Crypto crumbles as anniversary of flash crash nears

A modest early decline in bitcoin BTC$80,925.70 on Thursday has accelerated, the price falling to about a one-month low just above $80,000

Bitcoin is down 4% over the past 24 hours, and is now lower by more than 8% since nearly hitting $87,000 just four days ago. That’s masking far uglier action in the rest of the sector, with ether and XRP lower by about 6% over the past day and solana off 9%. All are down double-digit percentages over the last week.

The fast selling comes as the one-year anniversary of the October 10, 2025, flash crash nears. It was on that day when bitcoin — having notched a euphoric record above $126,000 only days earlier — tumbled from about $122,000 to $105,000 (and even lower than that on some exchanges), with much of the decline happening in a matter of minutes in thin Friday evening (U.S. time) trade.

Crypto investors have plenty of other reasons to be fearful. Among them are continued surges in the price of oil and interest rates, which potentially could siphon money away from risk assets like bitcoin. There’s also regulatory uncertainty after the failure of the Clarity Act and the upcoming midterm elections, which could change the balance of power in D.C.

Despite bitcoin’s latest sell-off and potential pain points, institutional investors appear to be growing more confident in the broad long-term outlook for digital assets. In a State Street survey of 300 asset managers, asset owners and wealth managers, published Tuesday, about 51% of respondents expect digital assets to become mainstream within the next five years, up from just 11% in 2024.

The survey also found that institutions hold an average of 11% of their portfolio in digital assets and expect that share to rise over the next three years, pointing to growing adoption even as prices fail to break out on the upside.