Bitcoin Falls Below $60K, Faces Rare Back-to-Back Quarterly Loss
In brief
- Bitcoin dipped below $60,000, trading around $59,940 on Sunday
- Bitcoin down 7% weekly; Ether fell 9.5% as altcoins took harder losses
- Back-to-back quarterly losses are rare for BTC, occurring only twice in history
Altcoins hit harder
Bitcoin was down 0.6% over 24 hours and nearly 7% on the week, per CoinDesk data. Altcoins bore the brunt of selling pressure. Ether fell 9.5% on the week to about $1,567, while Dogecoin dropped 11.7% to $0.073 and XRP slid 8.7% to $1.04. Solana held up better at $70, off 3.5%. Hyperliquid's HYPE lost 10.6% on the week, while Tron was the most resilient, down 1.5%.
Quarterly losses stack up
Bitcoin is on track to finish the second quarter down about 12%, after a roughly 22% drop in the first. Ether has fared worse, down about 25% in the second quarter following a 29% first-quarter fall.
Two straight losing quarters to open a year is unusual for both - having only happened twice in BTC's history.
The asset's second quarter has historically been one of its stronger stretches, averaging gains over the past decade. Back-to-back red quarters to start a year break from that pattern.
Headwinds pile up
Three factors have weighed on markets. Outflows from US spot bitcoin ETFs have drained liquidity. A hawkish Federal Reserve under new Chair Kevin Warsh has kept rate expectations elevated. The U.S. dollar sits near a seven-month high, making crypto less attractive to global buyers.
Capital's also shifted elsewhere. Semiconductor and memory-chip stocks have attracted flows amid the ongoing AI boom, pulling focus from digital assets.
