Bitcoin slid to its weakest level in 16 months, testing investor faith even as US president Donald Trump continued to champion cryptocurrency both publicly and through his own ventures.
Traders pushed a single Bitcoin down to $60,000 (£44,000), the lowest point since September 2024, before buyers stepped in and lifted it modestly. The fall marked a sharp turn after a long rally that carried Bitcoin to a record $122,200 in October 2025.
“Those who bet too big, borrowed too much or assumed prices only go up are now finding out the hard way what real market volatility and risk management look like,” Joshua Chu, co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 Association told Reuters.
Many investors had leaned into crypto on the assumption that Trump’s return to the White House would provide a powerful tailwind. He openly backed the sector, promised lighter regulation and positioned himself as a political ally of digital assets. For traders, it echoed a familiar career decision: doubling down on a fast-rising opportunity, confident that senior leadership has your back, until the environment shifts.
Thursday’s drop left Bitcoin down 32% over the past year, dragging prices back towards levels last seen in early 2024 and even 2021. Momentum has cooled steadily for four months.
Bitcoin remains the world’s largest and most recognisable cryptocurrency. It operates as digital-only money, without the control of a central bank or government authority.
In the UK, interest has thinned but commitment among remaining investors has grown. The Financial Conduct Authority said around 8% of adults held crypto in 2025, down four percentage points from the year before. At the same time, one in five investors now holds between £1,000 and £5,000, suggesting fewer dabblers and more concentrated bets.
Trump wasted little time turning rhetoric into action. One of his first moves after returning to office in January 2025 was an executive order aimed at making the US the “crypto capital of the planet”. Over the following year, he launched a personal cryptocurrency brand that funnels most profits into his own companies and deepened his involvement with World Liberty Financial, a Trump family-owned crypto investment vehicle.
His administration also reshaped the regulatory landscape. It passed a law supporting federal backing of cryptocurrency, dismantled a Department of Justice team focused on crypto enforcement and saw the Securities and Exchange Commission step back from crypto-related investigations.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee raised alarms in November over Trump’s “pro-crypto agenda”. They said the president had built crypto holdings worth more than $11bn and earned $800m in personal income from crypto transactions since taking office.
Why has Bitcoin lost value?
Volatility has always defined Bitcoin, but analysts point to a specific catalyst behind the latest slide. Deutsche Bank said Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh as chair of the Federal Reserve unsettled markets. Investors expect Warsh to take a more hawkish stance, keeping interest rates higher. Tighter monetary policy tends to drain appetite for riskier assets such as cryptocurrencies.
Deutsche also flagged a broader mood shift. Prices have trended lower for months, while sentiment has darkened across the sector.
“This steady selling in our view signals that traditional investors are losing interest, and overall pessimism about crypto is growing,” it said.
The bank does not expect crypto to vanish, but it also doubts Bitcoin will revisit the Trump-fuelled highs. Analysts described the token as moving beyond a “purely speculative asset” into a phase where it “needs to find its specific role”. For investors, that transition resembles a maturing industry where hype fades and fundamentals start to matter.
Not everyone sees the downturn as decisive. William Barhydt, chief executive of Abra Capital Management, argued that crypto’s history supports a rebound.
“I wouldn’t say that it has to rebound, but I can’t see how it doesn’t,” he said, pointing to repeated boom-and-bust cycles.
“The only way it doesn’t is if we end up in some kind of war,” he added.
Losses have spread well beyond Bitcoin. Ethereum and Solana have each fallen about 37% so far in 2026. CoinGecko data shows the crypto market shed more than $1tn in value in the past month alone and $2tn since the October peak.
Stifel warned clients that Bitcoin could sink as low as $38,000. The firm highlighted a growing pattern of crypto prices moving in line with the US dollar, which last week slipped to its lowest level in four years. If that link tightens, Bitcoin’s claim to independence from traditional markets faces a serious test. What happens if it starts behaving like just another risk asset?
Author: Pishon Yip