Bitcoin caps a dismal week as price wallows 50% below its all-time high

A bitcoin rebound, or characteristic dip-buying by investors, is yet to take place. It was last seen trading at $62,500, meaning it is down by about half since its all-time high of $126k in October 2025 – a decline of 50% in just ten months. 

As of now, bitcoin is teetering just above the psychologically important $60k threshold. The last time it traded below $60k was on September 18, 2024.

Charles-Henry Monchau, chief investment officer at Syz Group, said bitcoin’s latest weekly decline has been driven by a combination of Strategy’s forced selling and a crowding-out effect from hot money chasing other assets.

“Speculators are going all-in on AI stocks and memory chips, especially in Korea, and the market also anticipates that upcoming monster IPOs will divert some retail money into the new stocks,” Monchau told CNBC over email. 

He added that the moves downward come despite some positive developments for the sector, including Senate approval of the Clarity Act, which would mark the first wide-ranging piece of legislation pertaining to the industry.

Strategists have also noted a growing correlation with tech stocks, though this has eased over recent weeks as bitcoin has failed to participate in the most recent eye-watering global tech rally. 

“We saw the 30-day Pearson correlation between bitcoin and the Nasdaq and S&P 500 reach a near-perfect positive correlation as recently as a month ago, but that has collapsed over the last several weeks,” Rajiv Sawhney, head of international portfolio management at Wave Digital Assets, told CNBC over email.

“So while global equities, particularly tech stocks, continued to reach new all-time highs, bitcoin has failed to track the same upward price trend.”

Others see the most recent moves as an opportunity to buy the dip. Speaking to CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe on Friday, Strive Chief Executive Matt Cole said that bitcoin’s fundamentals have “never been better.”

“This is the fifth time that bitcoin has been at its 200-week moving average — the previous four have all been the perfect time to buy the dip, and I think this time will age in the same manner,” he added.