Bitcoin ‘death cross’ worries investors as crypto prices keep struggling to gain ground. Here’s what that means

Is Bitcoin biting the dust?

The world’s most popular cryptocurrency (BTC) has seen its value drop significantly from highs earlier this year as it has struggled to shake off a price decline that began in early October.

As of Monday morning, the price of one BTC was around $94,000, which is down almost 8% over the past five days and down 14% over the past month.

Notably, the token is now roughly flat since the beginning of the year—meaning it’s given back all of the value it gained earlier in 2025, having topped out at slightly more than $124,000 in October.

The downturn started in early October, and since then, Bitcoin is down roughly 32%, putting it firmly in bear market territory.

Other cryptocurrencies are following suit. The CoinDesk 20, a crypto market index, is down around 16% over the past week, roughly matching Bitcoin’s decline.

The selloff, it appears, is being driven by investors, including institutional investors, who are cashing out, combined with weak sentiment and broader economic concerns. 

“The selloff is a confluence of profit-taking by LTHs, institutional outflows, macro uncertainty, and leveraged longs getting wiped out,” Jake Kennis, senior research analyst at Nansen, told CoinDesk. “What is clear is that the market has temporarily chosen a downward direction after a long period of consolidation/ranging.”

Bitcoin’s “death cross”

While values are down, something else is catching the attention of traders as they watch the falling charts: Bitcoin experienced a dreaded “death cross” on Sunday, further fueling the market’s fears of a prolonged downturn.

A death cross is a market signal used by traders who conduct technical analyses (in other words, they scour charts for indicators and signals). It occurs when an asset’s short-term price momentum or moving average falls below its longer-term trends or moving average.

Plotted on a chart, the asset’s price—Bitcoin being the asset here—appears to cross. In this case, the cross occurred at the $94,000 mark, as Bitcoin had previously eclipsed that price back in March. 

The fear is that the “death cross” could signal that Bitcoin is in for a broader collapse—hence the death portion of the cross. But it’s important to note that such a decline is not a given, and Bitcoin could still rebound.

Benjamin Cowen, a crypto market analyst and data scientist who founded Into the Cryptoverse, posted on X Sunday that “prior death crosses market local lows in the market,” and that “the time for Bitcoin to bounce if the cycle is not over would be starting within the next week.”

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