Bitcoin collapse: falls for the seventh consecutive day and drags down the main cryptocurrencies

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, fell more than 10% to $1,593 on Friday, its lowest value since April 2025. Bitcoin fell as much as 4.9%, just above US$60,438. The tokens then pared some of the losses.

Smaller cryptocurrencies fared worse, especially so-called “privacy coins”who suffered a heavy punishment. Zcash fell by more than half — its biggest drop since May 2021 — in a 24-hour period, after reports of a possible security breach, while Monero fell up to 17%.

The losses deepen what is already the bitcoin’s longest bearish streak since auguststarted after Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) announced on Monday that it had sold a small sum of the token for the first time since 2022. Sustained outflows from dedicated U.S. exchange-traded funds, combined with a decoupling from high tech stocks, weakened investor confidence.

“This week was painful for crypto. There’s really no other way to put it,” said Geoffrey Kendrick, head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered, in a note.

According to Kendrick, it will now be critically important what Strategy, the megabuyer led by Michael Saylor, does on Monday, when it routinely announces bitcoin purchases. The sale of 32 bitcoins this week was minuscule compared to its $53 billion reserve, but the bearish context in which it occurred dealt a strong blow to confidence.

Kendrick noted that, days after his previous bitcoin sale in December 2022, Strategy bought more tokens than it had sold. “This time I suspect the post-sale buying will be more aggressive,” or up to 100 times the amount of tokens Strategy divested, Kendrick wrote.

“Bitcoin is rapidly approaching the psychological level of $60,000,” said Caroline Mauron, co-founder of Orbit Markets. “That level proved to be strong support in February and was last seen in 2024, before Trump’s election, so a clear break would be damaging.”

The leading cryptocurrency has lost nearly half its value since hitting an all-time high above $126,000 last October.

The crypto crash comes as US stocks headed towards a historic weekly winning streak, driven by the commitment to artificial intelligence, which raised the technology valuations. However, The rally was cut short this Friday, with a drop of more than 1.8% on the Nasdaq and 0.25% on the Dow Jones and 1% on the S&P 500.

“As global capital continues to flow into artificial intelligence and large-cap technology stocks, digital assets must compete with those high-growth sectors for investor allocation”said Dean Chen, analyst at crypto platform Bitunix.

“However, if investors finally begin to question the sustainability of US equity valuations, the pace of capital turnover and risk repricing could develop much faster than markets currently anticipate,” he added.

Bitcoin had gone through a streak of six consecutive days of daily losses until August 2 of last year, although this week’s declines were much steeper.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin exchange-traded funds — a major source of buying since their launch in early 2024 — became a drag on the market.

Investors Withdrew Nearly $4.4 Billion From Bitcoin ETFs listings in the United States during the last 13 rounds, in a record streak of releases, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.