Recovering from a technical bear market, Bitcoin’s price has surged by 101%, trading at $94,003 on March 2, according to data from CryptoSlate. This comeback has been mirrored in the altcoin market, with XRP observing a significant 37% increase to $2.94108 in the last 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH) and Solana have also seen considerable gains, climbing over 13% to $2,504.08 and 23% respectively.
This recovery follows a challenging February for Bitcoin (BTC), which experienced its worst month since June 2022. The largest cryptocurrency’s price plunged by over 17% last month, from over $101,000 to around $84,350. On February 28, Bitcoin’s price slumped as low as $78,867 – the biggest monthly dip since a 40% fall in June 2022, which occurred amid crypto company bankruptcies following the Terra-LUNA collapse.
This dip pushed Bitcoin into a technical bear market, defined by an asset’s price declining by over 20%. Early in the day, 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.
Despite a strong start to the month, the Bitcoin fear and greed index still indicates fear. This suggests that the market enthusiasm triggered by Trump’s presidential election win in November 2024 has dissipated.
The re-election campaign of Trump was marked by bold promises to the crypto community. These included making the U.S. a Bitcoin mining superpower, beefing up the country’s BTC stockpile, creating a strategic Bitcoin reserve, and replacing anti-crypto leadership at federal agencies. Trump’s campaign also received significant financial backing from major crypto companies and CEOs.
However, the market sentiment has since tempered. Bitcoin’s price decline in February is linked to the volatility in the larger financial markets, amid looming fears of a trade war. Wall Street stocks tumbled and the U.S. dollar weakened last month.
Trump’s recent threats to impose new tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China have unsettled investors, causing them to move away from riskier assets. The crypto community is awaiting a clear crypto regulatory framework from the Trump administration, and without any firm moves from Trump to show his support for the crypto sector, nervousness looks set to continue.
The massive hack of Bybit, resulting in the loss of around $1.5 billion worth of assets, has also negatively impacted industry sentiment.
Trump has kept some of his promises to the crypto community, nominating crypto-friendly individuals to run federal agencies like the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC has recently dropped its enforcement action against Coinbase, a crypto exchange accused of violating securities laws.
However, pro-crypto changes are yet to be seen in several aspects of the crypto industry. Despite the current decline and less-than-ideal market sentiment, Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick remains bullish, believing that Bitcoin could still hit $500,000 before the conclusion of Trump’s second administration.
