Bitcoin Falls Below $60,000, Pulls Down Altcoins and Stocks

Bitcoin fell to its lowest level in 21 months on Wednesday, dropping as low as $59,217 before recovering to about $60,700, a roughly 2.7% decline over 24 hours. The move coincided with losses in major altcoins and crypto-focused equities.

Ethereum declined about 3.1% to $1,610, XRP slipped about 3.1% to $1.07, Solana fell roughly 2.6% to $67, and Dogecoin dropped about 4.6% to near $0.075. XRP risked falling below $1 for the first time since shortly after President Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection, and Dogecoin reached levels not seen since late 2023.

Shares of Strategy, the corporate bitcoin treasury firm, plunged about 9% to $94.43 after touching a 27-month low near $92.28, while its preferred product Stretch (STRC) hit fresh lows. Coinbase shares fell about 5% to $150.11 and Robinhood shares slid about 5.8% to $97.21. BitMine, the largest corporate holder of Ethereum, dropped roughly 7.4% to $14.01.

Analysts pointed to a wider risk-off move in semiconductor and artificial-intelligence related stocks as a factor in the sell-off. Micron Technology led declines in the Nasdaq ahead of its earnings report. Investors were also awaiting the Personal Consumption Expenditures index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, which economists expected to show a 4.1% annual rise. Recent hawkish comments from Fed officials have increased market pricing for the possibility of higher interest rates at the Fed’s September meeting.

Trading activity showed signs of slowing. Jasper De Maere, an over-the-counter trader at Wintermute, wrote that flows suggest traders are beginning a summer recess and that the market could consolidate at current levels, leaving crypto vulnerable to equity-market pressure in the event of further sell-offs.

CryptoQuant’s head of research, Julio Moreno, recommended that Strategy stop purchasing bitcoin and focus on raising cash to reduce pressure on its preferred product.

Juan Leon, senior investment strategist at Bitwise, described the day as “undoubtedly painful” and noted that past deep sell-offs have felt momentarily decisive even as the underlying technology continued to be adopted for market infrastructure.

21Shares wrote in its market update that Bitcoin had not broken from its expected four-year cycle and that recent price action still looked familiar, revising an earlier forecast of a cycle shift by 2026.

Price pressure persisted across smaller tokens and meme coins. Market participants awaited the PCE inflation report and a slate of corporate earnings that could influence both equity and crypto risk appetite.