The decline comes amid a wider pullback from risk assets, mounting liquidations and growing technical weakness across crypto markets. With exchange-traded funds turning into net sellers and key support levels giving way, investors are confronting the possibility that the era of nearly uninterrupted gains has given way to a more volatile and uncertain phase
Bitcoin slipped below the $70,000 threshold on Thursday, extending a broader retreat in risk assets and signaling renewed turbulence in cryptocurrency markets.
The digital currency fell as low as $69,055.46, its first drop beneath $70,000 since November 2024. By midmorning in New York, bitcoin was trading near $69,552, according to CoinMetrics.
Analysts have long regarded the $70,000 mark as a crucial support level, warning that a decisive breach could accelerate losses.
James Butterfill, head of research at Coinshares, said $70,000 is a “key psychological level,” adding that “if we fail to hold it, a move toward” the $60,000 to $65,000 range “becomes quite likely.”
The decline follows a sharp sell-off in U.S. technology stocks on Wednesday that rippled into cryptocurrencies, a sector that often mirrors shifts in investor appetite for risk. Precious metals have also shown strain, with silver tumbling again on Thursday and gold facing pressure.
Forced liquidations have compounded the downturn. When traders’ leveraged positions are automatically closed as prices fall, they can intensify selling. More than $2 billion in long and short cryptocurrency positions have been liquidated this week as of Thursday, according to Coinglass.
Bitcoin has been sliding steadily since reaching an all-time high above $126,000 in October. The token now trades roughly 40 percent below that peak. Other digital currencies have declined even more sharply, including ether and XRP.
”[The] straight line bull run that a lot of people expected hasn’t really materialized yet. Bitcoin isn’t trading on hype anymore, the story has lost a bit of that plot, it is trading on pure liquidity and capital flows,” Maja Vujinovic, CEO of digital assets at FG Nexus, told CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange.”
For much of the past year, institutional investors were credited with helping support bitcoin’s price. Now, some of those same participants appear to be retreating.
“Institutional demand has reversed materially,” CryptoQuant said in a report on Wednesday.
The firm noted that U.S. exchange-traded funds, which purchased about 46,000 bitcoin at this time last year, have become net sellers in 2026.
CryptoQuant analysts also pointed to a technical indicator flashing caution. “Bitcoin has broken below its 365-day moving average for the first time since March 2022 and has declined 23% in the 83 days since the breakdown—worse than the early 2022 bear phase,” they said, referring to a metric that tracks the average closing price of an asset over a set period.
The trend suggests “potential downside toward the $70K–$60K range,” the firm added.
After a period defined by rapid gains and exuberant forecasts, the latest slide underscores a more sober reality for digital assets: bitcoin is increasingly trading in step with global liquidity and shifting capital flows rather than speculative enthusiasm alone.
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