The price of Bitcoin crashed below $67,000 on Monday, representing its lowest level since before U.S. President Donald Trump’s electoral victory 15 months ago.
As of this writing, the digital asset’s price had fallen 23% over the past week to a recent price of $66,753, according to CoinGecko. Ethereum and Solana showed greater losses, respectively diving nearly 33% to $1,936 and 30% to $84 over the same period of time.
The cryptocurrencies extended losses as tech stocks wavered on Wall Street. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.6%, while the S&P 500 declined 1.2%, according to Yahoo Finance.
As sentiment in the crypto market takes a major hit, Carlos Guzman, a research analyst at crypto trading firm GSR, told Decrypt that crypto appears to be falling in sympathy with other risk assets as investors are reducing exposure to risk assets tied to artificial intelligence.
For example, the S&P 500 software and services index was down 3% on Thursday. Guzman said fears of disruption stemming from advancements from AI were bolstered recently by the release of new legal tools from Anthropic for its Cowork product.
“The fundamentals haven’t changed, but the sentiment has really taken a hit,” he said of Bitcoin. “Sentiment in crypto right now is really weak, just some of the weakest I’ve seen.”
Trump’s second term has coincided with regulatory tailwinds for crypto, as regulatory agencies have adopted a more collaborative approach toward the industry. But the passage of stablecoin regulation this summer, and recent progress on a market structure bill, haven’t buoyed the market.
Previous downturns in the crypto market have been easy to pin on market participants that either blew up or went bankrupt, but Guzman posited that Thursday’s downturn could be especially frustrating due to an apparent lack of people to point the finger toward.
“It seems like crypto is getting everything it wants,” Guzman said. “I think in previous downturns, there was a more obvious villain.”
With the crypto market sustaining a record $19 billion in liquidations on Oct. 10, some continue to scrutinize Binance, including Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood. On a podcast, she said an auto-deleveraging event caused by a “software glitch” was working itself through the system.
Cryptocurrencies extended losses following Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve. Historically viewed as an inflation hawk, the price of precious metals dropped alongside crypto on expectations of tighter monetary policy, Guzman said.
“Investors continue to see crypto as a risky asset class,” he said, noting that crypto prices have trended downward for months as gold and silver have benefited from a so-called debasement trade, as investors have piled into potential hedges against currency debasement.
Meanwhile, geopolitical tensions could still linger following Trump’s renewed bid for Greenland, as the president turns his attention to Iran, Guzman said. On Wednesday, the price of crude oil hit a six-month high of $63 per barrel, according to Yahoo Finance.
Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication with additional detail.
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