Bitcoin slides toward $60K as global selloff deepens, worst day since FTX collapse

The selling has not been limited to crypto. Silver collapsed by about 15% on the day and is now nearly 40% below a record set barely a week ago. Gold fell more than 2%, a smaller move, but still enough to unsettle a market that had been leaning heavily long. US equity markets were also weaker, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each down about 1%, while software stocks continued to track bitcoin lower.

Crypto-linked shares were hit hard. Coinbase, Galaxy Digital, Strategy and BitMine all fell by more than 10%. Mining stocks including Bitfarms, CleanSpark, Hut 8 and Marathon Digital followed the same path.

Part of the explanation, according to Adrian Fritz of 21Shares, is structural rather than emotional. Liquidity is thin. When sell orders appear, there are few bids underneath them. That imbalance triggers liquidations, which push prices lower, which then trigger more liquidations. The cycle feeds on itself.

Fritz said there is still no sign that the market has found a floor. He is watching the 200-day moving average, currently sitting somewhere between $58,000 and $60,000, as the next area where buyers might appear. That zone also overlaps with bitcoin’s realised price, a rough proxy for the average cost base of holders. Whether that holds under current pressure remains uncertain.

Altcoins have fared worse. Losses of 10% to 20% were common across major tokens over 24 hours. XRP fell close to 19%, with little in the way of obvious technical support below current levels. Fritz said there was no single catalyst behind XRP’s underperformance, only the absence of buyers willing to step in.

For now, the market is trading without conviction in either direction. Sellers are active. Buyers are cautious. The idea that the worst is already over has been circulating for weeks. Thursday’s price action suggests that call may have been premature.