(CNBC) - Bitcoin’s massive slump from a record price above $126,000 last October has darkened sentiment across the crypto landscape. Faith has been shaken in a trade that was viewed as a digital rival to gold as a store of value, and by some others as a risk-on asset that would continue to boom alongside a crypto-friendly Trump administration.
Since the all-time high price last October, bitcoin has lost almost half its value and its inability to bounce back in trading is increasing fears about another “crypto winter” — a prolonged slump similar to the time of the FTX crash in 2022 when bitcoin fell from near $50,000 to as low as $15,000. In the past month alone, bitcoin is down over 25%.
Since the all-time high price last October, bitcoin has lost almost half its value and its inability to bounce back in trading is increasing fears about another “crypto winter” — a prolonged slump similar to the time of the FTX crash in 2022 when bitcoin fell from near $50,000 to as low as $15,000. In the past month alone, bitcoin is down over 25%.
Since the all-time high price last October, bitcoin has lost almost half its value and its inability to bounce back in trading is increasing fears about another “crypto winter” — a prolonged slump similar to the time of the FTX crash in 2022 when bitcoin fell from near $50,000 to as low as $15,000. In the past month alone, bitcoin is down over 25%.
Financial advisors at Wall Street banks are among those adding bitcoin to investor portfolios, and adding their own branded crypto ETFs. And longer horizon investors who hold crypto as a small allocation within diversified portfolios may be willing to ride out volatility, Hougan said. If investors were capitulating across the board, the outflows over the past three months would likely approach the scale of the prior 12 months inflows.
Not that the ETF asset flow analysis makes it any easy of a period to stomach for a recent crypto investor. “It’s tough to be a bitcoin investor right now,” said Will Rhind, founder & CEO of ETF company GraniteShares on “ETF Edge.” He added that the performance of other “hard” assets, such as gold, has added to the bitcoin distress. For investors who have supported the “digital gold” concept, the bitcoin price crash has been unsettling. “This is not supposed to happen,” he said of a period of time when other safe haven assets perform strongly and bitcoin continues to drop. When bitcoin is going down nearly 50%, “gold’s not supposed to go to all time highs,” he said.
By Krysta Escobar
February 15, 2026
