Bitcoin Drops Below $60,000 as Tech Stocks and Crypto Slide

Bitcoin fell below $60,000 and wicked under that level twice during the week, trading just above it on Friday morning. The Nasdaq fell for four straight sessions and the Nasdaq 100 erased year-to-date gains after a drop of more than 2% in roughly 30 minutes. The U.S. dollar index remained near 101. Market participants cited unconfirmed reports that the Saudi central bank contacted asset managers seeking funds to be returned. South Korea suspended trading on a day when local stocks lost about 10%.

Crypto ETF flows were strongly negative, with about $4 billion leaving over the past month. Research showed distribution by Bitcoin holders with coins aged five years or more outpaced institutional purchases for four consecutive weeks, increasing available supply relative to demand.

Some large corporate holders showed heavy unrealized losses. MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin position carried an estimated unrealized loss near $14 billion. Firms tied to BitMine reported roughly $10.5 billion of unrealized losses on Ether positions.

The Ethereum Foundation announced cuts of about 20% of its staff and a reorganization into five clusters focused on protocol, access, user, community and institutional workstreams. Vitalik Buterin flagged a roughly 40% reduction in the foundation’s budget. In the same week, ETHLabs launched as a nonprofit R&D organization focused on promoting Ether as an asset and as a platform for decentralized finance. Initial donors and developers responded positively and noted ETH’s role as a store of value.

On decentralized finance and on-chain credit, customers of private-credit protocol Goldfinch alleged the platform is effectively insolvent. Observers noted that putting loans on a blockchain does not change the underlying credit quality. A Cardano project suffered an exploit of about $20 million; Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson described the incident as “the unfortunate reality of crypto.” A token called Memecore plunged roughly 75% in minutes, erasing nearly $3 billion of market value and prompting accusations of a rug pull. A well-known user on social media called the token founder a scammer and wrote, “You are not welcome in the US go back to your home country.”

A prominent wallet user known as Jaredfromsubway.eth said he had been tricked into draining his own wallet and offered a 50% white-hat bounty for the return of 2,150 ETH within 48 hours, warning of legal action if the funds were not returned. Market observers pointed to these incidents as examples of recurring failures in the human layer of crypto systems.

There were several product and usage developments amid the sell-off. TRON reported nearly 3.93 million active addresses in a 24-hour period, the highest among public chains. The Intercontinental Exchange and crypto exchange OKX announced a 50/50 joint venture called OKXICE focused on tokenized securities, with reports the venture will be co-chaired by former New York governor Andrew Cuomo. DeFiLlama expanded its tracking to include equities for more than 3,000 tickers. A Japanese corporate pension fund plans to allocate 1% of assets to crypto in fiscal 2026, about $1.3 million.

Prediction markets drew attention around the World Cup. Reports said a prediction platform paid creators to post misleading videos about making large sums on the site. A major technology company is developing an internal prediction-markets app reportedly called “Arena.”

Some strategists argued disinflation may be rising while markets continue to price further Federal Reserve rate hikes. Market participants said they will monitor how Fed expectations, ETF flows and the Ethereum Foundation’s budget and staffing changes affect positioning across crypto and equity markets.