Bitcoin fell below $60,000 on Friday, shattering the lows of the early February crypto crash and hitting its lowest level since October 2024.
The largest cryptocurrency is down nearly 20% over the past week and has now lost more than 52% since its October peak above $126,000.
Several headwinds have recently converged around Bitcoin – the most significant being its largest buyer, Michael Saylor’s Strategy, turned seller. Additionally, Bitcoin spot ETFs have suffered persistent outflows as investors have withdrawn capital from the sector, allocating it instead to the red-hot artificial intelligence trade and related stocks.
Stubbornly high inflation and a hot labor market report Friday also prompted investors to rethink the direction of U.S. monetary policy. Markets that earlier this year expected rate cuts have now fully priced in the Federal Reserve’s next move in the form of a rate hike.
Against this backdrop, US stocks lost momentum after a strong run to record highs, weighing on risk appetite across markets. The Nasdaq is down more than 2% on Friday.
Crypto investors are also grappling with new concerns over whether artificial intelligence and quantum computing could reveal weaknesses in crypto protocols. Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC) plunged more than 40% overnight after a critical vulnerability was discovered using Anthropic’s latest Opus 4.8 AI model.
