Bitcoin value crashes below 90,000 dollar benchmark after record-breaking hack
25 February 2025, 15:54
Investors have fled the largest cryptocurrency in recent days, amid fresh security concerns and a perceived lack of policy action from Donald Trump.
The value of Bitcoin has slumped in recent days, falling below the 90,000 US dollar (£71,000) benchmark on Tuesday after a record-breaking billion-dollar hack last week.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency had risen to record highs of 109,000 dollars (£86,100) per Bitcoin late last year, after the industry received the backing of Donald Trump and his new US administration.
But tokens including Bitcoin and Ether, the second-largest crypto, have slumped since then, and a 1.5 billion dollar (£1.2 billion) heist from a crypto exchange last week prompted an even sharper fall.
Crypto is a type of digital money designed to be used over the internet. It does not exist physically, like dollars or pounds.
You can send and receive crypto with other people – and it is frequently traded for money on platforms called crypto exchanges.
Invented in 2008, Bitcoin is the biggest and oldest token.
Kathleen Brooks, research director at trading firm XTB, said volatility in wider financial markets may be weighing on crypto investor sentiment.
She said the fall in value is “a sign that the current environment of rising volatility is not conducive to cryptocurrency gains”.
Mr Trump has been vocal in his support for the crypto industry, and even suggested creating a bitcoin “strategic reserve” before he was inaugurated as President, saying he wanted to make the US the world’s “crypto capital”.
He and first lady Melania Trump also launched their own cryptocurrencies, $TRUMP and $MELANIA, in a signal of enthusiasm.
But a month after taking office, investors have reacted to Mr Trump’s lack of action on his promises to the industry by selling bitcoin and other cryptos.
Joel Kruger, market strategist at financial exchange LMAX, said investors are “looking for more follow-through on the administration’s policies”.
Meanwhile, the appetite for risky assets like bitcoin from traditional finance firms like banks and asset managers, which had started investing in crypto in recent months, has also “cooled”, he added, pointing to growing trade tension around the world as the reason.
Last week’s 1.5 billion dollar (£1.2 billion) theft of ether, the token which powers the Ethereum blockchain network, from the crypto exchange Bybit, has also dampened sentiment.
The Dubai-based platform, which allows users to buy and sell crypto with one another, said an attacker gained control of someone’s digital wallet containing the funds and transferred them to an unknown blockchain address.
Bybit’s chief executive Ben Zhou said at the time that the platform “is solvent even if this hack loss is not recovered, all of clients assets are 1 to 1 backed, we can cover the loss”.
Nonetheless, the news sparked a fresh selloff across the most popular crypto tokens, amid fresh fears that the industry could be vulnerable to hackers.
