Bitcoin tumbled more than 10% over the past 24 hours, dropping below $66,000 and heading for its steepest one-day decline since the FTX-driven crash in November 2022.
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| Bitcoin spirals toward $65,000, |
The sell-off extended beyond crypto, with silver plunging 15% and gold sliding more than 2%, while software stocks and major U.S. equity indexes also fell.
One analyst warned there is still no clear bottom for bitcoin, highlighting the $58,000 to $60,000 range as key support, as altcoins such as XRP suffer even sharper losses.
Bitcoin tumbled below $66,000 during early afternoon U.S. hours as this week's crypto selloff accelerated into a bloodbath on Thursday.
The largest cryptocurrency fell more than 10% over the past 24 hours to a session low of $65,156, according to CoinDesk data, the weakest level since October 2024 and below the 2021 peak.
Feb. 5 could be one of the worst days in bitcoin's history. BTC is on track to suffer its steepest one-day drawdown — 10.5% since midnight UTC at current prices — since Nov. 8, 2022, when the collapse of crypto exchange FTX sent BTC below $16,000 after a 14.3% drop on the day.
Crypto wasn't the only asset class under relentless selling pressure. Silver also plunged 15% during the day, and is now almost 40% below its record high just a week ago. Gold also fell more than 2.8% to $4,820, but that selloff wasn't as bad as silver. The precious metal is now trading about 15% below its record last week.
Software stocks, often moving in lockstep with bitcoin, continued to selloff, with the thematic iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF (IGV) declining more than 3% and down 24% year to date. The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq were also 1% lower.
Crypto stocks weren't spared either. Coinbase (COIN), Galaxy (GLXY), Strategy MSTR) and BitMine (BMNR) tumbled more than 10%, while several crypto miners, including Bitfarms (BITF), CleanSpark (CLSK), Hut 8 (HUT), and Mara (MARA), saw similar losses.
In a fragile market environment with only a few buy and sell orders to cushion trades, even modest sell-offs can trigger a large price reaction, in turn triggering further liquidations.
"One big factor is just very thin liquidity,” said Adrian Fritz, chief investment strategist at 21shares. "If there is a bit of a sell pressure, it usually triggers a lot of liquidations.”
While some have said the worst is over for weeks now, Fritz believes otherwise.
“There's still no signal that we bottomed out. I think it's too early. There's no confirmed turnaround,” he said.
He points to the 200-moving-day average — currently around $58,000 to $60,000 — as a key support level to watch. That level also aligns with bitcoin's "realized price," or the average cost basis of all bitcoin holders, which he believes could serve as a strong, multi-year support.
Altcoins decimated
Bitcoin's performance could seem minor compared to the brutal selloff in altcoins.
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