Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says he “welcomes” another crypto winter, noting that bear markets have coincided with the development of more sustainable projects. 

Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, Buterin argued that the crypto industry could benefit from what appears to be an emerging bear market, known as a “crypto winter.” Buterin said his views were echoed by the majority of people “deep into crypto,” particularly developers, who welcome the bear market since it shifts the focus from short-term speculation.

He said, 

They welcome the bear market because when there are these long periods of prices moving up by huge amounts like it does — it does obviously make a lot of people happy — but it does also tend to invite a lot of very short-term speculative attention. 

According to Bloombergy’s Galaxy Crypto Index, the market is down 45% from its last all-time high in November 2021, with Ethereum’s price slumping 40% during the same period. 

Buterin claimed that crypto projects shift to an emphasis on long-term stability during periods of price depression, as opposed to the scams and pump-and-dump schemes that seem to flourish in bull markets. 

The 28-year-old co-founder, with a net worth over $1 billion, said he was “surprised” by how the markets had changed since the end of last year. Buterin was uncertain whether crypto had indeed entered a price winter or was instead reflecting the volatility of the traditional markets, such as stocks.

He told Bloomberg, 

It does feel like the crypto markets kind of flip the switch from being this niche group that’s controlled by a very niche group of participants and it’s fairly disconnected to traditional markets into something that behaves more and more like it is part of the mainstream financial markets. 

Buterin said the crypto winter allowed developers to focus on improving their technology. He noted his shift in focus to growing Ethereum’s scalability, including dealing with the blockchain’s slow and expensive transactions. 

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