Bitcoin (BTC) accelerated its decline on Friday, falling to roughly $59,685—the lowest level seen since October 2024, when US voters were preparing for the November presidential elections of that year.
The sell-off has now spilled beyond BTC itself, dragging the wider crypto market lower and wiping out more than $2 trillion of value since the market’s October 2025 peak of about $4.2 trillion.
Bitcoin Sell-off Accelerates
According to Bloomberg, the latest decline was driven by several factors acting simultaneously. Over the past month, there has been a significant increase in outflows from Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), while renewed geopolitical tensions have also affected investor sentiment.
Smaller tokens also weakened alongside Bitcoin. Ethereum (ETH) slid as much as 12.8% to $1,550 on Friday to its lowest level since April 2025. Other large-cap cryptocurrencies followed suit, with XRP, Solana, and Dogecoin each dropping more than 5%.
On the back of these drops, market sentiment has deteriorated sharply. The crypto Fear & Greed Index, which gauges sentiment using factors such as price volatility, trading volumes, and social media activity, fell to 16 as of Friday. That level sits well below the neutral 50 threshold and signals “extreme fear” in the market.
$68,000 By Year-End?
Bitcoin is now down by more than 50% from the all-time high of around $126,000 reached in October. Over the same period, the total value of Bitcoin’s market has fallen from roughly $2.5 trillion to about $1.2 trillion.
Looking ahead, Kalshi traders are calling for Bitcoin to end the year around $65,000. While that would represent an increase from current levels, it would still leave BTC far below its all-time highs, suggesting that even a rebound scenario may not be enough to fully erase the damage investors have already absorbed.
Featured image created with OpenArt; chart from TradingView.com
