Since its market high of almost $20,000 on 17th December 2017, Bitcoin ’s market price appears to have been in an irreversible freefall. At the time of writing, its value has been dropping for 49 consecutive days, having lost 64.5% in that period, reaching its current low of just over $8,000 per coin. Indeed, many casual observers of the industry have said that it is a sign that the Bitcoin bubble has finally burst, and the sector will not recover. However, not only is this not the first price collapse for the digital currency giant over the years, it’s not even the largest, or the longest-running.The history of Bitcoin has been a litany of steep rises, followed by sharp drops, and a defined period of correction. As early as January 2012, when it was still in its relative infancy and trading at a mere $7.38 per coin, Bitcoin suffered its first major crash, dropping in value to $3.80 (or almost 50%) over the course of just over a fortnight. Bitcoin rebounded in style, as it always does, and peaked again just over six months later at around double its previous high, only to be struck down by another crash. Thought shorter-lived than the January debacle (Bitcoin turned things around in three days), the dive was steeper, knocking 57% off the currency’s value in that space of time.Since then, it’s been the same rollercoaster of rises and drops, the worst occurring on 30th November 2013, when Bitcoin was at its then-peak of $1,163 per coin. What followed was a crash that lasted for over a year (411 days, in total), stripping 87% of the altcoin’s value, taking it down to $152 per coin. The rebound took longer, of course, but Bitcoin has broken record after record throughout 2017, each new market high presaging a significant drop in fortunes before rallying and hitting a new high. So what’s the lesson here? Patience. Yes, this has been an unfortunate fall from grace for Bitcoin but, if history has shown us anything, it’s that the digital currency will recover given time and room to do so.