Bitcoin staged a dramatic bounce on Friday, clawing its way back above the $65,000 mark as a punishing global sell-off in technology stocks showed early signs of losing momentum. For battered crypto traders, the move offered a rare moment of relief in what has been one of the most painful weeks for digital assets in years.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency was last trading up 4.4% at around $65,894, rebounding sharply after tumbling nearly 5% earlier in the day to just above $60,000. Despite the recovery, bitcoin is still headed for its worst weekly performance since late 2022, down almost 14% in just seven days.
That makes this rally feel less like a victory lap—and more like a breather in a longer storm.
A market still nursing deep wounds
Bitcoin’s current price remains near its weakest level since early October 2024, just before a powerful rally took hold as Donald Trump surged toward victory in the U.S. presidential election. Back then, optimism around a more crypto-friendly White House helped ignite one of bitcoin’s fastest climbs on record.
That optimism has since evaporated.
“Bitcoin’s been going down since October—maybe you could ask if it was the canary in the coal mine, or just a coincidence,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone in Melbourne. “A lot of these big, crowded positions are being unwound very, very quickly.”
The pain has not been limited to bitcoin. Ether rose about 4% to $1,921 on Friday but is still nursing a weekly loss of nearly 16% and a year-to-date decline of roughly 35%. Earlier in the session, ether slid to a near 10-month low of $1,751.94.
Trillions erased as risk appetite fades
The broader crypto market has been hit hard. Since peaking at $4.379 trillion in early October, total market value has plunged by roughly $2 trillion, according to CoinGecko data. More than $1 trillion of that destruction has occurred in just the past month.
What’s driving the exodus? Analysts point to a toxic mix of fading risk appetite, leveraged positions being forced out, and growing volatility spilling over from other asset classes.
Gold and silver—often viewed as safe havens—have also turned volatile as speculative flows and leverage unwind. Bitcoin, which has increasingly traded in lockstep with tech stocks, has been swept up in the same deleveraging wave that crushed high-growth software names and AI-linked bets.
“Bitcoin drifting back toward $60,000 is not crypto dying,” said Joshua Chu, co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 Association. “It’s the bill coming due for funds that treated bitcoin as a one-way asset without real risk controls—just like we’ve seen sharp corrections in so-called safe havens when narrative runs ahead of reality.”
ETFs feel the pressure
Adding to the strain, institutional investors appear to be heading for the exits. Analysts at Deutsche Bank noted that U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded more than $3 billion in outflows in January, following withdrawals of roughly $2 billion in December and a massive $7 billion in November.
Those sustained outflows underscore how quickly sentiment has shifted from exuberance to caution.
“February is not panning out well for stock market bulls so far,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB. “We’ll have to see if bitcoin’s recovery above $65,000 is the first sign of a deeper rebound—or just a pause before the next leg lower.”
For now, bitcoin’s bounce has steadied nerves, but the scars of this sell-off remain fresh. After months of treating crypto as an unstoppable trade, investors are being reminded—brutally—that volatility cuts both ways.