Bitcoin It fell below $67,000 on Thursday as investor confidence in the asset once hailed as “digital gold” and a unique store of value continued to waver.
Digital assets, including Bitcoin, have fallen deeper into the red as investors reassess the utility of tokens that have been championed not only as hedges against inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty, but also as substitutes for traditional safe-haven assets such as fiat currencies and gold.
Things haven’t been going well for Bitcoin lately, since it peaked at just over $126,000 in early October.
On Thursday, Bitcoin last fell to $67,675, its lowest since November 2024. The cryptocurrency fell below $70,000 early in Thursday’s session, and selling increased after that. The cryptocurrency has fallen 20% this week alone, and is down 47% from its record set in October last year.
Bitcoin, 1 day
“We believe this robust selling signals that traditional investors are losing interest and that overall pessimism about cryptocurrencies is increasing,” Deutsche Bank analyst Marion Labour said in a note to clients on Wednesday.
Investors are becoming increasingly wary as many of the sensational claims about Bitcoin have not materialized. The token has traded in much the same direction as other risk-on assets such as stocks, and its adoption as a form of payment for goods and services has been minimal, especially during recent geopolitical and macroeconomic escalations in Venezuela, the Middle East, and Europe.
Bitcoin is underperforming gold
Bitcoin has fallen nearly 30% over the past year, while gold has soared 68% in the same period.
Other cryptocurrencies are also being crated. Ether has fallen 23% this week, on track for its worst week since November 2022, when it fell 24%. Solana hit a nearly two-year low of $88.42 on Thursday, dropping 24% for the week.
Some traders have suggested that $70,000 is a key level to watch and that anything below it could trigger further declines in Bitcoin.
James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, said $70,000 is becoming a “key psychological level,” adding: “If we can’t sustain that, we’re very likely heading into the $60,000 to $65,000 range.”
Bitcoin price last year.
Bitcoin’s recent moves come amid a deepening decline in US tech stocks. of State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF The stock fell 2.8% on Wednesday, the day after the 2.2% drop.
Meanwhile, precious metals also remain volatile, with silver plummeting again on Thursday and gold under pressure.
Forced liquidations, where traders’ positions are automatically sold when Bitcoin reaches a set price, continue to weigh on the market. As of Thursday, more than $2 billion in long and short positions in cryptocurrencies had been liquidated this week, according to data from Coinglass.
Bitcoin has been steadily declining for more than three months and is currently more than 45% below its October high. Including other cryptocurrencies ether and XRPhas fallen even further.
“The linear bull market that many expected hasn’t really materialized yet. Bitcoin is no longer trading on hype, the story has lost a little bit of its story and is trading on pure liquidity and capital flows,” Maja Vujinovic, CEO of digital assets at FG Nexus, told CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange.”
Institutional investor demand reverses
Many players in the crypto market have long acknowledged that large institutional investors have been supporting Bitcoin’s price, but now it appears that those same participants are selling.
“Institutional demand has reversed significantly,” CryptoQuant said in a report on Wednesday.
According to CryptoQuant, a U.S. exchange-traded fund (ETF) that bought 46,000 bitcoins this time last year will be a net seller in 2026.
The report points to other worrying signs. “Bitcoin has fallen below its 365-day moving average for the first time since March 2022, and has fallen 23% in the 83 days since that decline. This is worse than the bear phase in early 2022,” CryptoQuant analysts said.
Moving averages track the price of an asset over a set period of time, smoothing out short-term price fluctuations and identifying trends.
Bitcoin’s recent downside suggests “a potential downside towards the $70,000 to $60,000 range,” CryptoQuant said.
