Bitcoin Slips Under $60,000, Hits Lowest Since October 2024

Bitcoin dropped below $60,000 on Friday, marking its weakest level since October 2024, CoinDesk reported. The move also undercut the trough seen during February's sharp crypto selloff. Over the past week, BTC is down nearly 20%, and has given back more than half of its gains from the October 2025 peak above $126,000. A mix of forces has been weighing on the market rather than any single catalyst. Reports cited Strategy—long viewed as the largest single buyer of bitcoin—as turning into a seller, dimming expectations for sustained demand. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs have also stayed in outflow mode. Some investors pulling money from crypto have rotated into AI-linked stocks and sectors that have recently outperformed, reducing incremental support for bitcoin. Macro headwinds are adding pressure. Sticky U.S. inflation and stronger-than-expected jobs data have pushed markets to rethink the Federal Reserve's path. Expectations for rate cuts have faded, with some pricing shifting toward the possibility that the next move could be a hike. The risk-off tone spilled into broader markets. After a run of record highs, U.S. stocks lost momentum, with the Nasdaq falling more than 2% on Friday as appetite for risk cooled and crypto selling intensified. Security concerns tied to AI and quantum computing have also entered the conversation, with investors weighing the potential for advances to expose weaknesses in cryptographic protocols. The report noted that after Anthropic's latest Opus 4.8 model helped identify a critical vulnerability, privacy-focused token Zcash plunged more than 40% overnight. While the incidents were concentrated in a handful of tokens, they heightened sensitivity around protocol security. With bitcoin already trading in a fragile range, additional risk events can more easily trigger de-risking and further selling.