(Bloomberg) — Bitcoin tumbled below $90,000 to hit the lowest level since mid-November, as the rally that followed Donald Trump’s election to the White House reverses amid a broader retreat from risky assets.
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Bitcoin dropped as much as 8.5%, the biggest intraday declined since August. The largest cryptocurrency by market value was down 7.6% to $86,805 at 11:20 a.m. in New York on Tuesday. Other cryptocurrencies also fell, with Ether, XRP and Solana were mostly down more for the session. An index tracking top digital tokens was on pace for its largest four-day drop since early August.
The recent turmoil in digital assets is a stark shift from the risk-on rally that drove crypto markets higher following Trump’s election in early November. Bitcoin has tumbled roughly 20% since his January inauguration, as Trump’s combative stance against allies and geopolitical rivals alike shakes investor confidence, and concerns about elevated inflation linger.
“The fall in Bitcoin prices is likely related to broader macro uncertainty that has hit most financial markets in the last couple of days and is linked to the various tariffs being announced by President Trump,” said Adrian Przelozny, chief executive of crypto exchange Independent Reserve.
Tumbling crypto prices mirror a broader retreat from risky assets that gained momentum late last week when a string of disappointing economic reports pushed the Nasdaq 100 to what is now its worst four-day drop since September. In turn, money has flowed into bond havens, pushing the 10-year Treasury yield down for five straight sessions.
Exchange-traded fund investors, whose hand-over-fist buying helped power the post-election crypto advance, have been stepping back. The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (ticker IBIT), the largest spot Bitcoin fund, shed $158 million on Monday in a rare outflow, while investors pulled nearly $250 million from the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund — the third-largest withdrawal among all ETFs. More than $956 million has exited from US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs in February, the worst month on record for the category, Bloomberg Intelligence data show.
The bullish bets on crypto have seen hefty liquidations over the last two days with $815.8 million and $860 million respectively, according to data from Coinglass. Perpetual futures, which tends to be used by offshore investors due to its lack of availability in the US market, saw leveraged long positions drop.
