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Bitcoin, Ethereum continue plunge — and experts warn of more pain to come – DL News

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Bitcoin, Ethereum continue plunge — and experts warn of more pain to come – DL News

  • Bitcoin and Ethereum plunged further on Tuesday.
  • The two biggest digital coins are now well below their all-time highs.
  • Experts have signalled that the crypto market could continue to drop.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies have continued their plunge — and experts have warned that more pain could follow.

The leading digital coin by market value dropped as low as $73,112 on Tuesday but has since recovered slightly. Over a seven-day period, the asset has dipped by nearly 16% and is now more than 40% below its October all-time high of $126,080.

Bitcoin is down year-to-date. Source: CoinGecko.

Ethereum has been hit harder: the second biggest digital asset has dropped 26% over the past week to $2,184 — well below the $4,946 record it hit last year.

Experts have since said that more pain could follow — traders could begin selling en masse again if they see Bitcoin touch even lower prices.

‘Very bearish’ signals

Bitcoin is now trading significantly below the level it did when pro-crypto Donald Trump was inaugurated as US President in January 2025. And it has tested levels seen when the announced his trade war last April.

Despite hitting a record in October, a huge sell-off sparked by the biggest liquidation event in crypto history hammered Bitcoin, and it has struggled to recover since.

Bitcoin could drop further if it struggles to trade above $74,500, Matt Howells-Barby, Kraken’s vice president of growth, told DL News.

“Holding [levels between $77,000 to $79,000] will be really important in the short term, as a retest to these lows will be a very bearish signal for the market,” he said.

He added that Bitcoin dropping below the 2021 record of $69,000 would be very painful, with the leading cryptocurrency possibly plunging to $54,000.

Galaxy Digital’s Head of Firmwide Research, Alex Thorn, also said in a Monday note that Bitcoin could trade as low as $56,000 to $58,000 over “the coming weeks and months.”

Positive signs

Still, pain could be short-lived, according to some. Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan wrote Tuesday that retail had been in a “full-blown crypto winter” since January 2025 but institutional investment “papered over that truth” — especially the explosion of digital asset treasuries. He added that he expects price recovery to happen soon.

Kaiko research analyst Laurens Fraussen told DL News that while he expected a bear market to continue for another six to nine months, it wouldn’t be as bad as previous drawdowns due to positive regulatory developments. Bitcoin in previous bear markets has plunged 80% below its record highs.

And in a note shared with DL News, blockchain research firm CryptoQuant said that paying attention to exchange flows was key during market stress.

“In the current turmoil, however, on-chain data show stable reserves and contained netflows,” the note read.

Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.

Crypto’s wealthy investors and industry leaders see IPO hype waning in 2026

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Crypto’s wealthy investors and industry leaders see IPO hype waning in 2026

The hype around cryptocurrency companies going public is waning because markets are still viewed as insufficiently large for the traditional finance (TradFi) firms that are taking an increased interest in the industry.

Fewer investors feel as confident as they did last year, according to a report from the influential CfC St. Moritz, Switzerland crypto conference, which recorded the outlook and predictions of 242 respondents at the event.

After a record 2025 that saw 11 IPOs raise $14.6 billion, “sentiment points to waning IPO intensity and rising consolidation risk,” the report said. Liquidity shortages are seen as the biggest threat, according to the report.

Of 242 respondents, 107 believe “TradFi is taking over” crypto, up more than 50% year over year.

Attendees, however, noted an improvement in crypto regulation in the U.S. and UAE. The U.S. jumped from last to second place in regulatory favorability within a year, reflecting rising confidence, and the UAE remains the top jurisdiction.

“The CfC St. Moritz Report captures the thinking of some of the most influential decision-makers in digital assets,” said Nicolo Stöhr, CEO of the CfC St. Moritz. “Their responses point to a clear shift in priorities, from hype to infrastructure, liquidity, and regulatory credibility, as well as a rapidly changing view of the U.S. market. This is informed capital speaking, and it reflects where the industry is truly heading.”

Base Fixes Transaction Delays After Config Error, Maintains L2 Lead

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Base Fixes Transaction Delays After Config Error, Maintains L2 Lead

Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network Base said recent slow or missing transactions were caused by a configuration error that has been fixed.

Over the weekend, Base users experienced elevated transaction drops and delays in getting transactions included onchain. Despite the slowdown, blocks continued to be produced and the network remained operational, suggesting that the incident didn’t cause a full outage.

In a Wednesday post on X, Base explained that a change to transaction propagation led the block builder to repeatedly fetch transactions that could not be executed as base fees climbed quickly.

“We mitigated the issue by rolling back the change and have validated that network stability has been restored,” it said.

Related: Base’s creator coin experiment meets resistance after Nick Shirley launch

Base plans upgrade to prevent future delays

The team also announced that they are now working on longer-term fixes to prevent similar disruptions.

Planned improvements include streamlining the transaction pipeline, reducing unnecessary overhead, tuning how the mempool queue handles pending transactions and strengthening monitoring during infrastructure rollouts. The work is expected to take about a month.

Base has emerged as the leader among Ethereum layer-2 networks by total value locked (TVL). It held about $4.2 billion in TVL, accounting for 47.6% of Ethereum L2 share on Wednesday, according to data from DefiLlama.

Base becomes dominant L2. Source: DefiLlama

Arbitrum (ARB) now controls 27% of the layer-2 market, ranking it a distant second behind Base, while all other networks remain limited to single-digit shares.

Related: Crypto Biz: Exchanges place their bets on prediction markets

Base emerges central to Coinbase’s super-app strategy

As Cointelegraph reported, Coinbase is doubling down on stablecoins and its Base network as it expands beyond crypto trading and builds toward an “everything exchange,” which combines crypto trading with stocks, prediction markets and other financial products.