rewrite this title Is the Current Bitcoin Bull Run Stronger Than the 2020 and 2017 Markets?

The latest Bitcoin bull market, which began in early 2023, has shown lower volatility compared to previous cycles. The average realized volatility has remained below 50%.

Major crypto exchanges have reduced leverage limits, contributing to a more stable upward trend with fewer and shallower corrections compared to past bull markets.

Despite its technology and strong upward movements, Bitcoin is often associated with high volatility. Previous bull runs were frequently accompanied by sharp and sudden drops — the kind that traditional markets would classify as bear trends. Therefore, such volatility has become a familiar feature of Bitcoin’s market behavior.

However, the 2023 bull run stands out positively, demonstrating relatively low volatility and milder corrections.

According to data tracked by Glassnode, Bitcoin’s 3-month realized volatility during this cycle has averaged below 50%, which is significantly lower than the 80% to 100% levels observed in prior bull runs.

This stability is likely supported by Bitcoin’s ever-growing market capitalization. Now the seventh most valuable asset globally, Bitcoin’s trillion-dollar market cap, along with the emergence of spot ETFs and derivative products, appears to inadvertently promote more stability and institutional involvement.

Glassnode explains the drop in volatility by stating:

“As liquidity deepens and an asset’s valuation reaches these levels, the capital required to move its price meaningfully increases significantly. Additionally, the launch of U.S. spot ETF products, supported by greater regulatory clarity, has shifted the structure of the investor base — enabling sophisticated institutional investors and capital to flow into Bitcoin for the first time.”

In the 2020–2021 period, Bitcoin surged from $4,000 to $70,000, experiencing several sharp price drops of over 30%. Given that drops of over 20% are usually considered bear markets in traditional finance, these were quite severe.

Compared to the current trend, where Bitcoin has risen from around $30,000 to over $100,000 since March 2023, the picture looks very different. This latest rally is characterized by a stair-step pattern, following long periods of accumulation, leading to sudden upward movements.

Glassnode notes:

“We observed a shallower correction profile compared to the previous bull market. In the current cycle, most pullbacks remained below 25% from local highs, and only on two occasions did they exceed 30%.”

This shift is again linked to institutional participation, reduced leverage, and fewer speculative excesses across the market.

In earlier bull markets, large exchanges like Binance offered up to 100x leverage, enabling traders to control significantly larger positions. While this helped amplify gains, it also led to massive losses, triggering liquidation waves and frequent double-digit price corrections.

However, exchanges have since drastically reduced leverage ratios, curbing speculative excess. This appears to have contributed to the more robust nature of the current rally.

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