Bitcoin approaches five-month losing streak.It’s the top crypto’s worst performance since 2018.Multiple factors are contributing to the decline.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin is about to register its worst losing streak in more than seven years. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s because tariff troubles, artificial intelligence anxieties, regulatory holdups and more hang heavy over the top cryptocurrency\u2019s price.<\/p>\n
For four straight months, Bitcoin\u2019s price has steadily fallen from its all-time high of over $126,000 to around $65,500 \u2014 a 48% drop.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin is trading 48% below its all-time high. <\/p>\n As March approaches, Bitcoin is set to end February down another 16%, marking its fifth monthly fall in a row \u2014 a situation that has only occurred<\/a> once before between August and December in 2018.<\/p>\n Bitcoin\u2019s fall has been spurred on by several key macroeconomic factors rather than a single crypto-specific catalyst, Tony Pecore, senior vice president and director of digital asset management at Franklin Templeton, told DL News.<\/p>\n \u201cDigital assets tend to respond quickly to these shifts because they trade continuously and carry higher embedded leverage, which is why we so often look to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as a leading indicator of changes in investor risk appetite,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Rising headwinds<\/p>\n It\u2019s a stark shift from the bullishness that pervaded the crypto market for much of 2025. <\/p>\n President Donald Trump\u2019s pro-crypto policies, coupled with the passing of key stablecoin legislation in July, helped boost the crypto market to an all-time high of almost $4.4 trillion. <\/p>\n Yet in recent months, rising headwinds have put pressure on digital assets. <\/p>\n Trump\u2019s ongoing trade war is one of the primary drivers of Bitcoin\u2019s decline early this week, Carlos Guzman, vice president of research at GSR, a crypto trading firm, told DL News.<\/p>\n \u201cMarkets initially reacted positively to the US Supreme Court striking down Trump\u2019s tariffs,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the market quickly retraced after Trump threatened to impose even higher tariffs of 15% globally over the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s not all. <\/p>\n Heightened fears over the disruptive impact of AI are also spurring volatility, according to Guzman. <\/p>\n On Sunday, a report from Citrini Research, an investment research provider, warned<\/a> that the AI boom, which has helped boost markets for years, will ultimately hurt investors and crush the wider economy.<\/p>\n The report argues that if AI continues to advance, it will trigger widespread white-collar layoffs, weakening consumer spending and slowing growth.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s Bitcoin\u2019s uncertain place in the broader economic landscape.<\/p>\n While Bitcoin slid, gold gained 24% over the past five months as it benefitted<\/a> from the so-called debasement trade. This has invited fresh scepticism about Bitcoin\u2019s digital gold narrative, Fabian Dori, chief investment officer at Sygnum Bank, told DL News.<\/p>\n Crypto-specific factors<\/p>\n Those anxieties are compounded by several more crypto-specific factors.<\/p>\n As Bitcoin falls, investors are increasingly concerned that the crypto market\u2019s historical four-year cycle is repeating, Dori said.<\/p>\n The cycle refers to the recurring pattern observed in Bitcoin\u2019s and the broader crypto market\u2019s price behaviour, which aligns with Bitcoin\u2019s halving events that occur<\/a> roughly every four years. <\/p>\n Bitcoin has historically rallied to all-time highs after each halving before dropping into an extended bear market. With crypto becoming more institutionalised in recent years, many investors had hoped<\/a> that the four-year cycle would disappear. <\/p>\n Elsewhere, efforts to regulate the US crypto industry are stagnating<\/a>, creating even more uncertainty for investors, according to Dori. <\/p>\n The biggest let-down is the Clarity Act, a broad bill on crypto market structure that has stalled in the US Senate.<\/p>\n The bill was previously predicted to pass into law before the end of 2025, but has faced numerous delays since the start of the year.<\/p>\n