Bitcoin Plummets Below $60,000 as 2025 Rally Fully Unravels Amid Global Turmoil

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• Historic Plunge: Bitcoin’s value has collapsed, shedding over 50% from its October 2025 peak to fall below $61,000, erasing its entire 2025 election rally.
• Geopolitical & Market Stress: The crash is driven by investors fleeing to safe havens like gold, a major tech stock sell-off, and massive institutional withdrawals from crypto ETFs.
• Broader Market Pain: The cryptocurrency downturn has severely impacted related stocks, with trading platforms like Coinbase and Robinhood experiencing double-digit share price declines.

The cryptocurrency market was gripped by a historic sell-off on Wednesday as Bitcoin (BTC) crashed below the $61,000 mark, a staggering decline of more than 50% from its all-time high set just four months ago. The dramatic plunge has sent shockwaves through financial markets, fully reversing the monumental gains fueled by the 2025 US election.

A Steep and Rapid Decline

Bitcoin breached the psychologically significant $70,000 level for the first time in over a year early Wednesday morning. The sell-off accelerated throughout the trading day, pushing the price below $65,000 by the afternoon and reaching a low of $60,256 by 7:21 p.m. EST, according to data from CoinGecko. A minor recovery brought it just above $61,000, but prices remain at lows not seen since October 2024.

This collapse marks a complete reversal of the explosive rally that followed the 2024 US presidential election. After campaigning on a pro-cryptocurrency platform, President Donald Trump’s administration established a government Bitcoin reserve and pulled back on regulatory enforcement, helping propel the digital asset to a record high of $126,080 on October 6, 2025.

The Perfect Storm: Geopolitics, Policy, and Market Sentiment

Analysts point to a confluence of global and domestic pressures driving the panic:

• Geopolitical Flight to Safety: Recent US foreign policy actions, including the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and threats regarding Greenland, have created significant instability. Investors have fled volatile assets like crypto for traditional safe havens, sending gold and silver prices to historic highs.
• Institutional Exodus: Deutsche Bank analysts Marion Laboure and Camilla Siazon identified “massive withdrawals from institutional ETFs” as a key driver. These exchange-traded funds, which brought a wave of institutional money into crypto, are now seeing rapid outflows as sentiment sours.
• Tech Sector Contagion: Bitcoin’s tumble coincides with a sharp sell-off in technology stocks. The Nasdaq composite index fell 4.8% over the past week, indicating a broad-based retreat from high-risk, growth-oriented assets.
• Federal Reserve Uncertainty: Experts note that President Trump’s recent nomination of Kevin Warsh for Federal Reserve Chair has contributed to market anxiety, despite Warsh’s previously stated positive views on cryptocurrency.

Ripple Effects Across the Crypto Ecosystem

The pain extended far beyond Bitcoin. Major cryptocurrency trading platforms, whose fortunes are tightly linked to market activity, saw their shares hammered:

• Coinbase (COIN) shares fell 13% on Thursday to $146.12, down significantly from around $236 at the start of the year.
• Robinhood (HOOD) shares dropped 10% to $72.68 and are now down 36% year-to-date.

A History of Volatility

For long-time market observers, the violent swing is a stark reminder of Bitcoin’s inherent volatility. The current downturn echoes the brutal 2022 crypto winter when Bitcoin plummeted roughly 78% from its November 2021 high near $69,000 to below $16,000 a year later.

While the future path remains uncertain, Wednesday’s crash underscores how quickly sentiment can shift in the cryptocurrency market, especially when fueled by macroeconomic tensions and shifts in institutional investment flows.