Bitcoin accelerates its slide, falling toward $90,000 to start week

Bitcoin briefly dropped below the $90,000 mark on Monday as investors continued to dump growth-oriented assets such as crypto and tech stocks.

The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was last lower by 3% at $91,827.32 to start the week, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it fell as low as $89,259.00. Bitcoin is down 9% in the past week.

Ether lost 7% Monday and the broader crypto market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 index, dropped more than 5%. Shares of Coinbase and MicroStrategy slid 4% and 3%, respectively. Mara Holdings declined 4% and Core Scientific retreated by 2%.

Crypto assets’ decline began last week after stronger-than-expected payroll numbers caused a spike in bond yields and amid concerns about President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff plans, both of which gave a boost to the dollar while pressuring bitcoin and other risk assets.

“The need for liquidity is caused by FX spikes because of strong end-of-year U.S. economy number, the stock market rallying strong, and there are other places money is needed in the short-term,” said James Davies, co-founder and CEO at crypto trading platform Crypto Valley Exchange. “If we want bitcoin to act like a currency, we need to accept when it does, and this is one of those times. The U.S. Dollar has gotten stronger and everything else including bitcoin is weaker when measured in dollars.”

Investor sentiment was optimistic coming into 2025, with markets looking forward to having a pro-crypto Congress and White House. That hope had outweighed any concern about macroeconomic-related speed bumps, until last week.

Investors are now warning that the first quarter of this year could be more turbulent for crypto than previously anticipated.

Bitcoin’s price grew 120% in 2024 but is down 3% so far in the new year.