BTC Price Halves Since October; Miners Unplug Rigs; Strategy Says Price Needs to Fall to $8K Before Balance Sheet Issues

Bitcoin (BTC) Prices tested the $60,000 levels on Thursday, losing more than 50% from its $124,000 peak in October 2025. An estimated $2 trillion was wiped off cryptocurrency markets as investors engaged in panic-selling.

Many are speculating that this is the end of Bitcoin, a sentiment that gained momentum after famed investor Michael Burry said he does not see any reason why the digital asset won't decline further.

Free-falling BTC prices have triggered a massive sell-off across the crypto ecosystem and are driving significant value destruction. Analysts believe a slump in inflows, poor liquidity, and declining macro appeal are driving the bitcoin slump, dragging down all other major cryptocurrencies along with it.

Burry had said earlier this week that further double-digit declines in BTC could place the balance sheet of Michael Saylor's Strategy in the red. Strategy is the biggest corporate holder of Bitcoin. Burry even warned that Bitcoin miners could be pushed towards bankruptcy.

However, Strategy CEO Phong Le said during its Q4 investor conference that the company's balance sheet remains resilient despite the crypto crash, and Bitcoin prices would need to fall to $8,000 and remain at that level for five to six years before posing a real threat to servicing its convertible debt.

'In the extreme downside, if we were to have a 90% decline in bitcoin price, and the price was $8,000, that is the point at which our bitcoin reserve equals our net debt, and we will not be able to then pay off our convertibles using our Bitcoin reserve, and we'd either look at restructuring, issuing additional equity, issuing additional debt,' Le explained.

Burry's Prediction for Bitcoin Miners is Dangerously Close to Coming True

Burry predicted days ago that if the BTC price continues its downtrend, it could push Bitcoin miners towards bankruptcy. Bitcoin miners are unplugging crypto mining rigs amid the price crash and higher power costs.

A closely watched metric of Bitcoin mining revenue tanked to a record low as major mining firms power down. The hash price index, which indicates the mining revenue value per unit of computing power, fell to $0.03 for each terahash, according to data from Luxor Technology. The index was at $3.50 in 2017.

'The decrease is historic, the largest since the China ban, said Harry Sudock, chief business officer at CleanSpar. 'It is due to the combination of both the sell-off and winter storms.'

In a surprising move, JPMorgan shared a contrarian view on Bitcoin, stating that the token's attractiveness relative to gold has improved after gold's recent rally and increased volatility. The major bank explained that shifting volatility dynamics and a widening performance gap are making Bitcoin increasingly lucrative for long-term investors.

JPMorgan added that although Bitcoin has struggled in 2026, liquidation activity in cryptocurrency markets remains modest, and selling pressure was relatively contained compared with prior downturns.

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