As Bitcoin plummeted below $90,000 for the first time since November, crypto investors watched their portfolios bleed red across the board. The flagship cryptocurrency dropped 4.4% in a single day, spiraling into an 11.2% weekly nosedive. By March 9, 2025, BTC was oscillating near $82,803 with trading volume swelling to $25.06 billion.
Seems like crypto winter came late this year.
The market meltdown wasn’t without reason. Trump administration’s potential trade tariffs spooked investors, while opaque details on economic policies left many scratching their heads.
Throw in global inflationary anxieties and disappointing Bitcoin ETF performance, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. New government restrictions on exchanges didn’t help either.
Altcoins took an even harder hit. PI network crashed a staggering 21.66%, while meme-coin darling Dogecoin led the top ten descent with a 12.8% plunge. XRP holders weren’t spared, watching their assets slip 7.9%. This pattern aligns with the historical trend where altcoins experience more volatility during market downturns.
Ethereum longs saw $88.13 million vanish in hours. Total market cap shrank from $3.31 trillion to $3.09 trillion. Ouch.
The derivatives market turned into a bloodbath with $487.20 billion liquidated. Nearly 200,000 traders got caught in the crossfire, with bullish BTC bets constituting $134 million of the carnage.
Making matters worse, Bybit suffered the largest crypto heist ever—$1.5 billion gone. Just like that.
Institutional interest has cooled considerably. Bitcoin ETF inflows dried up with net outflows of $552.5 million.
The crypto market’s correlation with traditional stocks didn’t help, as the S&P 500 shed 2.3% and Nasdaq dropped 4% over the week.
Technically speaking, Bitcoin had been consolidating between $90,000-$110,000 for three months before this bearish breakout.
Two CME gaps at $85,000 and $77,900 suggest further decline might be in the cards. Market sentiment has shifted from extreme greed to fear practically overnight.
Trump’s crypto strategic reserve announcement got lost in the noise. Despite earlier promises to establish a Strategic National Bitcoin Stockpile, not even a presidential tweet can stop this bleeding.
Exchange-held Bitcoin has dropped to a six-year low of 2.35 million coins, with many investors moving their assets to self-custody solutions amid the market turbulence.
