Bitcoin Plunges To Fifteen Month Low Amid Market Turmoil

Bitcoin’s wild ride over the past several months has left investors reeling, with the world’s largest cryptocurrency suffering its steepest decline in years and sending shockwaves across the broader crypto industry. On Thursday, February 6, 2026, Bitcoin’s price tumbled another 11% to $67,000, marking its lowest level in 15 months and capping a dramatic 46% slide from its record high of $126,210.50 reached in October 2025, according to figures from Coinbase.

The sell-off didn’t stop there. In a volatile trading session, Bitcoin nearly breached the psychologically important $60,000 threshold for the first time since October 2024, before bouncing back to trade around $65,700 early Friday morning in New York. By 7:50 a.m. ET, it had clawed its way to $66,326.78, offering a glimmer of hope to battered investors. Yet, as analysts have warned, the pain may not be over. Markus Thielen, head of research at 10X Research, told CNBC’s “Access Middle East,” “I think we are going to have a little counter-trend rally that might go sideways or bounce a little bit. But I think during the summer we make another low.” He suggested Bitcoin could fall as far as $50,000 before any sustained recovery.

This sharp reversal stands in stark contrast to the exuberance that followed the election of President Donald Trump in November 2024, when Bitcoin prices surged for nearly a year on expectations of a more crypto-friendly administration in Washington. That optimism drove not just Bitcoin, but an entire ecosystem of crypto businesses and related assets, to dizzying heights—only for the bottom to fall out as risk appetites waned and global uncertainty mounted.

The current bear market is being fueled by a stew of factors. As the value of tech stocks in the U.S. continues to drop, Bitcoin—which has often moved in tandem with riskier assets—has been dragged down as well. Investors are now rotating out of cryptocurrencies and tech stocks and seeking traditional safe havens like gold, silver, Treasury bonds, and even stocks in Europe and Asia. The divergence between Bitcoin and gold has become particularly stark: since February 2025, gold’s value has soared nearly 70%, while Bitcoin has plunged 35%. So far in 2026, gold is up more than 11%, while Bitcoin is down over 26%, according to CoinMarketCap data cited by CNBC.

The fallout from Bitcoin’s crash has been swift and severe for businesses with heavy exposure to the digital asset. Shares of Coinbase Global, one of the largest U.S. crypto exchanges, fell 9.1% on Thursday, while trading platform Robinhood Markets dropped 8.1%. Riot Platforms, a major Bitcoin mining company, was down 10%. Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy and the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, tumbled 13% on Thursday and over 17% for the week. The company holds more than 713,000 coins, purchased at an average price above $76,000 each—meaning its $47.8 billion Bitcoin trove is now worth less than the $54.3 billion it cost to acquire, according to its latest regulatory filing. Investors are understandably uneasy about how much further these losses might go.

Other Trump-linked crypto ventures have not been spared. American Bitcoin, a company in which Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. hold stakes, fell 6.6% and is now down more than 80% from its October 2025 levels. The World Liberty Financial token ($WLFI), another Trump-associated project, has seen its market value plunge from over $6 billion in mid-September to about $3.25 billion. Even the meme coin named for President Trump, $TRUMP, is a shadow of its former self, trading at $3.93—a far cry from its $45 price tag just before Trump’s inauguration in January 2025.

The turbulence extends beyond individual companies. Forced liquidations—where traders’ positions are automatically sold as prices hit preset levels—have exacerbated the downturn. On February 5, more than $2 billion worth of long and short crypto positions were liquidated, with another $800 million following on February 6, according to Coinglass data. Large institutional investors have also begun to unwind their cryptocurrency holdings. U.S. exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which snapped up 46,000 Bitcoins this time last year, are net sellers in 2026. The average price paid by ETF investors is about $90,000, putting many “materially in losses now,” as Thielen told CNBC. Citi analysts echoed this, noting that the flow of money into Bitcoin ETFs has dried up as prices continue to slide, and that Bitcoin has now fallen below the average entry price for many U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF investors, estimated at $81,600.

The malaise in the crypto markets comes amid broader economic uncertainty. The Trump administration’s selection of former Fed governor Kevin Warsh as nominee for Federal Reserve chair has triggered a reset in asset markets. Warsh is widely seen as hawkish on inflation and unlikely to rush into interest rate cuts, making it harder for investors to sustain high-risk bets like crypto. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent added another layer of concern this week, telling reporters in Washington that the U.S. government lacks the power to step in and support cryptocurrencies in the event of a crash—even with a White House that has largely embraced the sector.

Meanwhile, efforts to establish clear rules for the crypto industry have made only halting progress. Lawmakers have advanced some pieces of crypto-related legislation, including measures to clarify how digital assets and stablecoins should be regulated. But broader rules on market structure—crucial for providing certainty to both investors and businesses—remain stalled in Congress. As Citi analysts wrote in a client note, “Although there has been progress on crypto legislation, the pace has been slow and uneven.” This lack of regulatory clarity has left some investors wary of jumping back in, even if new laws eventually materialize. As Louis Navellier, an investment manager and market strategist at Navellier & Associates, put it, “Even if regulatory clarity is passed, many investors may still be cautious about putting money into such a volatile asset class.”

Market observers warn that Bitcoin’s drop below $70,000 could signal further downside, with some predicting a possible plunge to $50,000 during the summer. Other digital coins have fared even worse: Ether and XRP are more than 60% off their highs, while Solana has lost over 70%. Michael Burry, the investor famed for shorting the housing market before the 2008 financial crisis, warned in a Substack post that Bitcoin’s sell-off could turn into a “death spiral.”

For now, the crypto world faces a sobering reality: the promise of “digital gold” has been put to the test, and investors are left wondering just how deep the current bear market will go before the dust settles and confidence returns.