“Cryptos Got Trumped”: Bitcoin Slides Toward $60K as Liquidations Explode and Bears Smell More Pain

Bitcoin’s selloff is accelerating—and the mood across crypto markets has turned unmistakably grim.

On Friday, Bitcoin plunged toward $60,000, extending a brutal 30% drawdown in just one month and triggering another $2 billion in liquidations. The world’s largest cryptocurrency is now down nearly 50% from its peak, wiping out virtually all of the gains that followed Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

What was supposed to be crypto’s political tailwind has instead become a boom-and-bust case study.

“Cryptos got Trumped,” Bloomberg Intelligence strategist Mike McGlone said bluntly on Bloomberg Television.

Trump’s 2024 election victory initially lit a fire under digital assets. His public support for the crypto industry sparked optimism that friendlier regulation and institutional adoption were finally locked in.

Instead, that optimism has unraveled fast.

McGlone argues that the post-election surge didn’t mark a new era—but the final stage of a classic speculative cycle. As prices raced higher, risk piled up beneath the surface. Now, with liquidity tightening and macro fears mounting, crypto is paying the price.

And Bitcoin isn’t falling in isolation.

The latest leg down came after shockingly weak US labor data released Thursday showed January was the worst month for job losses since 2009, when the economy was emerging from the Great Financial Crisis. More than 100,000 workers were laid off.

Markets reacted swiftly. The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow Jones Industrial Average all fell more than 1%, underscoring how fragile risk sentiment has become.

For crypto—still tightly correlated with broader risk assets—that was gasoline on the fire.

Despite the severity of the selloff, several analysts believe Bitcoin may not have hit bottom yet. Their reasoning spans competition, macro policy, and crypto’s own historical cycles.

Unlike gold, Bitcoin doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

“There was one Bitcoin in 2009,” McGlone said. “Now there’s 28 million.”

While Bitcoin remains dominant, investors now face an endless menu of alternatives—from layer-1 blockchains to memecoins. McGlone pointed to the stubborn valuations of speculative assets as evidence of excess still lingering in the system.

“The problem is that Shiba Inu is still worth $3 billion,” he said. “And Dogecoin is still worth $15 billion.”

To bears, that suggests crypto has further to fall before speculation is fully flushed out.

Macro uncertainty is also weighing heavily.

Trump’s reported nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair has rattled both stock and crypto markets. Warsh is widely viewed as a monetary hawk—critical of loose policy and deeply focused on fighting inflation.

According to McGlone, that makes it unlikely the Fed will loosen aggressively ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

At the same time, liquidity conditions are already tightening. Fabian Dori, chief investment officer at Sygnum Bank, warned investors that shrinking liquidity is creating a tougher environment for speculative assets, crypto included.

Then there’s crypto’s own rhythm.

Dori notes that the market’s infamous four-year cycle—tied to Bitcoin’s halving events—appears to be playing out once again. Each halving reduces miner rewards, reshaping supply dynamics and often coinciding with boom-and-bust phases.

Bitcoin’s current block reward sits at 3.125 BTC and is expected to drop to roughly 1.56 BTC at the next halving in 2028.

“Concerns around the historical four-year cycle repeating are leading to supply from long-term holders being deployed to the market,” Dori said.

In plain terms: long-time holders are selling, and that pressure is hitting prices.

Despite the carnage, not all analysts are bearish long term.

Dori believes the market is approaching “peak fear territory”, a phase that historically precedes stabilization rather than collapse. He points to rising on-chain activity, expanding stablecoin usage, and improving infrastructure as reasons crypto’s long-term investment case remains intact.

“Expect short-term chop,” he said, “but the long-term case is still fully intact.”

As of the latest update:

For now, volatility is in control—and confidence is scarce.

Whether this is the final capitulation or just another leg lower, one thing is clear: the post-election crypto honeymoon is over. And the market is being forced to reckon not with political promises—but with liquidity, macro reality, and history itself.