Bitcoin erases year’s gain as crypto bear market deepens

PORTLAND, Oregon - Just a little more than a month after reaching an all-time high, Bitcoin has erased the more than 30 per cent gain registered since the start of 2025 as the exuberance over the pro-crypto stance of the Trump administration fades. 

The dominant cryptocurrency fell below US$93,714 on Nov 16, pushing the price beneath the closing level reached at the end of 2024, when financial markets were rallying following US President Donald Trump’s election victory.

Bitcoin soared to a record US$126,251 on Oct 6, only to begin tumbling four days later after unexpected comments on tariffs by Mr Trump sent markets into a tailspin worldwide. 

“The general market is risk-off,” said Bitwise Asset Management chief investment officer Matthew Hougan. “Crypto was the canary in the coal mine for that, it was the first to flinch.”

Over the past month, many of the biggest buyers – from exchange-traded fund (ETF) allocators to corporate treasuries – have quietly stepped back, depriving the market of the flow-driven support that helped propel the token to records earlier in 2025.

At the same time, the recent cooling of high-flying technology stocks has led to a drop in overall risk appetite.

For much of the year, institutions were the backbone of Bitcoin’s legitimacy and its price.

ETFs as a cohort took in more than US$25 billion (S$32.5 billion), according to Bloomberg data, pushing assets as high as roughly US$169 billion.

Their steady allocation flows helped reframe the asset as a portfolio diversifier – a hedge against inflation, monetary debasement and political disarray.

But that narrative – always tenuous – is fraying afresh, leaving the market exposed to something quieter but no less destabilising: disengagement.

One of the starkest examples of a buying strike in the digital asset community comes from billionaire Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the software firm turned Bitcoin hoarder.

Once the poster child for corporate treasury crypto plays, its stock is now flirting near parity to its Bitcoin stash – a sign that investors are no longer willing to pay a premium for Mr Saylor’s high-conviction leverage model.

Boom and bust cycles have been a constant since Bitcoin burst into the mainstream consciousness with a more than 13,000 per cent surge in 2017, followed by a plunge of almost 75 per cent in 2018.

“The sentiment in crypto retail is pretty negative,” said Mr Hougan, who sees the current pullback as a buying opportunity.

“They don’t want to live through another 50 per cent pullback. People are front-running that by stepping out of the market.”

Bitcoin has whipsawed investors through 2025, dropping to as low as US$74,400 in April as Mr Trump unveiled his tariffs, before rebounding to record highs ahead of the latest retreat.

The original digital asset accounts for almost 60 per cent of crypto’s roughly US$3.2 trillion in market value.

The market downturn has been even tougher on smaller, less liquid tokens that traders often gravitate towards because of their higher volatility and typical outperformance during rallies.

A MarketVector index tracking the bottom half of the largest 100 digital assets is down around 60 per cent in 2025.

“The markets are always an ebb and flow, and cyclicality in crypto is nothing new,” said Mr Chris Newhouse, director of research at Ergonia, a firm specialising in decentralised finance.

But “among friends, Telegram chats, and at conferences, the general sentiment I’ve received shows scepticism around capital deployment, and no natural bullish catalysts”. BLOOMBERG