3 charts showing this Bitcoin price drop is unlike summer 2021
Bitcoin (BTC) bear markets come in many shapes and sizes, but this one has given many reason to panic.
BTC has been described as facing "a bear of historic proportions" in 2022, but just one year ago, a similar feeling of doom swept crypto markets as Bitcoin saw a 50% drawdown in weeks.
Beyond price, however, 2022 on-chain data looks wildly different. Cointelegraph takes a look at three key metrics demonstrating how this Bitcoin bear market is not like the last.
Everyone remembers the Bitcoin miner exodus from China, which effectively banned the practice in one of its most prolific areas.
While the extent of the ban has since come under suspicion, the move at the time saw huge numbers of network participants relocate — mostly to the United States — in a matter of weeks.
As a result, Bitcoin's network hash rate — the computing power dedicated to mining — roughly halved. At the time, this was unprecedented, while miners felt that they had no choice but at least temporarily to cease operations.
This time around, it is not red tape but simple math threatening miners. The BTC price dip to 19-month lows has put mounting pressure on the profitability of mining operations.
As Cointelegraph reported, however, a mass capitulation event may not necessarily occur, even at current levels, amid suggestions that miners who needed to sell BTC inventory have already done so.
Hash rate supports that thesis, having dipped by a maximum of around 20% from all-time highs before rebounding, according to estimates from data resource MiningPoolStats.
The July 2021 drawdown was accompanied by a slowdown in Bitcoin network activity.
Active addresses, as measured by on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant, saw a noticeable drop through June last year
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