Bitcoin’s price sank to $63,000 on Thursday, its lowest level in more than a year, and half its all-time peak of $126,000, reached in October 2025. A months-long dip in cryptocurrency prices has tanked shares of companies that have increasingly invested in bitcoin, exacerbating broader stock market jitters.

Bitcoin rode a high during Donald Trump’s ascent to the presidency in 2024 and throughout 2025; its price steadily increased as the president made one industry-friendly move after another. Crypto’s largest currency hit $100,000 for the first time in December 2024 and even rose to a record high of $126,210.50 on 6 October, according to Coinbase. But bitcoin’s valuation has dipped over the last few months, falling especially hard in January and the start of February.

Companies that went all in on bitcoin have been hit hard in the recent sell-off. CoinGecko data shows that the global crypto market has lost $2tn in value since early October. Multiple cryptocurrency ventures backed by the Trump family and listed on the stock market saw their values decline in response to bitcoin’s slump.

Bitcoin, which emerged after the 2008 financial crisis as a way to bypass banks and traditional payment methods, is the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency. The second-largest cryptocurrency, ether, has faced losses of more than 30% this year alone, adding insult to injury after it missed out on the boom of 2025.

In addition to financial disaster, the cryptocurrency faces regulatory headwinds. Some Democrats and watchdogs in the US have raised alarms about Trump’s conflicts of interest around cryptocurrencies and a lack of regulation under the current administration. US representative Ro Khanna said on Wednesday that he planned to investigate World Liberty Financial, following reports from the Wall Street Journal that a member of the Emirati royal family backed a $500m investment into the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company. Khanna wrote in a statement that the reported deal “may have contributed to changes to US policy”.