Bitcoin slides toward $60K in worst day since FTX collapse

Bitcoin spent Thursday sliding with very little resistance, briefly dipping below $63,000 and dragging the rest of the crypto market with it. By late evening UTC, the world's largest cryptocurrency was nursing a fall of more than 10% on the day. That puts it on course for its sharpest single-day decline since November 2022, when the collapse of FTX ripped through the sector.

At current levels, bitcoin is down roughly half from its October peak just above $126,000. The drop has erased months of gains and pushed the price back below its previous 2021 high. Traders who assumed that level would hold are now exposed.

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.

What this means in South Africa

When bitcoin sells off hard, South African desks watch Luno and VALR order books first, thinner depth than Binance or Coinbase means local prices can gap. Rand weakness can cushion dollar losses for some holders and amplify them for others depending on when they bought. SARS still expects capital-gains tracking on disposals; panic selling into a thin local book is how retail gets the worst of both worlds.

Why liquidations matter more than headlines

When perpetual futures unwind this hard, spot price becomes a consequence rather than a cause. Forced sellers do not wait for fair value. They meet margin calls. That is why single-day percentage moves can look irrational against any long-term narrative about ETFs or institutional adoption.

For desks watching South Africa, the practical tell is basis: how far Luno and VALR trade from dollar indexes during the slide. Wide gaps usually mean local books are thin, not that the rand story suddenly changed.