On Thursday, February 5, bitcoin fell below $65,000 for the first time since 2024, wiping out the entire rally built up after Donald Trump’s re-election to a second term as US president.
The largest cryptocurrency slid 7%—to a level just above $64,000—amid a broad sell-off in technology stocks that also swept through digital assets. Since the start of the year, bitcoin has lost more than a fifth of its dollar value.
“Sentiment has deteriorated sharply,” said Jasper de Maere, a strategist at trading firm Wintermute. “The crypto market looks tired: we are not seeing a strong appetite to step in with conviction at these levels.”
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, dropped 11%—to $1,891. Its cumulative decline since the start of the year has reached 36%.
After Trump’s election victory, bitcoin had been climbing as investors responded to his promise to turn the United States into the “crypto capital of the world” and roll back regulatory pressure on the digital-asset industry.
After Trump took office, the administration backed the passage of industry-friendly laws, while regulators eased enforcement. That helped lift bitcoin to an all-time high last summer—above $125,000. The market then turned: early enthusiasm began to fade, and investors shifted toward precious metals as a long-term store of value. That fuelled record gains in gold and silver prices. Meanwhile, progress this year on legislation to regulate the US crypto industry has stalled.
This week the slide gathered pace amid an equities sell-off driven by investors’ worries about how artificial intelligence will reshape technology companies.
Shares in Strategy—Michael Saylor’s bitcoin-accumulating company—fell 16% on Thursday and are down more than 29% for the year to date.
The drop in bitcoin has left the firm sitting on billions of dollars in paper losses. Saylor bought 713,502 bitcoin at an average price of $76,052, financing the purchases through share issuance and debt.
On X, as the sell-off intensified, Saylor posted the word “HODL”—a piece of crypto-community slang meaning “hold”. Strategy is due to publish its results after the market close on Thursday.
The crypto exchange Gemini, founded by twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, said the same day that it planned to cut 200 jobs and wind down parts of its business to reduce costs. Since listing in September, the company’s shares have fallen 80%.
On the prediction-markets platform Kalshi, traders began betting as early as last month on how low bitcoin’s price might fall this year. Current pricing implies an roughly 85% chance it drops below $60,000.