Currently (February 2026), the cryptocurrency market is indeed in a clear bear market phase. Bitcoin has fallen from its October 2025 high of about $126,000-$130,000 to the current range of $73,000-$76,000, a decline of over 40-45%. The total market capitalization of the entire crypto market has also shrunk significantly. On-chain data, participation, and spot demand are all weakening. Many institutions and analysts have explicitly declared that the "bear market is confirmed" or that we are "entering a crypto winter."

This is not the extremely desperate super bear market of 2022 (when declines exceeded 80%), but the sentiment is already extremely fearful (Fear & Greed Index often in the 10-20 range). The risk of further short-term decline remains significant (some institutions see potential targets of $70,000, $65,000, or even $56,000).
The most practical strategies during a bear market (ranked by aggressiveness):
1. The safest: Significantly reduce holdings / switch to defensive assets (recommended for most people now)
• Increase cash/stablecoin positions to 70-90%
• Allocate some funds to high-yield savings on CEX platforms (products with 10-20% annualized returns on USDT/USDC, as long as the platform is reliable)
• Stake mainstream coins (ETH, SOL, etc.) with 4-8% annualized yield
• Use DeFi for stable lending (e.g., lending USDC on Aave or Compound to earn interest) → Goal: survive the bear market without liquidation and earn some passive income
2. Neutral: Dollar-cost averaging + grid trading / buy the dip in batches (suitable for those with long-term faith)
• Invest a fixed amount monthly in BTC/ETH (buy more as prices fall)
• Use spot trading to implement grid trading (more grid density as prices drop)
• Only use idle funds, set strict stop-loss levels (e.g., pause DCA if prices drop another 30%) → Many people in 2022 used this method to keep costs low, and they made huge gains from 2023 to 2025
3. Aggressive: Short selling / high leverage hedging (only suitable for a very small number of people)
• Open short positions on futures / buy put options
• Hold spot coins + hedge with derivatives (delta hedging) → Currently, volatility is high, making it easy to get double-killed; beginners should avoid
4. The most proactive: Find structural opportunities during the bear market (requires strong research ability)
• Bitcoin is relatively more resilient than other altcoins → consider increasing BTC allocation
• Focus on RWA (Real World Asset tokenization), AI + crypto projects, stablecoin-related projects
• Gold / US stock tokenization products (some platforms offer trading)
• Participate in prediction markets, IPOs, airdrops, farming (but beware of rug pulls)
The most common and practical combination (2026 bear market survival template)