Topline
A three-day decline sent bitcoin to a 21-month low on Thursday, extending a broader crypto market selloff as roughly $10 billion in bets on the world’s leading cryptocurrency are set to expire, potentially fueling further volatility.
The world’s leading cryptocurrency has lost more than half its value since peaking last fall.
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Key Facts
The price of bitcoin fell to an intraday low of $58,131 on Thursday, its lowest level since September 2024, before paring losses, down just over 2.6% over the last day to around $59,460.
That extends a 6.6% decline for bitcoin over the last week, with further losses for ethereum (down 9.%), BNB (6%), XRP (10.8%), Solana (6.5%) and the meme coin Dogecoin (12.6%).
Another intraday slide for bitcoin comes as $10 billion in options are set to expire Friday on Deribit, the world’s largest crypto options venue, according to Bloomberg, which could spur increased volatility as investors close out old trades or place new ones.
Philippe Laffont, the billionaire founder of the Coatue Management hedge fund, told CNBC earlier this week he was a “little bit more worried” about bitcoin, citing competing investment opportunities like SpaceX, noting he would “rather bet” on the rocket maker’s stock quadrupling over the next 20 years or AI-backed businesses, than the cryptocurrency.
big number
Nearly 54%. That’s how much bitcoin’s price has declined since hitting a record high of just over $126,000 in October to its intraday low on Thursday. Since then, the global crypto market’s aggregate market value has plummeted about $2.2 trillion, falling from $4.28 trillion to $2 trillion as of Thursday, according to CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin accounts for roughly 58% of the global crypto market.
tangent
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by more than 700 points, or 1.3%, and the S&P 500 advanced 0.4% as of Thursday morning. The Nasdaq lowered 0.3%, despite Micron surging 11% following its record-setting earnings report on Wednesday, as Apple (down 4.9%) weighed on the index after announcing broader increases for its products.
key background
Bitcoin, like other cryptocurrencies, accelerated to record highs last year amid broader optimism for pro-crypto legislation under President Donald Trump. The world’s leading cryptocurrency has since dropped below its 200-week moving average, signaling a bear market for bitcoin, as more investors appear to hold bearish positions. Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, said booming interest in AI has driven capital away from bitcoin, noting it was a “tough stretch” for the cryptocurrency since its October peak as “the AI momentum is certainly suckling a lot of the oxygen out of the room.”