{"id":6537,"date":"2026-02-11T07:13:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T07:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=6537"},"modified":"2026-02-11T07:13:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T07:13:43","slug":"chainlinks-sergey-nazarov-says-this-crypto-downturn-is-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=6537","title":{"rendered":"Chainlink\u2019s Sergey Nazarov Says This Crypto Downturn Is Different"},"content":{"rendered":"

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  • Chainlink co-founder, Sergey Nazarov, believes this crypto bear market is different from the previous cycles and shows the industry is learning from past mistakes and adoption is continuing in key areas.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Nazarov points to the lack of institutional collapses and the continued acceleration of trends like real-world asset tokenisation and on-chain perps trading as signs this bear is different.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    This time it\u2019s different.<\/p>\n

    According to Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, this bear market is unlike any that have come before \u2014 and he thinks that\u2019s a good sign for crypto.<\/p>\n

    Posting on X \/ Twitter on February 9, Nazarov wrote that ups and downs in the crypto market are to be expected, but what really matters is \u201cwhat those cycles reveal about how far the industry has progressed and what next stage \/ trends of adoption \/ value creation will go on to define the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Nazarov argued that one of the things this bear market is revealing is that the industry is starting to mature and learn its lessons from previous downturns. Unlike previous bears, Nazarov said, this time around there haven\u2019t been any catastrophic failures or institutional collapses, \u00e0 la FTX circa 2022.<\/p>\n

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    There have been no large risk management failures leading to large institutional failures or widespread systemic risks.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n Sergey Nazarov, Chainlink co-founder. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    \u201cIn the previous cycle you had FTX and multiple lenders cleaned out through large price drops, this time around I am pleasantly surprised to see none of that or at least none of it at any system wide scale,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

    A second revelation from this bear market, according to Nazarov, is that adoption of real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation is continuing to accelerate, even as crypto prices plummet. He said it shows that \u201creal world assets on-chain is not tightly coupled to cryptocurrency prices but provides its own unique value that can grow irrespective of market pricing of Bitcoin or other crypto assets.\u201d<\/p>\n

    He also noted that on-chain perpetuals trading has remained strong despite plummeting cryptocurrency prices.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWe\u2019ve seen leading on-chain perp markets rival tradfi perp markets for very traditional commodities like silver, especially in periods when trading in permissioned traditional markets became harder or more risky vs trading in on-chain permissionless markets,\u201d Nazarov wrote.<\/p>\n

    The Chainlink co-founder said these trends are \u201cvery positive signals\u201d with the potential to \u201creshape our industry in the next stage of its growth into mainstream adoption.\u201d If these trends continue, Nazarov suggests that tokenised RWAs could become more valuable than cryptocurrencies, causing the crypto industry to \u201cfundamentally change.\u201d<\/p>\n

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    This shift will also lead to cryptocurrency\u2019s growth as an asset class that benefits from more capital on-chain, but RWAs is how all of this goes mainstream.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n Sergey Nazarov, Chainlink co-founder. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    Related: \u2018Weakest Bear Case in History,\u2019 Analysts Proclaim<\/strong><\/p>\n