Bitcoin’s early momentum in 2026 didn’t last long. After opening the year on a positive note, the asset quickly reversed course and slid sharply, falling to fresh local bottoms near $60,000 in the first half of February.
While prices managed to bounce off those lows, the recovery wasn’t strong enough to erase the damage. Bitcoin still closed the month with a sizable double-digit loss, marking its fifth straight month of declines.
February Adds to the Pain
Rewind to early October, and the current situation would have been hard to imagine. At that point, Bitcoin was surging, setting new all-time highs above $126,000, and optimism was running high as traders looked ahead to what many dubbed “Uptober.” Instead, the market took a severe turn.
On October 10, the crypto sector was hit by its largest one-day liquidation event on record, wiping out over $19 billion as prices collapsed. In the aftermath, many observers argued that the market’s internal dynamics had fundamentally changed, and not for the better.
Losses soon became the norm. By the end of the year, bitcoin had dropped back into five-digit territory and wrapped up 2025 in negative territory, a rare outcome for a year following a halving. January briefly showed promise, but a failed attempt to break above $98,000 triggered another sharp sell-off, leaving the month down just over 10%.
February delivered another blow. A steep sell-off pushed Bitcoin to its lowest price since October 2024, briefly touching $60,000. Although it recovered to the $65,000–$66,000 range by month’s end, the damage was done: a roughly 15% monthly decline and a fifth straight red close, the first streak of its kind since 2018.
Ethereum’s Slide Is Even Steeper
The situation looks even worse for Ethereum. According to data from CryptoRank, ETH has now posted losses for six consecutive months and has finished higher in only three of the past fifteen.
The first two months of 2026 were especially brutal. January saw ETH fall nearly 18%, followed by another drop of almost 20% in February. This marks its most severe losing stretch since 2018, when the asset declined for seven months in a row.
At present, ETH is struggling to hold the $2,000 level after repeatedly dipping below it throughout the past month.
