Data from bitcoin processor suggests that crypto winter is not affecting widespread use

If seeing cryptocurrencies lose nearly $2 trillion in value since the height of the 2021 rally wasn’t devastating enough for investors, analysts have predicted that the latest plunge is not a traditional market setback. Instead of distinguishing between a pullback in the market and a long-term decline, the industry has already shown signs of the more dreaded “crypto winter.”

For context, unlike last year’s BTC drop from $64,000 to $30,000, which happened over the course of a few weeks, only to be followed by a stunning pullback to a new record high of $68,700, cooling prices in 2022 clearly presents much rougher water.

To illustrate, consider the context. In 2022 there is greater economic uncertainty due to the invasion of Ukraine, rising inflation and fears of a recession in major countries. Contagion has also spread through the crypto sector, with the collapse of the Terra blockchain creating a domino effect that hit a number of lenders and hedge funds. However, that doesn’t mean the market will never recover. In fact, analysts raise questions that consider the opposite outcome.

Namely, what does the impact of crypto winter mean for the mainstream adoption of crypto – and will this push or accelerate the industry towards making digital assets an everyday form of payment? Already, the industry is seeing new ways for consumers to pay in crypto instead of fiat, suggesting the answer may be the latter.

Also, if new solutions become available, does this mean the end of crypto winter? And if so, does that mean a recovery is underway?

At this stage, the only way to make a viable prediction is to look closely at the performance of payment providers, arguably one of the strong indicators of where the market is headed.

Crush the numbers

When denominated in dollars, there is no doubt that the bear market of 2022 has been the worst Bitcoin has ever seen. At one point, this flagship cryptocurrency had fallen by $50,000. But percentage wise it’s a different story.

In fact, a recent report from Glassnode and CoinMarketCap found that this downturn has been the least severe bear market in Bitcoin’s history. So far, the maximum withdrawal is 74%. We saw drops of 84% in 2018 and 2015… and a 93% crash in 2011.

It has also been interesting to see the response from some of the biggest Bitcoin investors on Wall Street. MicroStrategy owns 130,000 BTC – and despite billions of dollars in unrealized losses, Michael Saylor vowed to “HODL through adversity.” In fact, after serving as CEO for 33 years, he has now moved to a new role as executive chairman, allowing him to focus more of his energy on the company’s crypto reserves – a sign that it plans to continue stacking bets.

Compare that to Tesla, which sold 75% of its stake for $936 million to free up liquidity. Elon Musk stressed that this should not be considered a judgment on Bitcoin’s merits.

Continuous adoption despite price drop

With large-scale investors using vastly different strategies to combat the crypto winter, this calls into question the impact of the everyday user.

Currently, data from bitcoin payment processing gateway and business wallet, CoinsPaid, suggests that adoption is still moving in the right direction. To date, the payment ecosystem is said to have processed more than €13 billion of crypto in total and continues to grow by nearly €1 billion per month amid the declining market.

Nine million transactions worth 5.6 billion euros were also processed in the first half of 2022. In the same period the previous year, these were 3.7 million transactions, with volumes of 2 billion euros.

In response to these growing numbers, CoinsPaid’s co-founder and CEO Max Krupyshev told Cointelegraph:

“As the data has shown, the crypto winter has proven to have little effect on mass adoption. For us, this means maintaining plans in the next few years to increase turnover, despite market fluctuations and volatility. We are sure that this crisis, like others, is an opportunity for continued growth. It then becomes our goal to showcase crypto’s promising future within our own initiatives, and help pave the way forward together with other industry pioneers.”

Looking ahead, CoinsPaid plans to launch branded crypto debit cards and has taken the first steps to create a non-profit foundation that will champion the adoption of the CPD token and its additional benefits for use in the CoinsPaid ecosystem. This organization will be based in Switzerland and is set to enter into cooperation agreements with top blockchain firms.

With 10 million customer end users, the CoinsPaid payment ecosystem is going from strength to strength.

Disclaimer. All financial, statistical and other data about the customers or merchants, executed transactions etc. are provided as an aggregate from the activities of all legal entities operating under the Coinspaid brand, specifically: (I) Dream Finance OÜ, Harju maakond, Kesklinna linnaosa , Rotermanni tn 6 , 10111, Tallinn, Estonia; (II) Dream Finance UAB, Gynejq St. 14-65, Vilnius, Lithuania and (III) Dream Finance SA DE CV, 3A Calle Poniente Y, 71 Avenida Norte, colonel Escalon, edif. Lexincorp, Office No. 3698, San Salvador, El Salvador.