull run remains difficult. The 2021 bull market differed from prior cycles due to increased institutional adoption, macroeconomic factors, and evolving market structures. Looking ahead, the current cycle (2024-2025) appears to be shaping up with similar influences, including Bitcoin’s 2024 halving, growing regulatory clarity, and the introduction of spot Bitcoin ETFs.

Key Takeaways

• A bull market occurs when prices are trending upward, often driven by increasing investor confidence, adoption, and liquidity. Entering early and taking profits near market peaks is a common strategy.
• A bear market is a period of declining prices, but it can provide opportunities to accumulate strong assets at discounted prices.
• While the term “bull market” originates from traditional finance, it applies across various asset classes, including stocks, Forex, commodities, real estate, and cryptocurrencies.
• Investors who believe in long-term price appreciation are referred to as “bulls”, whereas those who expect declines are “bears.”
• Bull markets often create a positive feedback loop, where rising confidence leads to increased investment, further driving prices up.
• Market cycles vary in length, with bull and bear phases lasting anywhere from months to years, making it challenging to time market movements precisely.
• Even in a bull market, prices do not move in a straight line—corrections and dips are natural and can provide entry opportunities.

Understanding these cycles can help traders and investors make informed decisions, but external factors such as regulation, macroeconomics, and technological advancements continue to shape the evolving crypto market.

How to take advantage of a bull run?

When prices are going up, going ‘long’ and buying the inevitable dips and corrections can be a solid strategy. If you are in a long-term bull market, dollar-cost averaging (regularly investing small amounts to distribute your risk throughout bear & bull markets) can also be effective.

Even if you’re a beginner there are ample opportunities during a crypto bull run, with many low-cap altcoins offering the potential for 10-1000X gains in a very short period of time. However, it must be said that while crypto bull runs are notorious for truly life-changing gains, in the past we have seen bull runs come crashing down in a matter of weeks. While upwards trends can look as if they’ll go on forever, eventually, all bull runs come to an end.

Multi-year bull markets can be destroyed in a matter of weeks (as we saw with the COVID-19 stock market crash) and you should be taking profits along the way and looking to exit many of your positions before the trend reverses and the market comes back down to earth.

If you’re new to crypto, check out our article on the 12 beginner crypto mistakes to avoid! 

How to take advantage of a crypto bear market?

So, the high is over and the market has come crashing back down along with any investments you did not cash out on when things were golden. While many crypto investors are diehard HODLers and couldn’t care less about short term market crashes and spikes, riding the bull run all the way up just to ride it all the way back down can be a painful experience.

Despite this being a nerve-racking time to invest in anything, a bear market (especially in crypto) offers the opportunity to amass some valuable assets while the prices are dirt cheap.

Every time Bitcoin has crashed it has risen up once again to even greater heights. Historically, those who have chosen to buy up during a crypto bear market are laughing. As Warren Buffet says, ‘Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful’.

How to profit from short selling in a bear market?

Taking a short position, ‘shorting’, or ‘going short’ on a trade is a more advanced strategy where you borrow shares/crypto and sell them in anticipation that the price of that asset will fall soon. If the price does drop, you buy that same asset back at a lower price to cover the amount you borrowed while keeping the profit you made for yourself.

Note: This kind of trading should only be done by experienced traders with a high risk tolerance – as always, never trade with any amount that you can’t afford to lose!

How does the crypto market work?

Cryptocurrency markets can be extremely lucrative but they are undoubtedly more volatile than the tradition stock market.

In greatly simplified terms, crypto markets (and their bear and bull run cycles) move according to market sentiment, speculative interest and various factors which include:

• Previous market cycles: Previous bull/bear runs often have a lot to say about how the current market will behave.
• Press: The way the cryptocurrency is portrayed in the media and how much coverage it is getting.
• Mainstream adoption: The extent to which the cryptocurrency fills the market’s demands and how well it integrates into existing infrastructure such as e-commerce payment systems.
• Notable events: Major events such as regulatory updates, company announcements, celebrity or institutional adoption, security breaches and economic setbacks.
• Supply: The total number of coins and the rate at which they are released, destroyed or lost.
• Market capitalisation: the total value of all the coins in existence and how users perceive the coin to be developing.

When will the crypto bull run end?

The question on every investor’s mind: When will the bull market end?

While historical crypto bull runs have followed relatively predictable cycles—largely influenced by Bitcoin’s halving events and broader macroeconomic trends—each cycle brings its own unique factors. The 2024-2025 bull market is shaping up differently due to increasing institutional participation, the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs, clearer regulatory frameworks, and the global economic environment.

Despite past patterns, timing the peak of a bull run is notoriously difficult. This is why a strategic approach to taking profits is essential. Rather than trying to call the exact top, it’s wise to gradually secure gains as your portfolio grows and reduce exposure to high-risk, less-established altcoins when market euphoria peaks.

Key Considerations for the End of a Bull Run:

• Market Sentiment: Excessive greed, unrealistic price expectations, and a flood of new retail investors often signal that a cycle is nearing its peak.
• Bitcoin’s Price Action: Historically, Bitcoin leads the market, and major corrections in BTC often mark the start of a broader downturn.
• Regulatory Changes: Governments worldwide are actively shaping crypto regulations, which can impact market sentiment and liquidity.
• Macroeconomic Factors: Interest rate shifts, inflation, and global economic conditions play a role in determining risk appetite in financial markets, including crypto.
• Liquidity & Altcoin Performance: As liquidity dries up, speculative altcoins often crash first, followed by the broader market.

Having an exit strategy is crucial. Whether that means moving profits into Bitcoin, stablecoins, precious metals, or fiat, the key is not getting caught holding overvalued altcoins when the cycle shifts. Many projects that surge in a bull market fail to sustain their value in a downturn—so setting price targets and gradually de-risking is a smart move in the fast-changing world of crypto.

What marks the end of a bull market?

Another difficult question due to the fact that even during the strongest bull markets there will be many fluctuations, dips, and corrections along the way. People often misconstrue short-term downward movements as the end of a bull market when really things are just kicking into gear.

This is why it’s crucial to stay vigilant for any potential signs for a trend reversal from a broader perspective, looking at price action over both short and long-time frames, and making sure you have a wide range of trustworthy sources.

Why a bear market and a major crash is not the end of the world

Bitcoin crashes. And then all the sceptics say, ‘I told you so’. And then a few months pass and it recovers, bigger and stronger than ever. Every. Single. Time.

Bitcoin is king in the world of crypto and its price has a big impact on the entire market and the price of all the other cryptocurrencies. And it seems to always bounce back. While holding a crashing coin can be hard to watch, many of the stabler crypto coins (Bitcoin in particular) have seen many crashes that have been followed by a swift recovery that has taken it to new heights.

Now we can’t say whether this will happen forever, but Bitcoin has recovered from every crash it has had and it is important to remember that in crypto, you only lose when you sell. If you have faith in the value of your investment, holding through a tumbling market may be your best strategy – especially given that the crypto revolution is still in its early days. 

You can never be sure when a coin or the market has reached its peak or its bottom. Being able to predict these movements is the art of crypto trading. Doing your research and performing a fundamental and technical analysis will increase the likelihood that you can predict future market trends accurately and make the most of whatever state the market is in.

Where did the terms ‘bull’ and ‘bear’ come from?

You can find some theories behind the origins of these terms here. But we like to keep it simple. A bull thrusts its horns upwards, and a bear swipes its paws downwards. Hopefully that’s enough for you not to forget which is which.

Understanding Bitcoin halvings and crypto bull runs

Once every four years there is an event that has an enormous impact on the crypto market. It is the halving of the Bitcoin supply (the amount of BTC miners receive for their efforts in keeping the Bitcoin network secure). As you can imagine this has a dramatic impact as the supply is severely and abruptly lessened, and if the demand for BTC remains or grows (which historically it has) then the value of Bitcoin shoots upwards.

Reliably, after every halving of Bitcoin a massive crypto bull run has followed (plus an altseason!), with this trend playing out fairly predictably over the last 4 years. One of the most advantageous things about trading crypto is that based upon historic patterns and the 4-year cycle, you can accurately estimate the best time to enter the market (ideally when the next bull run is just around the corner.

What have past crypto bull runs taught us?

Following historic trends based on the 4-year cycle, past crypto bull runs have often begun a few months after a Bitcoin halving. On top of that, another consistent pattern throughout the lifespan of Bitcoin is that each bull run is substantially bigger than the last with the peak of the bull run outperforming the previous peak by a huge margin.

In the epic bull run of 2017, we saw that this pattern did not only apply to Bitcoin. The entire cryptocurrency market as a whole hit new all-time highs, with market cap of altcoins reaching over 1.5 trillion.

This is another trend that we can fairly reliably predict of future bull runs. In fact, the current bull run we are in seems to be confirming this pattern and we are likely to see many altcoins absolutely smash through their all-time highs of the previous bull run, as they have done many times before. 

Is this bull run any different to previous bull runs?

Much of the analysis surrounding crypto bull and bear markets is based on historical cycles, particularly Bitcoin’s four-year halving-driven patterns. In previous cycles, traders have successfully used historical data to anticipate major market movements, sometimes down to weeks or even days. However, the 2024-2025 bull run is shaping up to be different in several key ways.

Key Differences in the 2024-2025 Bull Run

1. Institutional & Mainstream Adoption
   Institutional participation is at an all-time high, with major financial firms—including BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale—offering Bitcoin ETFs, allowing traditional investors to enter the market more easily. Governments, banks, and major corporations are also integrating blockchain technology into their ecosystems.
2. Regulatory Clarity & Global Policy Shifts
   Unlike previous cycles, where regulatory uncertainty hindered growth, we’re seeing increasing regulatory clarity across major economies. The approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S., advancements in EU crypto regulations (MiCA), and growing discussions about central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) indicate that crypto is becoming a mainstream asset class rather than a speculative bubble.
3. Market Maturity & Utility-Driven Projects
   Unlike earlier cycles that were heavily driven by speculation, this cycle has a stronger focus on real-world utility. Layer 2 scaling solutions (e.g., Bitcoin Lightning, Ethereum L2s), institutional-grade DeFi, and the tokenisation of real-world assets (RWAs) have given crypto a more fundamental economic use case beyond just trading.
4. Macroeconomic Influences & Liquidity
   The current macroeconomic environment is playing a larger role than in previous cycles. Interest rate decisions, inflation, and global liquidity will impact crypto differently than before, as more institutional players now consider Bitcoin and crypto assets as part of their diversified portfolios.
5. More Diverse Market Participation
   Unlike in 2017 or even 2021, where retail speculation dominated, this cycle has broader participation from hedge funds, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds. The narrative has shifted from “crypto is a fad” to “crypto is an emerging financial sector”, making price movements more complex and reducing reliance solely on retail-driven hype.

What Does This Mean for Traders & Investors?

While historical trends still provide useful insights, the crypto market is entering new territory. The increased involvement of institutions, governments, and large corporations means this cycle could behave differently from past ones, potentially leading to longer and more sustained growth periods—but also more complex corrections.

One thing, however, remains certain: Crypto is more established than ever before, and its long-term future continues to look bright. Here’s to making the most of this exciting new era!