Key Takeaways
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Bitcoin’s price dropped under $60,000 today, marking its lowest price since before the presidential election in 2024.
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The extended run lower has the cryptocurrency trading down more than 30% this year alone and for less than half record highs seen late last year.
The price of bitcoin dropped below $60,000 on Friday, the latest downbeat milestone for the leading cryptocurrency, which just months ago traded at more than twice the price.
Bitcoin was as of this afternoon a bit above that level, but the drop extended a dramatic run lower. Bitcoin as of October was claiming prices at all-time highs above $120,000, but is now at levels last seen in the fall of 2024, before Donald Trump’s election to a second presidential term spurred optimism among crypto investors. At current levels, bitcoin is down 30% since the start of 2026, which set it among the S&P 500’s worst performers year-to-date if it were a stock.
Bitcoin’s drop has also weighed on crypto-linked shares in a year when stocks have broadly risen. Shares of Strategy (MSTR), a major bitcoin holder, have lost more than 20% of their value in 2026, while stock in crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) has lost about a third of its value.
The S&P 500, meanwhile, is up about 8% in 2026, powered largely by investor enthusiasm for tech shares. Gold, which some bitcoin backers say bitcoin can supplement or even replace as a hedge against various forms of uncertainty, is about flat (as measured by the performance of the SPDR Gold Shares ETF, or GLD). In short, some of the latest pressure on crypto has raised questions about two theses at times used to support bitcoin—that it can be seen as a hedge, or as a risk asset.
In a tactical sense, experts cite a range of issues for bitcoin’s latest weakness, which comes as crypto has continued to integrate with mainstream finance. Some suggest that investors, perceiving opportunity in speculative assets and stocks seen as potentially delivering strong and quick returns—among them, perhaps, the IPO of SpaceX, which itself holds bitcoin—are moving money elsewhere.
Others cite Strategy’s recent decision to sell bitcoin for the first time in years as a blow to confidence. Data providers observe recent outflows from the spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds the emergence of which likely helped power bitcoin higher in 2025. Those who see bitcoin as a risk asset may be discouraged by signs that the Fed may not cut rates further soon.
And optimism that the passage of the Clarity Act, a bill seen as a possible boon to the crypto sector should it pass, has at times wavered, with some observers wondering if the midterm elections have turned lawmakers’ attentions elsewhere and others wondering if pushback on from the banking sector might temper any win the bill could provide.
There are, of course, still bitcoin backers—among them Strategy Chairman Michael Saylor. “Volatility,” he wrote this week on X, “creates opportunity.”
This article has been updated since it was first published to reflect the close of trading Friday.
Read the original article on Investopedia