What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger

We have all heard this saying before, often told to someone who is faced with a setback as words of encouragement. The idea behind the phrase is that simply pulling through an issue of any sort will make you come out of it better adapted on the other side. This saying in my experience is almost always true, so does it apply to Bitcoin and its current bear market?

Before we answer ask that question let's first define what criteria must be met for this notion of “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” to be factual. First of all, the “you” or subject of the statement must be a living thing. This is because a living entity can adapt to better tackle obstacles from a physiological down to a cellular level. The most direct example of this is how bodybuilders gain muscle mass or strength. When you lift weights or perform other physically strenuous activities, muscle fibers tear slightly. This is what causes sore muscles after an intense workout. When the torn fibers heal, they grow back even stronger and larger than before. The same can be said about mental strength, whenever one is put through a stressful situation and overcomes it, they have a greater ability to handle a similar conflict due to the confidence and fortitude gained from the experience along with the knowledge of how it was overcome to guide them through future obstacles.

So, is Bitcoin a living entity? Technical analysis and its cornerstones are based on the idea that markets are in fact living things. Fibonacci ratios can be found in some things we consider to be inanimate it is more widely expressed and easier to spot in biological sources. Elliot wave theory which has evolved into what scientists today call the herding principle is only applicable to living things. It concludes that progress and regression seem to be hard-wired deep within the psyche of all living creatures, but that neither will ever develop in a straight and steady linear fashion. So we can say that Bitcoin and its open market are living things, or at least so directly influenced by living things that the saying can apply to it.

Another aspect of “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” that needs to be met for the statement to bear truth is that the damage inflicted cannot be too severe, otherwise it could cause permanent damage. So simply surviving something doesn’t guarantee that strength will be gained. Examples would be a car crash that leaves you paralyzed, or the de-pegging of USD to UST that led to the demise of the popular crypto Luna, in both cases the damage caused was too severe for the victims to be able to recover and surpass their previous ability.  

So, has Bitcoin sustained so much damage it is unlikely to ever recover? Considering that Bitcoin has had worse corrections of 85% or more a total of four times, and weathered several bear markets suggests that this kind of damage is not going to debilitate the world's first cryptocurrency.

So, in conclusion, the current bear market will likely not kill Bitcoin and only make it stronger.