Bitcoin Stalls Near $109K after Brutal Wipeout — so Much for “Digital Gold”

The original story by Suvashree Ghosh for Bloomberg.

After a week-long rout that vaporized hundreds of billions from crypto, Bitcoin’s safe-haven aura is looking pretty scuffed. The world’s biggest token steadied Friday morning in Singapore, hovering around $109,000, after tumbling in step with global stocks and credit — not exactly what you want from a supposed crisis hedge.

It’s been a whiplash month. Bitcoin set a record at $126,251 on Oct. 6, then a wave of forced liquidations — triggered as US-China trade tensions flared — slammed most major coins. The rebound since? Tepid.

Meanwhile, the industry’s biggest names are leaning hard into TradFi. Kraken, Circle, BitGo, and Ripple are chasing trust charters, payment rails, and card products.

“What’s striking is the timing of the crash coinciding with major players pursuing banking licenses,” said Rachael Lucas at BTC Markets.

The shift toward regulated infrastructure “signals a strategic hedge against volatility, aiming to build legitimacy,” she added.

Macro isn’t helping. Trade sparring between Washington and Beijing is rattling risk assets across the board. Fresh credit scares — including the collapses of First Brands Group and Tricolor Holdings, plus fraud-linked write-downs at Zions and Western Alliance that erased over $100 billion in US bank market value in a day — have investors on edge.

With classic havens punching higher (gold and silver keep posting records), Bitcoin’s underperformance sticks out. It fell 6.3% in the week to Oct. 12 — the worst stretch since early March — and hasn’t meaningfully bounced.

“More than anything, I think crypto is acting like a canary in the coal mine suggesting the market is on edge because of emerging credit worries,” said Bitwise CIO Matthew Hougan.

Technically, traders are eyeing $107,000 as make-or-break support. A clean break below there, Lucas warns, opens the door to deeper downside. For now, “digital gold” is acting a lot more like just another risk asset.