By CCN.com: In 2018, with the exception of Bitcoin and several other crypto assets, the majority of cryptocurrencies fell by more than 90 percent against the U.S. dollar.
Executives in the crypto space, especially those leading new initiatives and businesses in the emerging industry, believe that the bear market has presented companies with positive opportunities to rebuild the foundations of the asset class and the sector.
Merits of a Crypto Bear Market
The majority of blockchain projects developing protocols or decentralized applications (dApps) have conducted initial coin offerings (ICOs) or token sales in 2017.
As such, the valuation of many blockchain companies has been dependent on the performance of tokens.
During a bear market, as seen in previous years, cryptocurrencies with strong fundamentals tend to survive and demonstrate minimized losses.
According to the data provided by ATHCoinIndex, most major crypto assets such as Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Cardano have fallen by 90 to 97 percent from their all-time highs against the U.S. dollar in the past 12 months.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin, the most dominant cryptocurrency in the market, has dropped by 82 percent in a 12-month period. Bitcoin remains as one of the few crypto assets to have seen an increase in hash rate throughout the correction.
Since January 2018, the hash rate of the Bitcoin network has increased from 15 exahash to 45 exahash, by at least three-fold.
Considering the tendency of small market cryptocurrencies or tokens to fall by large margins in comparison to Bitcoin on a downward trend, during a correction, investors often acquire blockchain projects building long-term blockchain-related applications, protocols, and solutions at a substantially lower price.
Sheri Kaiserman, the principal advisor of a U.S. investment and recruiting company Maco.la, said:
We felt like the best way to make money is to buy the infrastructure companies — the picks and shovels — that are helping build the foundation. They are coming down in valuation, which is the best part of the crypto winter for us
At the peak of the crypto market in late 2017, many blockchain protocols were valued at billions of dollars and the majority of the projects failed to showcase working products and active user bases.
In the past 14 months, blockchain projects have fallen to a reasonable valuation, presenting opportunities for investors to acquire equity in infrastructure building companies.
Easy to Pick up Talent
Previously, CCN reported that the salary of blockchain developers in regions like Switzerland have increased to around $180,000, triggered by a growing interest in blockchain technology internationally.
But, job offers in crypto, at least in the past year, have mostly been presented by blockchain companies that have obtained capital through token sales.
As blockchain protocols began to decline in valuation and teams started to experience a funding crunch, developers and talent were let go.
Spring Labs CEO Adam Jiwan told Bloomberg that it has allowed newly entering companies and existing established businesses to recruit more talent.
“The skepticism is warranted in many ways because this technology is nascent and untested at an industrial scale. Our hope is this presents us with a great opportunity to recruit talent,” he said.
