Bitcoin Keeps Sliding, May Get 'Really, Really Ugly'

Bitcoin has been in freefall this week, and the worst may not be over. The world's largest cryptocurrency dipped below $86,000 for the first time in seven months on Friday, dragging the broader crypto market down with it, reports Reuters. At one point, the price hovered just above what CNBC sees as the crucial support threshold of $80,000—if it falls through that, the price could drop even more steeply in a hurry. Friday's decline pulled ether down more than 2% as well, with both coins now nursing weekly losses of about 8%.

The bigger picture is even more stark: Bitcoin is now down more than 30% from its all-time high of about $126,000, which was logged only last month. The swoon has erased all of the year's gains, with bitcoin down 8% for 2025. The drop comes as investors flee riskier assets, spooked by falling tech stocks and waning hopes for a near-term Federal Reserve rate cut. "If it's telling a story about risk sentiment as a whole, then things could start to get really, really ugly, and that's the concern now," Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG, tells Reuters.