Bitcoin price below $70,000: $1.3bn in liquidations

The bitcoin price fell below the $70,000 mark overnight into Friday. At around 4:50 a.m. CET on Friday morning, one bitcoin cost roughly $69,000, or €62,400, according to CoinGecko, down 6.4 percent in 24 hours. The largest cryptocurrency last traded this low in August. The slide was driven mainly by forced selling of leveraged positions, accompanied by reports of a new military escalation in the Middle East and persistent outflows from US bitcoin ETFs.

For investors, three practical questions now arise: whether they are in the market with leverage, whether their coins are held in the right place and how a loss affects their tax records. This article puts the overnight figures into context and sets out the price levels that will decide the coming days.

Bitcoin below $70,000: the lowest level since August

Bitcoin last traded below $70,000 in late summer. The US trade publication CoinDesk names August 19 as the last day with a lower price, while the Russian news agency TASS, using data from the exchange Binance, points to August 20. The two dates differ by a day because the sources measured at different times.

The decline did not come out of nowhere. Seven days ago bitcoin was still trading at a little over $75,800, according to CoinGecko daily data, and 30 days ago at around $81,600. Since mid-October the cryptocurrency has therefore lost a good 15 percent. It now stands about 45 percent below its record high of around $126,000 from October 2025.