Bitcoin is currently in a harsh bear market. Prices dropped from an all-time high of $126,200 in October 2025 to more than half by July 2026, while the price has since fluctuated more gently around the $60,000 mark.
And after over 270 days since its peak of October 2025, a 14.65% loss over the last month alone, and a 30.84% loss year-to-date (as of July 1st, 2026), it seems like Bitcoin will stay in the bear market it’s in (Yahoo Finance).
From institutional sell-offs to shifting economic policies and money moving out of digital assets into other sectors like artificial intelligence, it’s time for crypto-users to look at the new norm for Bitcoin rather than waiting for the next bull run.
Despite some investment banks, like Wall Street bank Cantor Fitzgerald, saying we’re nearing the end of the bear cycle, for now, we’re still deep in it, and between 300,000 and 500,000 unique users send or receive Bitcoin directly on the main blockchain every day (Crypto.com), so here’s what you need to know if you want to send crypto during a bear market.
What’s a Bear Market?
A bear market is defined as a sustained decline of 20% or more from recent price peaks. So, for Bitcoin, the bear market started quickly after October 2025 and has really stayed around 50% of that $126,200 for a sustained period. Even recently, Yahoo Finance reported a 21-month low for Bitcoin as US Federal Reserve policymakers fueled rumors of higher interest rates.
There are also worries about one of the biggest corporate buyers, Strategy Inc., of the coin, which weakened the market sentiment further. Michael Saylor’s financing overhaul of the company could mean they won’t be one of the biggest crypto buyers for much longer.
The current Bitcoin bear market is different from the one in 2022. The 2022 crash was driven by crypto-native failures such as the following:
- Terra/Luna
- Celsius-style lending stress
- Leverage
- FTX
The 2026 downturn is more tied to ETF flows, institutional positioning, macro rates, the strong dollar, risk appetite, and capital rotating toward AI-related assets…and everything else in between.
What You Need to Know About Sending Money in a Bear Market
Sending money in a bear market is a lot less appealing for crypto users.
Fiat-value risk
The first thing you need to get your head around is the fiat-value risk, which means that if you send $1,000 worth of Bitcoin when the market is volatile, the person might not actually get the full amount. Bitcoin transactions aren’t instant, and if we’re talking in the context of a bear market, a one-hour wait or more could see the value of the transaction drop by a few percent, even though the transaction settles on-chain.
Additional fees
You also have to think that on top of that, when you send crypto, the final amount for the recipient is minus fees, exchange spreads, and withdrawal fees, so it isn’t even just the price fluctuation that can cause the final received amount to be less.
The minor positive is that, sometimes, a bear market reduces network congestion because speculative activity falls. That said, lower prices still don’t mean lower fees. Bitcoin fees come from:
- Blockspace demand
- Mempool congestion
- Transaction size
- User urgency
A 2026 fee-market study also found that congestion is a main determinant of confirmation delay and that RBF/CPFP choices also affect fee outcomes (arXiv).
As digital asset adoption grows, the environmental impact of blockchain networks remains an important consideration. While Bitcoin mining has increased its use of renewable energy in some regions, energy consumption and grid impacts continue to be monitored by policymakers and researchers. Investors should consider both financial and sustainability factors when evaluating long-term participation in crypto markets.
What Your Goal Should Be When Trading and Sending Money in a Bear Market
Realistically, your main goal for trading in a bear market should be capital preservation rather than trying to perfectly time the bottom, which is a massive risk in itself.
For example, now, Bitcoin looks ‘cheap,’ and people might get sucked into the notion of the bear cycle ending soon, but we’re yet to hear how high interest rates will go and whether massive corporate investment will actually drop off. If that happens, this isn’t the end of the bear market. And if you look at the 2022 bear market, it dropped to a massive 77% of its peak trough. We’re only at 53%.
Nobody can predict what’s happening.
As for sending, transaction certainty is definitely the goal, especially for large payment amounts. If you’re sending Bitcoin, your priority has to be that the correct amount reaches the correct wallet. Then it’s up to the person receiving the money to convert it into fiat as soon as possible, unless their goal is to continue trading.
Sending crypto, in general, in a bear market is just about being careful and taking into account what’s happening in the market. There are a lot of harsh daily swings, and considering crypto transactions aren’t instant, the final received amount isn’t guaranteed. That said, it’s definitely not impossible to send money in a bear market; it’s just not as fun for the recipient as a bull market.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of impakter.com — In the Cover Photo: Ilustration of Bitcoin representing the risks of sending cryptocurrency during a bear market, including volatility, blockchain fees and confirmation delays. Cover Photo Credit: Kanchanara
