Jose Cabezas/Reuters

Over the past few months cryptocurrencies far and wide experienced a period of weakness after bitcoin, which remains by far the top cryptocurrency by market cap, fell from its record high of almost $65,00 in April.

On July 20, the leading cryptocurrency was dealt another blow when it dipped below the $30,000 support level after hovering around the mark for over a month.

By technical definition, bitcoin is now in bear market, or a more than 20% decline over an extended period. Nicholas Cawley from DailyFX said he felt investors were no longer willing to "buy the dip" and argued it could take many months for recent losses to be reversed.

Since then, however, bitcoin has recovered above $30,000, and the market's panic seems to have abated — for now.

It appears that, once again, the news cycle helped boost cryptocurrencies out of a funk after Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Square CEO Jack Dorsey, and Ark Invest's Cathie Wood gathered to talk about their belief in the crypto ecosystem at The B Word conference on July 21.

While appearances from the world's most famous bitcoin bulls may have jolted the cryptocurrency out of its current slump, other crypto experts think that the fundamentals of the bitcoin bull thesis are still intact. 

Jason Yanowitz, the co-founder of the crypto and financial media firm BlockWorks, said he believes the market is in a similar "consolidation phase" to what we have seen in the past.

"It's looking like 2021 will look similar to 2013," Yanowitz said. "During the 2013 bull market, bitcoin ran up to $260. It then fell 80% and consolidated for 210 days. After the accumulation phase, bitcoin formed another new high, running up to $1,100 in December 2013."

"It's very possible this bull run mirrors the 2013 market," he added.

Derek Alia, the co-founder and CEO of Futureswap, a decentralized perpetuals exchange that recently saw over $4.2 billion in trading volume, echoed similar sentiments about the crypto space as a whole.

"If you look back on many of crypto's bull runs, you will see that retracements greater than 50% are not uncommon," the CEO said. "These tumultuous times are just a part of being such a nascent industry."

Alia added that he is seeing record numbers of users and apps operating in the crypto space in addition to new flows of institutional capital, which should reduce volatility over time.

"This is a normal stage in a crypto bull run. Large declines have the effect of shaking out the speculators while keeping the people that care about the technology," Alia said.

Nathan Cox, chief investment officer at the digital asset investment firm Two Prime, remarked on the "silver lining" of the recent dip in cryptocurrency prices.

"If there is a silver lining, it's that both realized and implied volatility continues to sink lower with prices, implying that much of the initial fear in the May sell-off likely cleared out leveraged retail speculators, and current market conditions allow for real price discovery," Cox said.

"For those that have waited patiently on the sidelines, cryptocurrencies are on sale, and now is a great time to shop for a deal," he added.

Anastasiya Belyaeva, a community member of PieDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), argued that the "fundamental necessity" of bitcoin, ethereum, and the DeFi industry would win out in the end.

"Market corrections are insignificant and, if anything, healthy for the ecosystem," she said, adding that there are many positive markers that indicate the bull run can sustain itself, including institutional and nation-state adoption in places like El Salvador.

Marvin Tong, the co-Founder and CEO of Phala, which specializes in decentralized cloud computing, noted that industry regulation, which many fear, could actually help the crypto community in the long run.

"Regulators are not the real enemies of crypto as some market participants believe, and the same is true of financial institutions that will eventually adopt new settlement rails via crypto," Tong said. "Overall, we're seeing positive signs for sustainable growth with the necessary market and consumer protections."

While all the experts agree that the crypto bull run is anything but done, when it comes to the best method for gaining exposure to the space these industry vets have varying opinions.

Jason Yanowitz remains a staunch supporter of bitcoin, even telling Insider that he holds most of his liquid assets in the digital currency. Yanowitz believes, in the long-term, bitcoin will be far more valuable than ethereum or any alt-coin.

"Eventually, bitcoin will become both the global standard of value and the monetary settlement layer of the world," the BlockWorks co-founder said.

Meanwhile, Anastasiya Belyaeva of PieDAO argues that the drop in crypto asset prices over the past few months has created an opportunity for investors to gain a more balanced exposure to the crypto ecosystem.

Belyaeva recommended PieDAO's balanced crypto pie, which boasts a mixture of exposure to BTC, ETH, and the core of the DeFi ecosystem.

For investors who don't feel comfortable with the decentralized structure of DAOs or who aren't interested in staking or lending opportunities to gain yield from crypto investments, there are a few other under-the-radar options to enter the space.

One option is Bitwise's 10 Crypto Index Fund (BITW), which trades on the OTC markets and tracks the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap. The fund has exposure to BTC, ETH, stablecoins like Tether, and more. And you don't have to download Coinbase or other centralized crypto exchanges to buy it — online brokerages like E*Trade, Fidelity, or TD Ameritrade all offer OTC market stock trading.

Or, if you're looking for a tokenized index fund instead of one that is traded as a stock, Invictus Capital's Crypto 20 Index Fund is a closed-end fund that tracks the top 20 cryptos by market cap. It boasts exposure to BTC, ETH, DOGE, Uniswaps native token, and more.

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See Also:

• An ex-intelligence officer who now leads a risk advisory firm shares his 3-month price predictions for bitcoin, doge, ether and 2 other altcoins
• 'We haven't seen all the weakness in crypto yet': A technical analyst breaks down why the ongoing crypto slump is bound to continue for weeks ahead — and shares why bitcoin is the safest cryptocurrency to own at the moment, despite the risk it falls to $20,000
• 19-year-old crypto whiz kid Will Clemente breaks down 4 charts and on-chain data points that signal the bitcoin bull market is far from over