Let’s face it: the crypto market in 2025 has been about as much fun as watching paint dry. If the paint was mixed with broken dreams and altcoin traders’ tears.
Over the last 12 months, crypto news headlines have ricocheted between wild optimism and utter despair.
Nonetheless, the unspoken truth is finally on everyone’s lips: Is this truly the worst crypto bull market ever?
If you aren’t clutching a Bitcoin hardware wallet and quietly muttering, “number go up,” odds are you’re in the red. Scott Melker, known as the Wolf of All Streets, says it best:
“If you didn’t just buy Bitcoin and hold, you have probably lost money.”
He goes on to lament that there’s been no alt season, no off-ramps, just a single-file line into the fiery pits of portfolio carnage.
Even whales are floundering in this crypto market, with a buffet of blue-chip “treasury plays” turning into underwater wrecks. “Brutal for almost all participants,” he noted.
You’ll be forgiven for missing the fabled alt season. That’s because it never showed up. Altcoin trader Crypto Birb summed up the general mood:
“Extremely difficult cycle tbh. Yes I know. Hard to believe its still bull market at all. Well it is – but only for bitcoin. Everything else is down -90% or more.”
The only green left in the crypto market prices? That mold growing on your old 2021 NFT receipts. Blame it on the institutions.
As Birb bemoans, the world’s largest institutions went “deep into adopting strategic exposure in digital assets” this cycle. “Smart money took what’s valuable — good on them.”
But the flipside? The retail crowd got meme coins instead. They spent their time chasing pumps and getting frustrated. “Ultimate max stupidity and value extraction and biggest cancer – memecoins.”
In a year that gave us everything from Pudgy Penguins and Peanut the Squirrel to the Official Trump and Melania coins and their rampant crypto market volatility, Birb spares no one when he says,
“We got played. BY OURSELVES. This is our punishment for choosing hype over utility.”
Crypto prices paint a brutal picture: Bitcoin may be up, hovering above $110,000 into late October, yet everything else resembles the aftermath of a rug pull.
As crypto news constantly reminds us, the largest crypto liquidation event in history wiped out $19 billion in 24 hours, a feat nearly nine times greater than the worst FTX day.
And Bitcoiners? Still at each other’s throats. WhalePanda didn’t mince words about institutional meddling and the unexpected nosedive following the rate cut decision:
“Another day, another abysmal performance. “But it’s only thanks to the ETFs that BTC recovered after FTX” …It’s the bull market, after the introduction of ETFs that failed”
While you may have placed your faith in the time-honored 4-year cycle theory, you might want to check your calendar.
If you believe the 4-year cycle thesis holds, this is already the end of the bull market.
Crypto stocks? Pumped and dumped. Even the whales got whacked. And with US rates stubbornly high, “Doing crypto is considered unattractive,” says Birb, before adding the only lifeline:
“Luckily, November is strong month on record. Rate cuts should give some boost, too. So placing some hopes there.”
Of course, the joke was on him, as the crypto market prices sank after a modest rate cut and a hawkish outlook from the Fed for the rest of the year. Let’s hope November fares somewhat better.
For those scouring crypto news, hoping for a beacon of optimism in the market, this bull run has been incredibly tough luck for anyone who joined late.
Not every cycle is this punishing, but this one, Crypto Birb suggests, has been especially cruel for fresh market entrants.
Looking ahead, Birb injects classic trader realism: in the volatile world of crypto prices, the bottom is never where you think.
If you’re convinced a token can’t drop any further after shedding 99%, be prepared. The crypto market has a knack for finding even deeper pits.
The upshot for retail is sobering, but maybe, just maybe, the next big headline in crypto news will announce a win for the little guys, instead of institutional whales pocketing the spoils.
Until then, keep your private keys close, find some comic relief in the latest memes, and remember: sometimes, in crypto, making it to the next cycle is the sweetest victory of all.
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