$60,000 Breakout Fails! Bitcoin Crashes in 2026, Completely Different from the First Four Times?

Same as a correction, why does Bitcoin’s 2026 crash rewrite history?

Recap of Bitcoin’s four classic major pullbacks: 2011, from $29.6 to $2.05, nearly zero; 2013, from $260 to $45, panic crash; 2017, from nearly $20,000 to $3,000, bubble burst; 2021, from $69,000 to $15,000, regulation and leverage liquidations. The declines have become progressively smaller, suggesting the market is maturing.

But the crash at the beginning of 2026 completely defies the “maturity theory.”

This time is extremely bizarre. BTC plunged over 12% in 24 hours, directly hitting the $60,000 mark, 570,000 traders were liquidated instantly, $2.665 billion vanished into thin air, wiping out all the gains since Trump’s election.

The scariest part is that all four previous crashes had “original sins”: their own bubbles, policy clampdowns, technical resets. But this time, Bitcoin itself had no issues.

What caused the plunge was a resonance of four external forces: record ETF fund outflows, unresolved stablecoin legislation, a server glitch at a Korean exchange, and the Federal Reserve’s high interest rates. The market logic has completely changed—what now dominates Bitcoin’s fate are not on-chain holders, but liquidity gates on Wall Street, regulatory expectations in Washington, and Nasdaq’s contagion panic.

This means the crypto world has entered a brutal “institutionalization era.”

The obvious consequence: Bitcoin is supported by ETFs, so its decline is manageable, but altcoins are bleeding out. High leverage has become the biggest culprit, with chain reactions of liquidations amplifying the fall infinitely. Previously, crashes were “de-retail-ization,” but now they are “de-leverage-ization.”

$60,000 has become the battleground for bulls and bears. In the short term, expect repeated oscillations and bottom-testing, challenging faith. But in the long term, institutions are collectively bullish—Standard Chartered sees $140,000, Citi sees $150,000. The core logic is: once regulation is implemented, institutional allocations open up, and Layer 2 applications become widespread, funds will rush in.

Every major dip is a stress test, but this correction feels more like a collective clearing of “old hands’” experience. Those who previously escaped tops with K-line analysis are now being liquidated precisely by macro data.

At the $60,000 threshold, do you think it’s a golden pit or a halfway point?

By the end of 2026, can Bitcoin break through $150,000? Share your bullish or bearish views in the comments!