Selling pressure across digital assets intensified on Wednesday, dragging Bitcoin down to its lowest point in 21 months. Investors kept unloading their holdings, and that wave of selling rattled the entire crypto market.
According to CoinGecko, the largest digital asset by market value slipped as low as $59,217.5 before steadying at $60,700, a 2.7% drop over the past 24 hours. The move mirrored the strain showing up on Wall Street and left Bitcoin heading toward a third straight day of losses.
Every major coin took a hit
As the oldest cryptocurrency slid, the altcoins followed it down. Ethereum fell 3.1% to $1,610. XRP also dropped 3.1% to $1.07, while Solana shed 2.6% to land at $67. Over the same stretch, Dogecoin tumbled 4.6% to 7.5 cents.
For XRP, the decline raised the prospect of the token slipping under $1 for the first time since shortly after President Donald Trump won reelection in 2024. Dogecoin, meanwhile, had already cracked earlier in the day, sinking the first meme coin to its weakest level since late 2023.
'Painful days, but we've seen this movie before'
Juan Leon, senior investment strategist at crypto asset manager Bitwise, put it plainly: “Days like today are undoubtedly painful. But step back. We've seen this movie before.”
Leon noted that sharp drawdowns in crypto prices can feel like they break the entire investment thesis in the moment, yet the technology keeps getting adopted as a modern form of market plumbing. He added that a risk-off rotation hitting AI and semiconductor stocks was bruising an already depressed market for digital assets, saying, “This bear market shall pass, and crypto will come out stronger on the other side.”
There was also a view going around that, even with Bitcoin diving below $60K, its four-year cycle has not yet broken, according to 21Shares.
Inflation and rate fears in the background
The weakness arrived just before a fresh reading of the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge. Economists expect Thursday's Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index to show consumer prices rising 4.1% year over year, accelerating for a third month in a row.
After hawkish comments from Fed Chair Kevin Warsh a week earlier, analysts say investors are absorbing the prospect of tighter monetary policy, which usually weighs on risk assets. Per CME Watch, the Fed is projected to raise rates at its September meeting.
With trading looking sluggish, it seems some traders have grown less active. Jasper De Maere, an OTC trader at crypto trading firm Wintermute, wrote: “Flows are suggesting traders have started going into summer recess. It's possible we'll consolidate at these levels, at the mercy of the equity market which has the potential to pull crypto down alongside it in case of a further risk-off rotation.”
Crypto-linked stocks get slammed
A 0.4% slide in the Nasdaq was led by Micron Technology ahead of the firm's earnings, but the chipmaker's losses were dwarfed by those of crypto-native companies.
Bitcoin treasury giant Strategy plunged 9% to $94.43 after bouncing off a 27-month low of $92.28, a slide that put even more scrutiny on its flagship preferred stock, Stretch (STRC), which hit fresh lows on Wednesday following a record drop last Thursday. Coinbase fell 5% to $150.11, while Robinhood shares slipped 5.8% to $97.21.
BitMine, the largest corporate holder of Ethereum, saw its shares plunge 7.4% to $14.01, their lowest level since the company committed itself to stockpiling the digital asset a year ago.
