Bitcoin Crashes in Half as Fortunes Vanish and Crypto Geeks Fear the Worst
Bitcoin’s brutal crash deepened Thursday as the price fell below $67,000, wiping out fortunes and shattering claims it was ‘digital gold’. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency has now lost nearly half its value since peaking just above $126,000 in early October, leaving many small investors nursing heavy losses. Bitcoin slipped as low as $67,675 on Thursday, its weakest level since November 2024, after breaking below the $70,000 mark and triggering another wave of selling. The token is down 20 percent this week alone and off 47 percent from its peak just four months ago. When prices fall this fast, fortunes can vanish overnight - and some investors end up worse off than broke, having borrowed money to buy crypto and still owing cash even after their savings have been wiped out.
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Bitcoin Falls Below 70,000 to Its Weakest Level Since 2024
Bitcoin slipped as low as $67,675 on Thursday, its weakest level since November 2024, after breaking below the $70,000 mark and triggering another wave of selling. The token is down 20 percent this week alone and off 47 percent from its peak just four months ago. "This steady selling in our view signals that traditional investors are losing interest, and overall pessimism about crypto is growing," Deutsche Bank analyst Marion Laboure said Wednesday in a note to clients. When prices fall this fast, fortunes can vanish overnight - and some investors end up worse off than broke, having borrowed money to buy crypto and still owing cash even after their savings have been wiped out.
Strategy’s Giant Bitcoin Holdings in the Red
One of the most exposed is Strategy, run by crypto evangelist Michael Saylor. Formerly known as MicroStrategy, the firm has spent the past five years piling into bitcoin and now holds nearly 713,000 tokens. The company paid an average of about $76,000 per coin - roughly 13 percent higher than today’s price of around $67,000 - meaning its vast bitcoin stash is now sitting at a loss rather than a profit. As a result, Strategy’s own share price has cratered too, sliding about 20 percent in just the past five days as bitcoin’s sell-off intensified.
Bitcoin Fails as Safe Haven as Markets Move Differently
Bitcoin was once promoted as a safe place to park money during inflation scares and global turmoil - similar to gold. That promise has not held up. Instead, the cryptocurrency has largely moved in the same direction as risky assets like stocks, rising when markets are booming and falling when fear sets in. Over the past 12 months, bitcoin - despite soaring in value in the summer and fall - is down nearly 29 percent, Google Finance data shows. Strategy is down a huge 67 percent over that period. Gold has moved in the opposite direction, surging 69 percent over the same period as investors looked for safer places to put their money. And the broader US stock market has continued to climb. The S&P 500, widely seen as the main barometer for American shares, is up nearly 13 percent over the same period. Ether has dropped 23 percent this week, also its worst stretch since late 2022. Solana slid to $88.42 on Thursday, near a two-year low and down 24 percent this week alone.
The Psychology of the 70k Break and What Lies Ahead
Many of the selling pressures are now coming from big players who were once seen as bitcoin’s strongest supporters. These are large funds, banks and professional money managers who invest other people’s savings - including pensions and retirement accounts. "Institutional demand has reversed materially," CryptoQuant said in a report on Wednesday. US bitcoin exchange-traded funds, which were buying around 46,000 bitcoin at this time last year, have turned into net sellers in 2026, the report found. CryptoQuant warned the latest slide points to ‘potential downside toward the $70K–$60K range’. James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, warned that breaking it means more pain ahead. '$70,000 is shaping up as a key psychological level,' he said, adding that 'if we fail to hold it, a move toward the $60,000 to $65,000 range becomes quite likely.' More than $2 billion worth of crypto bets have been wiped out this week alone, according to Coinglass.
