I always see people saying, “Buy the dip!” whenever a crypto crashes, but let’s be real—sometimes, a dip is just the start of a bigger collapse. With Arbitrum (ARB), Polygon (MATIC), and MultiversX (EGLD) all down over 60% this year, it’s making me wonder… are these just undervalued opportunities, or are we catching falling knives?
Meme coins, which led last year’s rally, are also getting wrecked, with their market cap tanking from $137B to $56.2B in just a few months. If the hype is gone, what’s left? Fundamentals? Utility? Or just exit liquidity for the next pump?
What History Tells Us
Looking at previous cycles, we’ve seen this pattern before. After the 2017 bull run, altcoins crashed hard in 2018, and some never recovered. The 2021 cycle was similar—plenty of projects that soared back then are now shadows of their former selves. But at the same time, those who bought Bitcoin at $3K in 2018 or Ethereum under $100 ended up making life-changing gains.
The question is: how do we tell the difference between coins that are just in a temporary downtrend and those that are fundamentally broken?
Signs We Might Be Near the Bottom
There are a few indicators traders watch to call a market bottom:
- Extreme Fear in Sentiment Indicators: When everyone is calling for lower prices and retail investors give up, it’s often a good time to accumulate.
- Long-Term Holder Accumulation: If big wallets are accumulating while prices drop, that’s usually a sign of confidence.
- Capitulation Events: A final big flush-out (like we saw in March 2020 or June 2022) can mark the real bottom.
- Negative Funding Rates: In futures markets, when funding rates go deeply negative, it shows excessive bearish sentiment—often a reversal point.
Right now, some of these indicators are flashing, but the big question is: Do we trust these projects to recover, or are they just the next batch of altcoins that will fade into irrelevance?
Would love to hear from those who have been through previous cycles—are you buying, waiting, or avoiding these dips entirely?
