Bitcoin (COIN:BTCUSD) hovered near its weakest levels in more than a year on Wednesday after a sharp sell-off briefly dragged the cryptocurrency toward the $73,000 area, triggering widespread liquidations amid a broader pullback from risk assets.
The largest digital token was last down 2.8% at $76,509.1 as of 01:56 ET (06:56 GMT), after touching an intraday low of $73,004.3 — a level not seen since November 2024.
The latest decline extends a steep downtrend. Following the weekend’s slide, Bitcoin has fallen almost 12% over the past week, after posting a roughly 10% drop the week before. The move has pushed prices to their lowest point since Donald Trump’s U.S. election victory, unwinding gains that had been built on hopes of a friendlier regulatory environment for the crypto sector.
Forced selling accelerates as Bitcoin hits 15-month low
The downturn coincided with heavy forced liquidations in leveraged markets. Data from crypto analytics provider CoinGlass showed that nearly $740 million worth of long positions were wiped out over the past 24 hours, as falling prices triggered margin calls and compelled traders to unwind bullish bets.
Bitcoin’s weakness marks a stark reversal from the rally seen late last year, when the token surged following Trump’s election win. At that time, investors poured into cryptocurrencies on expectations that a new U.S. administration would take a more accommodating stance toward digital assets. Additional support came from Federal Reserve rate cuts that began in December 2024, which boosted appetite for higher-risk investments.
More recently, however, sentiment has shifted. Gold and other traditional safe havens rebounded on Wednesday as geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran intensified. At the same time, crypto markets are grappling with fresh uncertainty around U.S. monetary policy after Trump nominated former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair. Warsh is widely viewed as hawkish, fuelling concerns about tighter liquidity conditions.
Crypto prices today: altcoins under pressure, Cardano drops 6%
Losses across the broader digital-asset market outpaced Bitcoin’s decline, with most major altcoins trading lower.
Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, slipped 2.3% to $2,268.92, while XRP edged down 1.1% to $1.59. Solana fell 6%, Cardano dropped by a similar margin, and Polygon declined about 3.5%.
Among meme tokens, Dogecoin was marginally lower, down 0.2%.
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