Bitcoin has lost more than half its value from a record close six times since 2013, and the first five of those falls ended in new records after anywhere from about six months to more than three years. This study lists each one from Bitstamp's daily BTC/USD closes, September 13, 2011 to November 1, 2026: how deep it went, how long it took to reach the low and how long the climb back took. It adds the smaller 20% to 50% falls, the deepest drop inside each calendar year and a weekly view of the distance below the record. For how bitcoin works and its wider risks, start with the crypto hub.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Data window | Sep 13, 2011 to Nov 1, 2026 |
| Declines of 50% or more from a record close (complete episodes) | 5 |
| Average depth of those declines | -73.8% |
| Median days from record to low | 364 |
| Median days from low to a new record | 469 |
| Record close | $124,728 on Oct 6, 2025 |
| Latest close | $78,233 on Nov 1, 2026 |
| Latest distance below the record close | -37.3% |
Key findings
- Five completed crashes. From 2013 to 2024, bitcoin fell 50% or more from a record close five times, by 73.8% on average, and each time it later closed at a new record.
- The deepest. The worst fall was 84.9%, from $1,132.01 on December 4, 2013 to $171.41 on January 14, 2015. The 2017 to 2018 fall, 83.4%, came close.
- Time to the low. The median time from record to lowest close was 364 days, from 88 days (April to July 2013) to 406 days (December 2013 to January 2015).
- Time to recover. The climb from the low to a new record took a median of 469 days, from 91 days in 2021 to 771 days after the January 2015 low.
- Still open. The decline from the $124,728 record of October 6, 2025 reached 53.1% on June 30, 2026, and on November 1, 2026 bitcoin was still 37.3% below the record.
- A fall every year. Each calendar year from 2012 to 2025 included a drop of at least 20.1% from that year's own high, even years that ended far higher.
How is each drawdown measured?
A drawdown runs from a record close to the next close at or above it, and its depth is the lowest close in between.
| Term | Meaning in this study |
|---|---|
| Record close | A daily close above every earlier Bitstamp close since September 13, 2011 |
| Low | The lowest close between a record and its recovery |
| Decline | How far the low sits below the record, in percent |
| Record to low | Calendar days from the record close to the low |
| New record | The first later close at or above the old record |
| Low to new record | Calendar days from the low to that close |
| Status | Recovered, not yet recovered, or started from a local high below the 2011 peak |
| Smaller declines | Episodes that fell at least 20% but less than 50% |
| Deepest fall within the year | The largest drop from a high to a later low using only that year's closes, so the high resets each January |
| Weekly series | Every seventh daily close from September 13, 2011, plus the latest close, measured against the record up to that date |
All prices are Bitstamp's BTC/USD daily closes, and days are calendar days, weekends included. Each daily candle is stamped with the start of its UTC day, so a close dated June 30, 2026 is the last price before midnight UTC that night, which was 8 p.m. on June 30 in New York. Only closing prices count, so the drop to an intraday low is always somewhat deeper than the figures here.
Why the 2011 decline is marked as a local high
Bitstamp's price history begins on September 13, 2011, three months after bitcoin's June 2011 high of about $32 on earlier exchanges. The highest Bitstamp close in the series' first weeks, $6.05 on September 25, 2011, was therefore a local high, far below the true peak. The 63% fall from it to $2.24 on October 20, 2011 really happened, but it is measured from the wrong starting point: from the June high, bitcoin was down by much more.
Bitstamp's close first rose above $32 on February 28, 2013. Every decline that began before that date is labeled as starting from a local high and left out of the averages and medians in the key numbers. That covers the 2011 row in the main table and the two 2012 rows among the smaller declines.
How many times has bitcoin fallen 50% or more?
Six times from a true record close since 2013, plus once in 2011 from a local high; five of the six have recovered, and the latest has not.
| Record close | Record price | Low | Low price | Decline | Record to low | New record | Low to new record | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 25, 2011 | $6.05 | Oct 20, 2011 | $2.24 | -63.0% | 25 days | Jan 5, 2012 | 77 days | Local high, below the 2011 record |
| Apr 9, 2013 | $229.00 | Jul 6, 2013 | $66.34 | -71.0% | 88 days | Nov 5, 2013 | 122 days | Recovered after 210 days |
| Dec 4, 2013 | $1,132 | Jan 14, 2015 | $171.41 | -84.9% | 406 days | Feb 23, 2017 | 771 days | Recovered after 1,177 days |
| Dec 16, 2017 | $19,188 | Dec 15, 2018 | $3,180 | -83.4% | 364 days | Nov 30, 2020 | 716 days | Recovered after 1,080 days |
| Apr 13, 2021 | $63,564 | Jul 20, 2021 | $29,787 | -53.1% | 98 days | Oct 19, 2021 | 91 days | Recovered after 189 days |
| Nov 8, 2021 | $67,559 | Nov 21, 2022 | $15,766 | -76.7% | 378 days | Mar 4, 2024 | 469 days | Recovered after 847 days |
| Oct 6, 2025 | $124,728 | Jun 30, 2026 | $58,526 | -53.1% | 267 days | n/a | n/a | Not recovered as of Nov 1, 2026 |
The two 2013 rows show how fast the early market moved. The April 9, 2013 record of $229 gave way to a 71.0% fall by July 6, yet bitcoin set a new record on November 5, 2013 and had climbed to nearly five times the April level by December 4, when the next decline began from $1,132.01.
That December 2013 decline was the deepest in the record, 84.9% over 406 days to January 14, 2015. It spanned the failure of Mt. Gox, which the US Justice Department describes as the largest bitcoin exchange in existence in 2011. According to the department, the exchange ceased operations in 2014 after the theft of about 647,000 bitcoins, most of its customers' holdings, came to light.
The December 16, 2017 record of $19,187.78 led to an 83.4% fall to $3,179.54 on December 15, 2018, 364 days later, and bitcoin did not close above the old record until November 30, 2020.
The 2021 rows show two separate crashes in one year. The first, from April 13, 2021, went 53.1% deep in 98 days and recovered 91 days after the low, the fastest round trip of the five at 189 days. The second, from the November 8, 2021 record of $67,559, fell 76.7% to $15,766 by November 21, 2022. Along the way, TerraUSD, a so-called algorithmic stablecoin meant to hold $1, lost its peg to the dollar in May 2022, and its price and those of its sister tokens fell close to zero, according to a later SEC complaint. On November 11, 2022, 10 days before that low close, FTX and more than 100 affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as a CFTC commissioner later recounted. The stablecoin depeg history covers TerraUSD's collapse in detail.
The next record close came on March 4, 2024, about eight weeks after the SEC approved the listing of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products on January 10, 2024. The SEC chair's statement that day said the agency did not approve or endorse bitcoin and called it primarily a speculative, volatile asset. None of these events is offered here as the cause of a move; they are dated markers for reading the table.
How long did each decline take to bottom out and recover?
The five completed declines took 88 to 406 days to hit bottom and 91 to 771 days to regain the record, 189 to 1,177 days in all.
| Record close | Decline | Record to low | Low to new record | Record to record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 9, 2013 | 71.0% | 88 days | 122 days | 210 days |
| December 4, 2013 | 84.9% | 406 days | 771 days | 1,177 days |
| December 16, 2017 | 83.4% | 364 days | 716 days | 1,080 days |
| April 13, 2021 | 53.1% | 98 days | 91 days | 189 days |
| November 8, 2021 | 76.7% | 378 days | 469 days | 847 days |
| October 6, 2025 | 53.1% so far | 267 days so far | Not yet | 391 days to November 1, 2026 |
Five episodes are a thin basis for any rule, but two patterns stand out. The three falls deeper than 75% each took about a year or more to reach the low and more than 15 months to recover, while the 71.0% fall of 2013 and the 53.1% fall of April 2021 each went from record to record within seven months. And the climb back took longer than the fall in four of the five cases; April 2021 was the exception, 98 days down and 91 days back.
Worked example: The climb needed to undo each crash
The rise needed to get back to a record is the record price divided by the low price, minus 1.
- December 2013 to January 2015: $1,132.01 ÷ $171.41 = 6.60, a rise of 560.4%.
- December 2017 to December 2018: $19,187.78 ÷ $3,179.54 = 6.03, a rise of 503.5%.
- November 2021 to November 2022: $67,559 ÷ $15,766 = 4.29, a rise of 328.5%.
- October 2025 to June 2026, so far: $124,728 ÷ $58,526.17 = 2.13, a rise of 113.1%.
Even the shallowest decline in the table, 53.1%, required the price to more than double before the record was back in reach.
Where does the decline from the October 2025 record stand?
It is still open: bitcoin closed at $78,233 on November 1, 2026, 37.3% below the $124,728 record of October 6, 2025, 391 days after that record.
The low so far is $58,526.17 on June 30, 2026, 267 days after the record and 53.1% below it, the same depth as the April to July 2021 fall. Both figures are provisional. If bitcoin closes below $58,526.17 before it regains $124,728, the low, the depth and the days to the low all change, and the episode counts as recovered only when a daily close reaches the record again.
By November 1, 2026, 124 days had passed since the low. That is already longer than the 91 days of the fastest recovery and well short of the 469-day median. From the November 1 close, getting back to the record would take a rise of 59.4%, because $124,728 ÷ $78,233.25 = 1.594.
The weekly readings trace the path since the low. The gap to the record narrowed from 48.1% on August 18 to 37.0% on August 25 and to 30.9% on September 22, the smallest weekly reading since June 30, before widening to 37.3% by November 1. The Bitcoin vs S&P 500 study shows the same slump from another angle: in the year to October 28, 2026, bitcoin's maximum drawdown, measured only from prices inside that window, was 48.2%, against 9.1% for the S&P 500.
How often did bitcoin fall 20% to 50%?
Ten times between 2012 and 2025, eight of them from true records; most recovered within two months, but the two most recent took 238 and 152 days.
| Record close | Low | Decline | Record to low | New record | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 15, 2012 | Feb 18, 2012 | -40.8% | 34 days | Jul 12, 2012 | Local high, below the 2011 record |
| Aug 16, 2012 | Aug 19, 2012 | -39.9% | 3 days | Dec 6, 2012 | Local high, below the 2011 record |
| Mar 3, 2017 | Mar 24, 2017 | -27.7% | 21 days | Apr 26, 2017 | Recovered after 54 days |
| Jun 11, 2017 | Jul 16, 2017 | -35.1% | 35 days | Aug 5, 2017 | Recovered after 55 days |
| Sep 1, 2017 | Sep 14, 2017 | -34.4% | 13 days | Oct 12, 2017 | Recovered after 41 days |
| Nov 8, 2017 | Nov 12, 2017 | -21.2% | 4 days | Nov 16, 2017 | Recovered after 8 days |
| Jan 8, 2021 | Jan 27, 2021 | -25.2% | 19 days | Feb 8, 2021 | Recovered after 31 days |
| Feb 21, 2021 | Feb 28, 2021 | -21.3% | 7 days | Mar 11, 2021 | Recovered after 18 days |
| Mar 13, 2024 | Sep 6, 2024 | -26.2% | 177 days | Nov 6, 2024 | Recovered after 238 days |
| Dec 17, 2024 | Apr 8, 2025 | -28.2% | 112 days | May 18, 2025 | Recovered after 152 days |
The year 2017 alone had four of these falls, of 21.2% to 35.1%, on the way from under $1,000 at the start of the year to the December record, and each was erased within 55 days of the high it started from. The 2024 declines were slower: 26.2% over the 177 days from March 13 to September 6, 2024, and 28.2% over the 112 days from December 17, 2024 to April 8, 2025. The two 2012 rows began from local highs below the 2011 peak and are marked that way.
Investor.gov, the SEC's site for individual investors, says a bear market generally occurs when a broad market index falls 20% or more over at least two months. Several of the declines in this table crossed 20% in days rather than months: the 21.2% fall of November 2017 reached its low in 4 days and was erased in 8.
How much did bitcoin fall within each calendar year?
At least 20.1% in every full year from 2012 to 2025; the deepest fall inside a single year was 81.5% in 2018, and the mildest was 20.1% in 2023.
| Year | Prior year-end close | Year-end close | Change | Deepest fall within the year | Date of the low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | $4.58 | $13.24 | 189.1% | -40.8% | Feb 18, 2012 |
| 2013 | $13.24 | $732.00 | 5428.7% | -71.0% | Jul 6, 2013 |
| 2014 | $732.00 | $321.00 | -56.1% | -66.2% | Dec 30, 2014 |
| 2015 | $321.00 | $430.89 | 34.2% | -45.7% | Jan 14, 2015 |
| 2016 | $430.89 | $966.30 | 124.3% | -29.6% | Aug 2, 2016 |
| 2017 | $966.30 | $13,880 | 1336.4% | -35.1% | Jul 16, 2017 |
| 2018 | $13,880 | $3,693 | -73.4% | -81.5% | Dec 15, 2018 |
| 2019 | $3,693 | $7,168 | 94.1% | -48.8% | Dec 17, 2019 |
| 2020 | $7,168 | $28,993 | 304.5% | -53.3% | Mar 12, 2020 |
| 2021 | $28,993 | $46,214 | 59.4% | -53.1% | Jul 20, 2021 |
| 2022 | $46,214 | $16,528 | -64.2% | -67.0% | Nov 21, 2022 |
| 2023 | $16,528 | $42,258 | 155.7% | -20.1% | Sep 11, 2023 |
| 2024 | $42,258 | $93,381 | 121.0% | -26.2% | Sep 6, 2024 |
| 2025 | $93,381 | $87,496 | -6.3% | -32.1% | Nov 22, 2025 |
| 2026 (to Nov 1, 2026) | $87,496 | $78,233 | -10.6% | -39.6% | Jun 30, 2026 |
This table resets the high every January, so it shows what someone watching only that year's prices would have seen, not the distance from the all-time record. That is why the 2018 figure, 81.5%, is smaller than the 83.4% decline from the December 2017 record: 2018's own highest close was below that record.
Big gains and big falls often shared a year. Bitcoin rose 5,428.7% in 2013 but fell 71.0% inside it. In 2020 it ended up 304.5% after a 53.3% fall to March 12, three days before the Federal Reserve cut its target range to 0 to 1/4 percent, citing the coronavirus outbreak. In 2021 it gained 59.4% despite a 53.1% fall to July 20. In the down years of 2014, 2018 and 2022, the low came late in the year, on December 30, December 15 and November 21, and the year ended 56.1%, 73.4% and 64.2% lower.
In 2025 the price ended 6.3% lower after a 32.1% fall to November 22. In 2026 through November 1 it was down 10.6% for the year, with a 39.6% fall to June 30; the Bitcoin vs S&P 500 study's figure of 7.1% for 2026 runs only to October 28.
How far below its record has bitcoin traded week by week?
Its deepest weekly readings were 81.4% below the record in January 2015 and 82.5% in December 2018; on November 1, 2026, the gap was 37.3%.
Each point is one daily close, taken every seventh day from September 13, 2011, plus the latest close, measured against the highest close up to that date. A reading of 0% marks a new record. Sampling once a week usually misses the exact day of a low, so the valleys are a little shallower than the daily figures: the 2013 to 2015 decline bottoms at 81.4% on January 20, 2015 in this series, against 84.9% on January 14 in the daily data, and the 2018 trough shows as 82.5% rather than 83.4%.
The chart also shows how suddenly some crashes struck. On April 16, 2013, a week after the April 9 record, the weekly reading was already 70.3% below it, close to the 71.0% low that the daily data put on July 6.
Before February 28, 2013, readings are measured from Bitstamp's own highs, not from the June 2011 peak on earlier exchanges, so the chart's first 18 months or so understate how far below the true record bitcoin traded. The deepest reading in that stretch, 58.7% on November 15, 2011, would be larger measured from the June 2011 high.
What can daily closing prices miss?
They miss intraday extremes, prices on other exchanges and everything before September 13, 2011, and five completed crashes are too few for firm averages.
- Intraday lows. A close is one price a day, so intraday lows were deeper than these figures, and intraday peaks were higher than the record closes.
- One exchange. Bitstamp's prices differ slightly from other exchanges', and each source ends its day at a different hour. The bitcoin halving guide, built on Coinbase closes, puts the December 16, 2017 peak at $19,650.01 against $19,187.78 here and the fall that followed at 83.8% rather than 83.4%, and the guide to what bitcoin is dates the 2025 peak to October 5.
- The 2011 gap. Bitstamp's series starts after the June 2011 high of about $32, so declines from 2011 and 2012 are measured from local highs and kept out of the key numbers.
- A small sample. With five completed episodes, a single new one could move the averages and medians a long way.
- Survivorship. Bitcoin is the asset that kept recovering. Other crypto assets have fallen close to zero, as TerraUSD and its sister tokens did in May 2022, so this record says nothing about crypto in general.
- Thresholds are choices. The 50% and 20% cutoffs and the record-close definition are conventions; a 30% cutoff, for example, would produce a different list.
- Price only, in dollars. No fees or taxes are deducted, and anyone buying in another currency also gains or loses on the exchange rate.
What does this record mean for someone who holds bitcoin?
It shows that falls of more than half have recurred, not that the next one will end the same way: past performance never predicts future results.
Three of the six declines from a true record went past 75% and took about a year or more to hit bottom, and even the shallowest, 53.1%, more than halved the value of a holding bought at the peak. Whether money could stay put through that, without being needed for something else, is a personal question that the data cannot answer.
Worked example: A $5,000 holding through the 2017 to 2018 decline
Someone holding $5,000 of bitcoin at the December 16, 2017 record close of $19,187.78 owned 5,000 ÷ 19,187.78 = 0.2606 BTC.
- At the December 15, 2018 low of $3,179.54: 0.2606 × $3,179.54 = $828.59.
- At the first close back at or above the record, on November 30, 2020, 1,080 days after it was set: at least $5,000 again, before fees.
The guide to how much crypto to hold in a portfolio walks through the trade-offs of position size. The crypto profit calculator shows the gain or loss between any buy and sell price after fees, and the bitcoin price page has the latest price and chart. For the cycle around these crashes, see the guide to crypto market cycles.
How to cite or reuse the drawdown data
The dataset is published under CC BY 4.0: anyone may copy, chart or republish it free of charge, with credit and a link to this page.
- Get the CSV or use the download box near the top of the page. It holds the main table of declines of 50% or more; the other tables can be quoted with the same credit.
- Give the end date with any figure, for example: bitcoin was 37.3% below its record close on November 1, 2026.
- Keep the status labels, especially the local-high marking for 2011 and 2012 and the not-recovered label on the latest decline.
- Suggested credit: Source: Sonic Wallet analysis of Bitstamp BTC/USD daily closes, data through November 1, 2026.
The editorial policy explains how the site's studies are sourced, checked and corrected.