Bitcoin may be leaving its mildest bear market, Kraken co-CEO says

Bitcoin may already be emerging from its mildest bear market, with its recovery above $80,000 and broader adoption of crypto technology pointing to a changing market. A further pullback remains possible, according to that assessment.

In a Bitcoin Magazine interview on November 8, Kraken co-CEO Dave Ripley said Bitcoin's four-year cycle would place it in the middle of a bear market, yet market conditions felt different. He said he believed the downturn had already occurred and Bitcoin was beginning to emerge from it.

Ripley pointed to Bitcoin's recent move back above $80,000 and developments across the industry. While acknowledging the possibility of another retracement, he described the downturn, under his interpretation, as the mildest in Bitcoin's history.

Financial institutions have also changed their approach to the technology, Ripley said. In 2014–2015, banks and financial services companies sought to use blockchain while excluding Bitcoin, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on pilots that he said failed. Banks, brokers and exchanges are now embracing open crypto networks as they explore faster and cheaper financial services, he said.

Ripley cited stablecoins as a leading example, saying they had succeeded largely on permissionless blockchains that anyone can access. He also pointed to Hyperliquid's growth and said the use of crypto infrastructure was expanding into traditional asset classes, including tokenized equities.

He attributed the progress to a closer embrace of the technology's original premise: an open, programmable network for money and financial services.

Payward's expansion follows that approach, Ripley said. Building on its flagship crypto exchange, Kraken, the company has broadened its asset coverage to foreign exchange, equities, and derivatives on commodities and indices. It has also expanded into payments, yield products, lending and asset management, while offering trading, investing, banking and asset management infrastructure to other financial institutions.

Ripley said entering banking in Europe would widen the range of products available to customers. Europe was the company's first market and remains one of its largest, he said. Although it already offers payments and some lending and yield products there, operating as a full bank would support a broader offering. He said its banking approach would also help traditional financial institutions use crypto technology.

Asked about plans for an initial public offering, Ripley confirmed that the company had confidentially submitted an S-1 registration statement. He clarified that the document's contents were confidential, rather than the fact of its submission, and declined to discuss a listing timetable.

Ripley said diversification across products, asset classes and geographies was reducing fluctuations in the business. Revenue had previously swung sharply despite longer-term growth, he said, while a shallower market downturn and a broader business mix were supporting strong results. He cited business growth in 2025 as evidence of that shift.