Bitcoin is down. Your feed is all noise and fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD). The confidence from six months ago has quietly turned into hesitation.

After months of recovery and renewed optimism through mid 2025, the market has now clearly shifted into bearish territory. By the end of February 2026, Bitcoin is down roughly 46 percent from its all time high of over $126,000.

Trading has slowed, funding rates have flipped negative, and the data shows even long-term holders beginning to take profits instead of buying more.

There’s never a boring day in crypto. But right now, the silence is louder than the noise ever was.

Bear markets are boring. That’s the point.

Every Bitcoin rally starts somewhere nobody was paying attention. The run to $69K in 2021 was built on accumulation that happened during 2018 and 2019, when the price sat below $4,000 and the loudest voices had declared the experiment dead. 

The push past $100K in late 2024 followed a year of sideways movement that made for terrible content but excellent positioning.

Historically, Bitcoin bear markets have seen drawdowns of 80% from peak to trough, though each cycle is different. That’s not necessarily bad news. 

If you believe Bitcoin is valuable and its price will increase long term, then the months ahead could hold some of the most important buying opportunities of the entire cycle. 

Bear markets are not just about price - they are tests of conviction that separate short-term traders from long-term holders.

Aftershocks and market cleanup

Smaller cryptocurrencies have had a rough few months, with many tokens experiencing price falls of 60–80%. The market is being sorted between projects with genuine utility and those that were purely speculative.

This sits within a broader reset. The AI and tech rally has cooled, with major stocks down 15–20%. Global liquidity is tightening as the US grapples with fiscal pressures. 

Capital has rotated into safe havens like gold and silver. Inside crypto, growing skepticism around Layer 2 scaling has weakened one of the industry’s core growth narratives. Institutional flows have stalled. Retail investors are pulling back rather than buying the dip.

Bear markets have a nasty habit of revealing which platforms were solvent and which were running on vibes. FTX collapsed during a downturn. Celsius froze withdrawals when liquidity dried up. BlockFi, Voyager – the list is long enough to make the point. 

If your Bitcoin sits on a platform that can freeze, lend out, or lose your funds, you don’t actually own Bitcoin. You own a promise. And promises get expensive when the market turns.

Self-custody changes this equation entirely. When your keys live in a vault you control – not on a server you trust – bear markets become a price event, not an existential one. 

Bitwala’s Crypto Vaults work this way: your Bitcoin is held in multi-party computation wallets where you hold the keys. No one can freeze your funds. No one can lend them out while you sleep.

What this means for your portfolio

Investing in crypto is more fast-paced than in traditional markets, but the most important lesson holds in both: it’s all about the long game. That means having a plan, working out how much you can afford to invest, and knowing when to buy and when to sit still.

Dollar-cost averaging (DCA) into established assets like Bitcoin can work if you have the discipline and time horizon. You set a recurring buy – weekly, biweekly, monthly – and the market does whatever it does. 

When prices drop, your fixed amount buys more. When prices rise, you’ve already accumulated at lower levels. The math is simple.  Sticking to it is the hard part. DCA means buying when every signal around you says stop.

Bitwala's DCA savings plans automate this entirely. You set the amount, pick the interval, and let it run. It removes you from the one part of the process where humans reliably fail: the decision to continue.

Think carefully before throwing big money in during this phase. Trying to time the bottom is where many investors burn themselves. 

Bear markets can last 12 to 18 months or longer. They require patience. Ask yourself: Does my current allocation still make sense? Am I comfortable with further volatility? Do I have a clear strategy moving forward?

A bear market is a filter, not a funeral.

Bitcoin is still processing blocks every ten minutes. The supply cap hasn’t moved. The fundamentals that made Bitcoin interesting at $126,000 haven’t changed because the price dropped. What has changed is who’s paying attention.

Your first bear market is an important experience on your journey as an investor. It teaches you about volatility, risk management, and your own psychology. 

The investors who navigate bear markets successfully are the ones who stay disciplined, stay self-custodied, and come out stronger on the other side.

The boring part is where the returns come from.

Disclaimer

This blog constitutes information of a general nature and does not address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Nothing in this blog constitutes investment advice or any other professional and or financial advice, nor does any information in this blog constitute a complete statement of the matters included therein. Nothing in this blog constitutes or shall be read as any recommendation to invest in cryptocurrencies or investment products. Each reader alone assumes the sole responsibility for evaluating the information as well as the benefits and risks associated with the use of any information before making decisions based on such information.