Bitcoin tumbled to $63,000 during early afternoon U.S. trading on Thursday, marking its weakest level since October 2024 and below the 2021 cycle peak. CoinDesk data shows the largest cryptocurrency fell more than 10% over the past 24 hours, now trading 50% below its all-time high of $126,000 hit in early October.
Worst Single-Day Drawdown Since FTX
February 5 could go down as one of bitcoin's worst trading days. Since midnight UTC, BTC has dropped 10.5% — the steepest single-day decline since Nov. 8, 2022, when FTX's collapse sent bitcoin below $16,000 with a 14.3% loss.
Precious Metals and Tech Stocks Join the Bloodbath
The selloff wasn’t confined to crypto. Silver cratered 14% on the day, now nearly 40% below its record high set just a week ago. Gold fell more than 2% to $4,850, about 15% off its own recent peak. Software stocks, which often move in lockstep with bitcoin, continued to slide: the iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF (IGV) dropped over 3%, down 24% year-to-date. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq each declined ~1%.
Crypto-related equities were hit hard. Coinbase (COIN), Galaxy (GLXY), Strategy (MSTR) and BitMine (BMNR) all fell more than 10%. Miners Bitfarms (BITF), CleanSpark (CLSK), Hut 8 (HUT) and Mara (MARA) suffered similar losses.
Liquidity Drought Amplifies the Drop
“One big factor is just very thin liquidity,” said Adrian Fritz, chief investment strategist at 21shares. “If there is a bit of sell pressure, it usually triggers a lot of liquidations.” In a fragile market with sparse buy and sell orders, even modest selling can spark outsized price reactions, triggering further cascading liquidations.
Fritz pushed back against those proclaiming the worst is over. “There’s still no signal that we bottomed out. I think it’s too early. There’s no confirmed turnaround.” He pointed to the 200-day moving average (currently around $58,000–$60,000) as a key support level. That area also coincides with bitcoin’s “realized price” (the aggregate cost basis of all holders), which he believes could act as a strong multi-year floor.