The world’s largest cryptocurrency has hit its lowest price since April. Bitcoin is down nearly 2% over the past 24 hours and hit a low of nearly $81,000 late Thursday, below its last low of $82,175 in November. The token saw a modest rebound on Friday and is now trading at around $82,290, according to data from Binance. Bitcoin’s free fall has spread to other cryptocurrencies, including Ethereumdown 4% in the last 24 hours to currently around $2,660.
Meanwhile, this week saw an even more dramatic decline in precious metal prices, which until recently were experiencing an unprecedented fall. Gold fell 11% over the past day and silver fell even more than 31%. Platinum and copper are also down.
The volatility in the crypto and metals markets comes as President Donald Trump announced his nomination Friday morning. Kevin Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell as chairman of the US Federal Reserve. It also comes as investors remain nervous about big tech’s mammoth investments in AI. After the markets closed on Thursday, Microsoft reported strong profits, but its results failed to soothe investor anxiety due to increased spending and slowing revenue gains. Shares of the tech giant fell more than 10% after hours.
“Concerns about big tech investing heavily in AI, without the corresponding revenue to justify the spending, appear to be disruptive to broader risk assets,” Matt Howells-Barby, vice president at crypto exchange Kraken, said in an email.
Jake Ostrovskis, head of OTC trading at market maker Wintermute, echoed Howells-Barby and said falling Microsoft stock prices and gold “triggered the risk decline.”
Bitcoin’s price decline continues the cryptocurrency’s declining performance since October, when new tariff threats from Trump preceded a “flash crash” in the crypto market. The world’s largest cryptocurrency has historically tracked tech stocks, but Bitcoin and the S&P 500 have diverged over the past three months. Bitcoin is down more than 30% since the beginning of October, while the S&P 500 is up almost 3%.
The drop in token prices has prompted some analysts to claim that the crypto market, which reached all-time highs in 2025, has turned bearish. Still, institutional interest in stablecoins and new crypto regulations makes others cautiously optimistic. “It’s just a mild crypto winter,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at forex broker FxPro, in a recent research note.