Bitcoin has sunk below $65,000 (€55,130) for the first time since 2024, wiping out all of the gains it had made since Donald Trump was elected to his second term as US president.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency dropped 12 per cent to just below $64,000 on Thursday as digital tokens were swept up in a sell-off in tech stocks. Bitcoin has lost more than a quarter of its dollar value this year.
“Sentiment has deteriorated sharply,” said Jasper De Maere, a strategist at trading firm Wintermute. “The crypto market still feels tired as we see little appetite from anyone to step in convincingly at these levels.”
Liquidations of leveraged bitcoin bets contributed to the downward spiral as traders who used significant leverage in their positions were forced to sell in order to meet margin calls – further depressing prices.
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The price of ether, the second-largest coin, fell 13 per cent to $1,849, taking its decline this year to 37 per cent.
Bitcoin had rallied after Trump’s election victory, buoyed by his vow to make the US “the crypto capital of the world” and roll back a regulatory crackdown on the crypto industry.
Since taking office, the White House has helped pass industry-friendly legislation while regulators lifted crypto enforcement actions, driving bitcoin’s price to a record high last year of more than $125,000.
But since then, it has retreated as the wave of enthusiasm sparked by Trump began to wane and investors instead turned to precious metals as a long-term store of value, driving a record-breaking rally in gold and silver.
Legislation governing the crypto industry in the US has also stalled this year.
The declines gathered pace this week amid an equity sell-off sparked by investors’ worries over the impact of AI on tech companies.
Shares in Michael Saylor’s bitcoin-hoarding company, Strategy, were 17.1 per cent lower on Thursday, down 32 per cent this year. Bitcoin’s price drop has left the company with billions of dollars in paper losses.
Saylor bought his 713,502 bitcoins for an average price of $76,052 by issuing equity and debt.
Strategy reported a $12.4 billion loss in the fourth quarter, which ended before the latest rout in bitcoin. Chief executive Phong Le said: “We’re not worried, and no, we’re not having issues.”
Saylor, meanwhile, praised Trump as the “Bitcoin president”.
Crypto exchange Gemini, cofounded by the twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, on Thursday said it would lay off 200 employees and wind down some operations to cut costs. Its shares have fallen 80 per cent since it went public in September.
On prediction market platform Kalshi, traders began making bets last month on how low the price of bitcoin would fall this year. It shows a roughly 85 per cent chance that it will fall below $60,000. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026
