A bear market is a long, deep fall from a price top. Writers often draw the line at 20% down.
Bitcoin's real bear markets went far past that line. They fell 53% to 93%, and they lasted years.
Since 2011, the price has fallen by half or more seven times. These are the falls people call bitcoin bear markets:
| When | The fall |
|---|---|
| 2011 | $34 to $2, down 93% |
| 2013 | $231 to $68, down 71% |
| 2013 to 2015 | $1,137 to $172, down 85% |
| 2017 to 2018 | $19,280 to $3,232, down 83% |
| Spring 2021 | $63,554 to $29,790, down 53% |
| 2021 to 2022 | $67,562 to $15,760, down 77% |
| 2025 to now | $124,777 to $58,534, down 53%, still open |
A crash is about speed: sharp falls in days or weeks.
A bear market is about length: the long grind of lower prices that can follow. The 2018 crash fell fast at first. The bear market ground on for a year.
The big ones took about a year to reach the low. The climb back to the old top took 2 to 3 years in all.
The full count, fall by fall, is on how long do bitcoin crashes last?
Each past bear market ended. That is a fact of the past.
The word names the past. It does not time the next turn, and it gives no buy or sell answer.
See the bear markets on the chart
What happens after bitcoin crashes?
Prices are daily closes from blockchain.info, the same record the rainbow chart is fit to. The rainbow chart was first drawn by azop in 2014, on a growth line by trolololo. Blockchain Center made it famous. Facts as of Oct 31, 2026. This is learning, not financial advice.
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