After the devastating bear market of 2022, which saw Bitcoin crash from $69,000 to $15,500 and brought down FTX, Celsius, Voyager, and many other major crypto companies, few expected a quick recovery. The scandals had eroded public trust. Regulators were attacking crypto from every angle. Many predicted that crypto was entering a longer, darker winter than ever before.
But recovery came faster than expected. Bitcoin bottomed out in November 2022 at around $15,500, right after FTX’s collapse. Throughout 2023, it slowly climbed — first to $20,000, then $25,000, then $30,000. The rally was initially skeptical and uncertain. Most retail investors had been burned in 2022 and were not coming back. But institutional interest began returning. The Ordinals protocol brought new life to Bitcoin. Rumors of Bitcoin ETF approvals circulated.
The true inflection point came in early 2024. The SEC finally approved spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 10. Billions of dollars flowed into these new investment products within weeks. BlackRock’s IBIT became one of the fastest-growing ETFs in history. The institutional buying was sustained and massive. By March 2024, Bitcoin had crossed $70,000 — a new all-time high — and was showing no signs of slowing down.
The 2023-2024 bull market felt different from previous cycles. It was driven more by institutions than retail speculators. Memecoin mania still existed (especially on Solana), but the primary narrative was institutional adoption, not get-rich-quick schemes. Ethereum got its own ETF approval in July 2024. Bitcoin crossed $100,000 in late 2024. The total crypto market cap exceeded $3.5 trillion, surpassing the 2021 peak.
The 2024 U.S. presidential election added another dimension. Donald Trump embraced crypto during his campaign, promising a crypto-friendly regulatory environment, pledging to fire SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, and floating the idea of a strategic Bitcoin reserve for the U.S. government. When Trump won the election, crypto prices surged. Gensler resigned. The SEC dropped several of its major crypto lawsuits. For the first time in years, the U.S. regulatory environment seemed to be turning favorable to crypto. As 2024 ended, Bitcoin was pushing toward $108,000 and the crypto industry was experiencing an unprecedented wave of institutional validation and political support.
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