Bitcoin tumbled below the $60,000 mark early Wednesday before staging a marginal recovery, extending an eight-month slide that has erased 52% from its all-time high. The total crypto market cap, which peaked at $4.3 trillion in October 2025, has lost $2.3 trillion in value since then.
Gold, Silver and Oil Join the Rout
The sell-off hit traditional assets just as hard. Gold dropped to its lowest since November 2025, and silver slid below $60 per ounce for the first time since December 2025. Crude oil fell under $70 a barrel. Gold and silver combined shed over $1.4 trillion in just one hour, showing the breadth of the liquidation — Bitcoin is not crashing in isolation.
Altcoins Suffer Even More
While BTC sits near October 2024 levels, most altcoins have collapsed 80% to 90% from their peaks. That wide gap suggests capital is fleeing riskier tokens faster than Bitcoin. The numbers: total market cap peaked at $4.3 trillion (Oct 2025); BTC down 52% from high; alts down 80-90%; $2.3 trillion wiped in eight months.
Top Miner Predicts Bottom in Late 2026
Jiang Zhuoer, one of China's most prominent Bitcoin miners, believes the real bottom has not arrived. He expects it between October and December 2026 in the $42,000 to $44,000 range. His reasoning centers on mNAV — the ratio of Strategy's (formerly MicroStrategy) market price to the Bitcoin it holds. The metric has fallen to 0.72, close to the 0.7 low seen in May 2022. Back then, BTC kept dropping for about six more months before hitting its actual bottom near $15,000 in November 2022. Jiang sees a similar lag this time: the real crypto bottom comes roughly half a year after mNAV finds its floor. He also invokes the four-year Bitcoin cycle, each iteration's swings growing smaller like a ball bouncing lower.
Miners face real electricity and hardware costs, so Jiang's warning carries weight. Still, ETF flows, institutional buying and policy shifts did not exist in past cycles. Whether late 2026 brings the exact bottom Jiang predicts, the coming months will test whether this cycle repeats history.
This article is for informational purposes only. Crypto markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research.