Price Slide After Earlier Rally
The price of Bitcoin has fallen to its lowest level in 15 months, even as US President Donald Trump continues to offer public support for the cryptocurrency sector.
One Bitcoin is now priced at about $66,000 (£48,700), its lowest level since October 2024, and the token is down 24% since the start of this year. The decline follows months of rising prices that pushed Bitcoin to a record high of $122,200 in October.
Investors had previously been encouraged by Trump’s involvement in the sector, his public backing of cryptocurrencies, and promises to loosen rules affecting the industry.
White House Actions And Personal Crypto Ties
Among Trump’s first steps after returning to the White House in January 2025 was an executive order aimed at making the United States the “crypto capital of the planet.” During his first year back in office, he launched a personal cryptocurrency brand, with most of the profits flowing to his own companies, and continued his involvement with World Liberty Financial, a Trump family-owned investment vehicle for other crypto assets.
Since the start of the administration, Trump has signed a law to support federal backing of cryptocurrency, dissolved a Department of Justice team focused on crypto regulation enforcement, and the Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped crypto-related investigations and enforcement work.
In November, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee criticised what they called Trump’s “pro-crypto agenda,” saying the president had built crypto holdings worth more than $11bn and had earned $800mn in personal income from crypto transactions since taking office.
Longer-Term Trend And Recent Trigger
With Thursday’s move, Bitcoin is down 32% over the past 12 months and is moving toward price levels seen in early 2024 and 2021. Bitcoin is the world’s largest and most widely known cryptocurrency, a digital form of money that operates without control from a central financial institution.
Analysts at Deutsche Bank said in a note on Wednesday that the latest drop was triggered by Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh as chair of the Federal Reserve. Some investors expect Warsh to take a more hawkish stance, which could keep interest rates higher. Higher rates tend to weigh on assets such as cryptocurrencies.
Deutsche Bank said Bitcoin prices have been trending lower for the past four months and that negative sentiment around the sector has been building. The bank said steady selling suggests traditional investors are losing interest and that pessimism is increasing. It said it does not expect cryptocurrency to disappear, but it also does not see Bitcoin returning to the highs linked to Trump’s earlier support. The bank said the token is moving away from being a “purely speculative asset” and into a phase where it “needs to find its specific role.”
Views From The Industry
William Barhydt, chief executive of Abra Capital Management, said cryptocurrency is maturing and said he expects prices to recover. He said Bitcoin has gone through large swings before and added that he does not see how it would fail to rebound unless there were a major global conflict.
Other large cryptocurrencies have also fallen. Ethereum and Solana are both down about 37% so far in 2026.
According to CoinGecko, which tracks thousands of digital tokens, the cryptocurrency market has lost more than $1 trillion in value over the past month and $2 trillion since the peak in October.
Outlook And Currency Links
Stifel, a US investment and research firm, said in a note to clients that Bitcoin could drop as low as $38,000. The firm said it is seeing a new pattern in which cryptocurrency prices are moving more closely with the US dollar.
Last week, the dollar fell to its lowest level in four years.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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