As December begins, marking the final month of 2025, the cryptocurrency market has experienced a period of volatility. Following a sharp decline on the first day of December, the market showed signs of stabilization and recovery on December 2 and 3. In response, many traders have turned more optimistic in their price forecasts for cryptocurrencies.
According to a survey conducted by the on-chain prediction platform Myriad titled “Will the Cryptocurrency Market Enter a Winter?”, only 7.5% of users expressed pessimism — a significant drop from 30% last Friday (November 28).
This improvement in sentiment coincided with the rebound in cryptocurrency prices on Tuesday (December 2). As of press time, Bitcoin is trading above $93,000, having risen 6% in the past 24 hours.
However, this price remains about 27% lower than its all-time high of over $126,000, which was set in early October.
Meanwhile, Ethereum is trading at $2,990, having rebounded by 7.3% since Monday’s plunge. Nonetheless, over the past month, the price of Ether has also fallen by more than 20%.
Winter Has Not Yet Arrived
On the on-chain prediction platform Myriad, for a situation to qualify as a “cryptocurrency winter,” at least three out of the following four conditions must be met: First, Bitcoin’s price drops to 35,000;second,Ethereum’spricefallsto1,000; third, the stock price of “Bitcoin whale” Strategy Corp. declines to 50pershare;fourth,thetotalmarketcapitalizationofcryptocurrenciesonTradingViewfallsto350 billion.
More broadly, a “cryptocurrency winter” refers to a prolonged period of sustained market decline, characterized by falling prices, slowing trading activity, waning investor interest, and typically lasting for months or even years.
The most recent “crypto winter” began in late 2021 and lasted until the second half of 2023. It was triggered by the collapse of the pandemic-era bull market, compounded by the 2022 crash of Terra/Luna and the subsequent chain reaction that led to the failure of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital in June of that year and the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX in November.
During that period, Bitcoin’s price plummeted from its then-all-time high of nearly 69,000inNovember2021toaround16,000 — a drop of approximately 75%. Meanwhile, venture capital funding and trading volumes also saw significant declines.
However, judging from the current landscape, although Bitcoin and Ethereum have recently seen price declines, a “cryptocurrency winter” does not appear to have arrived.
Many analysts point out that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision next week will be one of the key factors influencing Bitcoin’s trajectory for the rest of the year.
Tim Sun, Senior Researcher at digital asset financial services group HashKey Group, previously noted, “As long as expectations for the Fed’s easing cycle in 2026 do not completely fall through… then this phase is more likely to be a bottoming consolidation period rather than the start of a new long-term bear market.”