Cryptocurrency Markets

Bitcoin’s months‑long slide accelerated Thursday, dropping another 11% to around $66,300 — below its level when Donald Trump won a second term — and leaving the token worth barely half its Oct. 6 record of $126,210.50. The sell‑off comes as U.S. investors have pulled about $5.7 billion from spot bitcoin exchange‑traded funds between November and January and are also dumping gold, silver and other speculative assets amid worries about regulation despite Trump’s pro‑crypto rhetoric. Shares of U.S.‑listed crypto plays were hammered: Coinbase fell 9.1%, Robinhood 8.1%, miner Riot Platforms 10%, and Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) tumbled 13%, with its 713,502‑bitcoin stash now worth roughly $47.8 billion — well below the $54.3 billion it paid at an average of more than $76,000 per coin. American Bitcoin, partly owned by Eric and Donald Trump Jr., slid 6.6% and is down over 80% since October 7, while Trump‑branded tokens like World Liberty Financial’s $WLFI and the $TRUMP meme coin have also lost roughly half to more than 90% of their market value. The White House this week hosted banks and crypto firms to search for common ground on stablecoin legislation, but the bill appears stalled in Congress, and banks are fighting industry plans to pay yield on crypto deposits that could siphon money from traditional accounts.