Bitcoin Drops Below $61,000, Wiping Out Gain Since Trump's Win

Bitcoin tumbled below $61,000, as the unwinding of leveraged bets and broader market turbulence deepened a selloff that has wiped out all of the gains since President Donald Trump's election set off a speculative rush into cryptocurrencies. 

The token sank as much as 4.8% to $60,033 in early Asia trade Friday, extending a sharp selloff to plunge to its lowest since October 2024. The rout has erased half of Bitcoin's value since it reached a record four months ago and has spread to other tokens, related ETFs and companies like Strategy Inc. that hold vast sums of coins.

The downturn has marked an abrupt retreat from Bitcoin's meteoric rise through much of last year, when the return of the crypto-friendly Republican to the White House sent investors piling into such tokens and the Wall Street vehicles that have sprouted up around them. The market started cracking this month as rising geopolitical tensions sent tremors across global financial markets and curbed risk-taking. That sparked Bitcoin's precipitous decline from mid-January and set off a self-reinforcing cycle of selling as funds liquidated assets to meet redemptions and unwind leveraged bets.

“The fear and uncertainty across the market is evident,” said Chris Newhouse, head of business development at Ergonia. “Without conviction-based buyers willing to lean into the selling, each wave of ETF redemptions and liquidation cascades.” He said that's “amplifying the magnitude of each leg lower and reinforcing the defensive positioning that's keeping organic demand on the sidelines.”

The slide has echoes of the one in 2022, when prices retreated sharply from the surge seen during the easy-money era of the pandemic as the Federal Reserve tightened monetary policy. It has already taken a toll on intermediaries like the exchanges Coinbase Global Inc., whose shares have tumbled more than 30% this year, and Gemini Space Station Inc., which said it plans to cut up to 25% of its workforce and wind down operations in the UK, European Union and Australia.

This time, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are also seeing competition from other forms of speculation, like legalised sports gambling and prediction-market wagering on everything from politics to entertainment. At the same time, retail flow continues to chase zero-day options in equities and higher-yield crypto plays across decentralised exchanges.

The latest drop comes as digital assets face continued doubts about their real-world use, as well. Once touted as an inflation hedge or a rival to gold or the US dollar as a stable store of value, Bitcoin has continued to trade more like a high-risk asset and has failed to serve as a haven during times of financial market stress. In fact, its growing presence in institutional portfolios has at times made it more vulnerable to broad de-risking, particularly during bouts of volatility in tech equities and precious metals, like what has been seen in recent weeks.

“Momentum has taken over right now and crypto bear markets tend to end more in apathy than despair,” Ryan Rasmussen, director and head of research at Bitwise Asset Management. 

“We are currently in the despair phase of the drawdown,” he said. “That momentum has taken over.”

Inflows into US spot-Bitcoin ETFs had acted as a leg of support for much of 2025 as tens of billions of dollars flowed into the products and helped buoy the token's price. But those flows have reversed as prices have plummeted — and about $2 billion has come out of Bitcoin ETFs over the past month alone, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The figure is even starker when looked at over the past three months, with more than $5 billion yanked out.

The meltdown of the largest cryptocurrency has rippled through the digital-asset world, with smaller, less liquid speculative tokens down even more. The MarketVector Digital Assets 100 Small-Cap Index, which tracks the 50 smallest digital assets in a basket of 100, has plummeted around 70% over the past year. 

Traders have become increasingly defensive in the options market. Medium-term contracts such as those expiring in late June are pointing to an even more bearish outlook on token prices, with the most open interest clustered around $60,000 and $20,000, according to Deribit.    

Ilan Solot, senior global markets strategist at Marex, said the recent selloff has been fueled by several factors, including the downturn in some tech stocks, the outperformance of gold, the broader risk-off sentiment and general questions about the framework for evaluating the value of cryptocurrencies.  

“The outlook is probably still bearish for now, but the worst might be behind us,” he said. “Still, these types of moves have historically always been buying opportunities for multi-year investors, and many will see it that way.”

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