Bitcoin Weekend Crash: The Crypto Boom Goes Bust

Markets

What to know:

Bitcoin has plunged to about $77,000, wiping out roughly $800 billion in market value since its October peak and nudging it out of the global top 10 assets as leveraged bets get liquidated-like a rowdy lemonade stand collapsing when the sign falls over.
A sharp escalation in U.S.-Iran tensions, a surging dollar after Kevin Warsh’s Fed nomination, and cascading forced liquidations have driven a broad sell-off across crypto, gold, silver and U.S. stock futures.
While small retail holders are capitulating and selling, large “mega-whales” are quietly buying, as analysts warn the downturn may echo the 2022 crypto winter and could deepen if speculative excess is fully unwound.

‘This is absolutely INSANE.’

That headline might have started as a social-media scream, but the sentiment has a habit of spreading faster than a coffee-scented rumor on a Monday morning. Bitcoin has been hovering near $77,000 on Saturday, and that stubborn plateau has become a kind of financial limbo, a place where many an investor contemplates whether to retire to a less volatile life as a human weather vane.

The price didn’t merely stumble; it bulldozed through the $80,000 floor and then wandered into territory last seen during the tariff tantrums of April 2025, as if someone pressed the market’s reset button by mistake.

By Saturday afternoon, with liquidity wearing a weekend coat of thin air, Bitcoin-just over $77,000-had witnessed about $800 billion vanish since its October peak above $126,000, and roughly $2.5 billion in leveraged long positions liquidated in 24 hours. It’s the kind of statistic that makes you want to pour yourself a stiff drink and pretend you never heard the phrase “leverage.”

The wipeout has even nudged Bitcoin out of the global top 10 assets, now trailing giants like Elon Musk’s Tesla and Saudi Aramco. It’s a humbling reminder that in markets, as in life, sometimes the big players are the ones who end up with the biggest bruises.

To call the selloff painful would be like calling a hurricane a bit breezy. Social media is in full panic mode, and wherever you look there’s a smear of red on the street. And this isn’t confined to Bitcoin; tech stocks and precious metals are feeling the same ache.

If you’re wondering why the “digital gold” dream has gone quiet, here’s the three-headed monster driving markets toward “Extreme Fear.”

1. Geopolitics rattles the ‘safety’ trade

The spark on Saturday was loud: a potential sharp military escalation between the U.S. and Iran sent risk appetite into a deep-freeze. Rather than treating Bitcoin as a safe haven, investors treated it as a cash dispenser-a liquidity source in a pinch. In a 24/7 market, Bitcoin can feel like the world’s most excitable emergency fund, itching to be sold to cover losses and keep the show on the road in a market that was, frankly, in weekend mode.

Liquidity hasn’t exactly been robust since the October 10 crash (many fingers point at Binance), and that fragility makes this weekend feel like a house of cards built on a windy hillside.

2. Gold and silver face a ‘hard money’ reset

Bitcoin wasn’t the only victim. The traditional store of value traded like a nervous cat. Gold plunged about 9% in a single session to just under $4,900, while Silver tumbled a historic 26% to $85.30. In a twist worthy of a travelogue about bureaucracy and vacuum cleaners, the dollar’s rally-fueled by the Warsh nomination-made these dollar-priced metals less attractive to international buyers, triggering a broad de-risking across hard assets.

In early Sunday trade, both gold and silver were clawing back some ground, up around 1% and 3% respectively. Gold hovered near $4,730 and silver around $81 as afternoon tea time approached in the markets.

3. The ‘liquidation trap’

The geopolitical shock landed in a market already bruised by political whiplash. As prices slipped, a mechanical cascade kicked in. Data from Coinglass shows more than $850 million in bullish bets (long positions) wiped out in hours on Saturday, with total liquidations approaching $2.5 billion. These are the moments when traders borrow to bet on rising prices; when the price hits a certain trap, exchanges automatically sell to cover the debt, creating a domino effect of forced selling and price drops. Nearly 200,000 traders found their accounts blown out on Saturday.

4. Michael Saylor’s very bad day

Then there’s Michael Saylor’s portfolio-Bitcoin’s big fan in a suit. The price dipped below Saylor’s average entry point of about $76,037 for his Strategy Investments stash, briefly placing his massive trove “underwater.” Panic loomed that he might have to sell, which would have been a further kick to the market. CoinDesk later reassured that Saylor isn’t forced to sell; none of his coins are pledged as collateral. Still, the drama looms: if a major buyer can’t raise cheap capital to buy more, the market loses a crucial buyer, leaving less support for prices and more fodder for liquidations and profit-taking.

Even so, Saylor did announce a plan to “buy the dip,” but by then the mood had already shifted from moonshots to hedges and insurance against further slides toward $75,000.

5. Wall Street on edge: U.S. futures turn red

The contagion isn’t limited to crypto. The financial world is shifting from a serene Saturday to a tense Sunday night, with U.S. stock futures down across the board-the Nasdaq about 1% lower and the S&P 500 off around 0.6%. Monday’s forecast? A potentially messy affair, if you like your markets with a side of adrenaline and chaos.

6. Whales vs. the world: a tale of two investors

Perhaps the most telling data point isn’t the price at all but the wallets. Glassnode shows small investors retreating: those with less than 10 BTC have been selling for a while, spooked by a 35% drop from the all-time high. Meanwhile, the mega-whales-1,000 BTC or more-have been quietly accumulating, a pattern not seen since late 2024. They’re swallowing coins that the panicked retail crowd is discarding, though their buys aren’t enough to push prices back up on their own.

7. Bigger picture: The inevitable human greed

Let’s zoom out and compare this weekend’s selloff with previous cycles. This isn’t all doom and gloom. Traditional finance players like BlackRock and JPMorgan are wading into crypto via ETFs and stablecoins. Regulatory frameworks are sprouting worldwide to make crypto more accessible, and many legitimate crypto companies are becoming part of mainstream fund allocations. None of this was remotely thinkable a few seasons ago.

Yet the parallels with late 2021/early 2022 crypto winter are hard to ignore. Names and schemes may be different-Three Arrows, Do Kwon, TerraUSD have given way to new drama-but human behavior and the boom-bust rhythm endure. The era’s cast has changed: Trump-era profiteering whispers, Michael Saylor’s grand plans, and crypto Twitter colluding with investment bankers in a bid to harvest a quick buck in digital-treasury schemes. It’s a different drama, but the plotline remains: greed, fear, and a market that loves a dramatic turn.

As things stand, a scenario of an 80% dip from the October 2025 high of $126,000 would place Bitcoin around $25,000-a number that’s scary enough to make anyone pause for tea and reflection. The 2022 bear market, after all, ended not with a gentle sigh but with the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried and the collapse that followed. Whether bracelets will be needed for this cycle’s bull-market personalities remains to be seen.

“It’s only when the tide goes out that you discover who’s been swimming naked,” as Warren Buffett likes to say. The tide isn’t fully out yet, but it does seem to be heading toward the shore with a distinct splash.

2026-02-02 05:47