Bitcoin fell sharply on Saturday, falling below $80,000 for the first time since April 2025, as continued selling pressure and a lack of new capital weighed on crypto markets.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency fell 10% to $75,709.88 on Saturday afternoon in New York, extending a decline that has now erased more than 30% of its peak value. Ether fell as much as 17%, while Solana briefly plunged more than 17%, showing broad weakness among major tokens.
The selloff wiped about $111 billion from the total crypto market cap over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data. According to data from market tracker Coinglass, around $1.6 billion in leveraged long and short positions were liquidated during the same period, largely concentrated in bitcoin and ether.
The latest drop comes amid dwindling liquidity and subdued buying interest – a combination that analysts say reflects a market struggling to attract new capital. Ki Young Ju, CEO of on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant, said Bitcoin’s realized capitalization has largely stabilized, indicating that new funds have stopped flowing into the asset.
“When market capitalization falls without realized capitalization increasing, it is not a bull market,” Ju said in an article on X.
According to Ju, early bitcoin holders had substantial unrealized gains after months of aggressive buying by spot exchange-traded funds and Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy.
While these inflows helped anchor prices near $100,000 for much of last year, profit-taking by long-term holders has continued since early 2024 – and now faces a sharp slowdown in demand.
Bitcoin falls as selling pressure persists, without influx of new capital.
Realized, the cap has stabilized, meaning there is no new capital. When market capitalization declines in this environment, it is not a bull market.
Early holders are sitting on large unrealized gains from ETFs and MSTR… pic.twitter.com/J0yTtCTQjr
– Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) February 1, 2026
MicroStrategy was a key driver of the rally, Ju said, adding that a deep 70% cycle-like crash is unlikely unless the company begins selling its Bitcoin holdings. Nonetheless, selling pressure remains high, leaving the market without a clear floor in the near term.
Saturday’s drop below $76,037 per coin placed Strategy’s Bitcoin position slightly underwater, but did not create immediate financial stress for the company, as CoinDesk reported.
This decline echoes the price levels seen following the fallout from “Liberation Day” and adds to weeks of macro frustration for bitcoin. The asset has failed to recover despite developments that would have previously supported prices, including a weaker U.S. dollar for much of January and a rise in gold to record highs.
Bitcoin also saw little response as gold and silver reversed sharply on Friday, dampening expectations that the crypto could benefit from a hedge against the fallout. At the same time, delays regarding new US market structure rules for the crypto sector have further eroded investor confidence.
Ju expects the current downturn to resolve itself not through a quick rebound, but through a prolonged period of sideways trading.
“This bear market is more likely to form a large-scale consolidation,” he said.
