Painful milestones: 10 worst Bitcoin plunges in history

Every investor knows the euphoria of a bull run, but true resilience is forged in the bear markets. With Bitcoin grappling at $70K — 44% below its all-time high — we’re in the throes of another severe test.

This plunge is caught in a broader flight from risk, mirroring sharp declines in AI and tech stocks. Yet however messy it feels, it is not the first time BTC has nosedived. From exchange implosions to global regulatory crackdowns, each crash has written a crucial chapter.

Let’s walk through the ten moments that most severely tested believers and defined Bitcoin’s capacity to endure.

1. Mt. Gox era: 99.9% drop (June 2011) & DDoS domino effect (April 2013)

Imagine watching an asset’s value evaporate to nearly zero in hours. In Bitcoin’s early days, the Mt. Gox exchange was the heart of trading. A silent hack in June 2011 went unnoticed for days, allowing a thief to steal an unimaginable hoard of coins.

When they began dumping them, the result was cataclysmic: Bitcoin’s price fell from over $32 to a single penny — a 99.9% drop. This was a direct hit to the very idea of cryptographic security.

The coins stolen, worth about $460,000 then, would be valued at nearly $100 billion today, a haunting reminder of the stakes.

Mt. Gox stumbles again

Just as the market was healing, Mt. Gox buckled under a new strain of attack. This time, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) assaults flooded the exchange, freezing trades and sparking chaos.

The hackers’ playbook was cynical and effective: manipulate the price upward, trigger a sell-off, freeze the platform to induce panic, then buy the dip at rock-bottom prices.

Executed over days, this strategy carved a 43% hole in Bitcoin’s value, dropping it from $265 to $150. It revealed how fragile centralized points of failure could be weaponized against the entire market.

2. First regulatory gut punch: China steps in (December 2013)

After a breathtaking 89x run in 2013, Bitcoin briefly touched $1,200. The celebration was cut short when China’s central bank issued a stark decree, barring financial institutions from handling Bitcoin transactions and dismissing it as a mere “virtual commodity.”

Combined with vocal skepticism from traditional finance figures, the news sliced the price in half, back below $600. It was the market’s first major lesson in the power of state-level intervention.

3. Ground shifts: China exits the stage (September 2017)

Years later, rumors became reality as China moved to shutter its domestic crypto exchanges, following a ban on initial coin offerings. The confirmation from major platforms like Huobi and OKCoin sent a 25% shockwave through the market.

The platforms were ordered by shut down operations by midnight local time on 15 September. In a brutal sell-off, BTC shed roughly 25% over just two days — falling from $4,400 to $3,300.

This exodus marked a pivotal geographic shift, scattering trading volume and liquidity from Beijing to hubs like Seoul and Tokyo. It was a painful but necessary evolution toward a more globally distributed market.

4. Irony of legitimacy: Futures unleash a bear (December 2017)

The launch of Bitcoin futures on iconic Chicago exchanges was hailed as a milestone for legitimacy. Yet, this new tool for institutional speculation coincided with Bitcoin’s thrilling climb toward $20,000.

Almost immediately after peaking, a fierce 33% correction began, pulling BTC to $11K and ushering in a brutal year-long crypto winter.

Analysts later noted the uncanny timing, suggesting that the very instruments meant to mature the market also provided the leverage to accelerate its collapse.

5. Black Thursday: Pandemic panic (March 2020)

As the world locked down, financial markets seized. Bitcoin, caught in the whirlwind, experienced a harrowing two-day drop that vaporized nearly 50% of its value. In a flash crash on March 12, 2020, it plummeted from around $8K to roughly $3,800.

The cascade of liquidations on leveraged platforms was so severe it broke trading engines, a day memorialized as “Black Thursday.” Yet, this low point became the launchpad for a historic rally, proving that in crypto, the deepest fears often birth the strongest recoveries.

6. Green & red attack: Musk and China collide (May 2021)

Bitcoin had just celebrated a new high above $64,000 when a one-two punch landed. First, Elon Musk reversed Tesla’s Bitcoin payment policy, citing energy concerns. Then, China escalated its crackdown, directly targeting Bitcoin miners.

The combined effect was “Black Wednesday,” a 30% intraday crash that erased billions in leveraged bets. It highlighted two new powerful forces: the sway of celebrity influencers and the tangible impact of mining geopolitics.

7. Credit freeze: Celsius locks the doors (June 2022)

The collapse of the Terra ecosystem was still echoing when the lending platform Celsius Network froze all customer withdrawals. This act pulled back the curtain on the risky, often opaque, world of crypto finance.

Overnight, the notion of “safe yield” evaporated, triggering a 15% Bitcoin drop (from $26,000 to below $22,000) and a crippling credit crunch. The lesson was sobering: when platforms promise unsustainable returns, it’s usually the users who ultimately pay the price.

8. House of cards: FTX implosion (November 2022)

If Celsius was a tremor, FTX was the earthquake. Whispers about the exchange’s solvency became a roar as billions fled. When rival Binance backed out of a rescue deal, confidence vanished.

On November 8, Bitcoin plummeted 17% (from about $20,500 to $16,900) in 24 hours as FTX spiraled into bankruptcy, exposing massive fraud. When FTX then halted withdrawals, it spiraled further down to $15,600. This systemic crisis of trust forced everyone to re-examine where they held their assets.

9. ETF hangover & macro blues (September 2024)

Even with the landmark approval of US spot Bitcoin ETFs, new challenges emerged. In late 2024, a combination of relentless selling from the Grayscale ETF conversion and a bleak macroeconomic outlook with high interest rates conspired to push Bitcoin down 20% from its highs.

From late August to early September, the price slid from over $64,000 to $53,000. This plunge showed that even with institutional adoption, Bitcoin doesn’t trade in a vacuum — it remains sensitive to traditional finance flows and global investor sentiment.

10. Perfect storm: Crypto’s “Black Friday” liquidation (October 2025)

On October 10, 2025, the market suffered its most violent liquidation event. In under 24 hours, a staggering $19 billion in leveraged positions vanished, wiping nearly $800 billion from the total market cap. Bitcoin tumbled roughly 10%, carving a historic $20,000 daily candlestick.

Trigger was pinned on President Trump’s post announcing 100% tariffs on China, but the sell-off had begun earlier. A whale opened massive short positions on Binance — and then, attackers manipulated a flaw in the CEX’s collateral system. They artificially devalued USDe holdings to trigger a cascade of auto-liquidations.

The aftermath echoed a familiar pattern in crypto’s life cycle: a painful, rapid purge of speculative excess. After the dust settled, Bitcoin began a significant recovery, climbing back toward $115,000.

Through line: Resilience

History suggests that Bitcoin’s crashes are as formative as its rallies. Each crisis has stemmed from a mix of external shocks, internal frailties, and sheer speculation. Yet, every single time, the network has endured, the community has learned, and the technology has advanced.

For those who stay, the pattern isn’t just one of fear and greed, but of continual adaptation and hard-won resilience. The next dip is inevitable, but so, historically, has been the recovery that follows.

Painful milestones: 10 worst Bitcoin plunges in history was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.