The digital assets world could benefit from a downward trend in coin prices that has shaken investors and is being called another crypto winter, says Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain.

During an interview with Bloomberg, he said that the people who are deep into crypto welcome a bear market. Long periods of prices moving up by huge amounts tends to invite short-term speculative attention.

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Prices of cryptocurrencies have fallen since hitting record highs in early November, as investors and speculators anticipate a reduction of the massive amounts of stimulus added to economies, global markets and economies in response to the Covid pandemic. The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index is around 45% down from its all-time high. Ether, the native token of the world’s most widely used blockchain, has tumbled around 40% during the same period.

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The 28-year-old crypto billionaire said, “Winters are the time when a lot of applications fall away and you can see which projects are actually long-term sustainable, both in their models and in their teams and their people.”

Buterin said he is surprised by how the market has moved since last year and isn’t sure whether crypto has entered another winter or is just reflecting the volatility in broader markets.

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A crypto winter will be helpful for those who are building projects in crypto focusing on improving the technology.

Buterin’s remarks came after the popular crypto protocol Wormhole was hacked for over $300 million. Back in January, Buterin warned about the risks of using cross-blockchain bridges such as Wormhole. A cross-blockchain bridge usually works by taking a cryptocurrency on one blockchain, locking it in a smart contract, and releasing a parallel cryptocurrency on a different blockchain.

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Buterin has recently shifted his attention to scaling Ethereum. Transactions on Ethereum can be slow and expensive, which has long been a criticism of the popular blockchain. Buterin’s Ethereum Foundation is leading the latest efforts dedicated to improving the blockchain’s scalability.

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“When everyone is trying to use blockchains again. We don’t want them to discover yet again that no, actually, there isn’t enough space on the chain for everyone,” said Buterin.