Bitcoin Falls Below $80,000 as Profit-Taking Collides With Weak Demand
Bitcoin sank to its lowest level since April 2025 on Saturday, dropping as much as 10% to $75,709.88 amid profit-taking by early holders and a sharp slowdown in new capital entering the market. The drawdown has erased more than 30% of Bitcoin’s peak value, with Ether and Solana also falling roughly 17%, highlighting broad weakness across major tokens.
The selloff wiped approximately $111 billion from total crypto market capitalization in 24 hours, while $1.6 billion in leveraged long and short positions were liquidated, mostly in Bitcoin and Ether, according to Coinglass data. Analysts attribute the decline to thin liquidity and muted buying interest.
Ki Young Ju, CEO of on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant, noted that Bitcoin’s realized capitalization has largely flatlined, signaling that fresh money has stopped flowing into the market. “When market cap falls without realized cap growing, that’s not a bull market,” he said on X.
Early holders, buoyed by prior inflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs and Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR), had supported prices near $100,000 last year. But ongoing profit-taking, combined with slower demand, has pushed the market lower. Strategy’s Bitcoin position is slightly underwater but not under immediate financial stress.
Despite favorable macro conditions—including a weaker U.S. dollar and record-high gold—Bitcoin failed to rally. Ju expects the current downturn to resolve through extended sideways trading rather than a sharp rebound, leaving the market without a clear near-term bottom.
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