Bitcoin Crashes to October 2024 Lows, Down 50% From All-Time High

Bitcoin capped a brutal week by sliding to $59,099 — its lowest price since October 2024 — before partially recovering to close around $61,500, a 3.4% single-day drop and a punishing 16% decline for the week. At current levels, the flagship cryptocurrency sits more than 50% below its all-time high of roughly $126,000, reached in October 2025.

The selloff was ignited by Strategy — the Michael Saylor-led firm that holds a massive bitcoin treasury — selling a portion of its holdings, which rattled sentiment and triggered hundreds of millions of dollars in forced liquidations. The cascade worsened Friday when a stronger-than-expected May jobs report pushed Treasury yields higher, squeezing risk assets broadly. Strategy's own stock fell 6.9% on Friday and 24% for the week, its worst weekly performance since November 2022.

Analysts point to a broader 'crowding-out' effect as a key driver. Syz Group's chief investment officer Charles-Henry Monchau noted that speculative capital is chasing AI stocks and memory chips — particularly in South Korea — while traders brace for a wave of major IPOs expected to vacuum up retail money. Meanwhile, the Clarity Act, a crypto market-structure bill seen as a critical regulatory catalyst, is losing momentum in Congress as lawmakers remain divided and legislative priorities shift elsewhere.

Bitcoin's identity crisis is deepening. The asset's 30-day correlation with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 was nearly perfect just a month ago, but that relationship has collapsed even as global equities hit new all-time highs. That breakdown has undermined both of bitcoin's core narratives: that it acts as 'digital gold' during geopolitical stress (the ongoing Iran conflict has weighed on crypto while boosting stocks), and that it behaves as a high-beta tech proxy. Bitcoin ETFs, which had been a powerful price engine, saw net assets shrink to $80.4 billion from $107.8 billion on May 14, ending a record 13-day outflow streak with only a $3 million net inflow on Thursday.

Not everyone is bearish. Strive CEO Matt Cole, speaking on Friday, argued bitcoin's fundamentals have never been stronger and pointed out that this marks the fifth time bitcoin has touched its 200-week moving average — each of the prior four instances proved to be optimal buying opportunities. Separately, privacy coin Zcash suffered its own blow after an AI-assisted security audit uncovered a long-standing vulnerability that could have enabled the creation of counterfeit ZEC tokens.