Reversals of fortune are nothing new for Bitcoin diehards — euphoric rallies, then brutal selloffs. They happen every few years, or whenever sentiment snaps.

None of those previous episodes, though, have prepared traders for the speed and scale of the past few weeks, in a reversal that was sharper than expected even if it lacked the systemic stress of prior crashes.

Friday’s drop sent Bitcoin to a low near $80,500, putting it on track for its worst month since Terra’s $60 billion collapse in 2022 set off the bankruptcies that ended in FTX. Altogether, some half a trillion dollars in Bitcoin value has been wiped out. And that’s before tallying the carnage across the altcoin complex.

Bitcoin is still comfortably up since President Donald Trump’s November victory, but much of the heady run

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