What to do when Bitcoin crashes
50% or 80%.
Bitcoin has crashed more than 50% at least six times in its history. Each earlier time, the next cycle set a new high. Here's the specific checklist for what to do, and what not to do, during the next crash.
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The checklist is short: don't sell. Keep DCADollar-cost averaging (DCA)Investing a fixed amount on a regular schedule, such as $50 every payday, regardless of price. It spreads out when money enters the market and buys more units when prices are low, but it does not guarantee a better price than investing all at once, a profit or protection against loss.Full definition-ing if you can. Check that your position size was correct before the crash. Read the bear cases. Wait.
Historical context
Bitcoin has crashed more than 50% from its peak daily close verify×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: Bitcoin has had at least four cycles with 70%+ drawdowns.Verify at: CoinGecko BTC historical ↗ · Bitcoin Price History (internal) Source 1 in the list below2011, 2013-15, 2017-18, 2021-22.:
- 2011: $29 → $2.11 (~93%)
- 2013-2015: $1,135 → $176 (~85%)
- 2017-2018: $19,641 → $3,185 (~84%)
- 2021-2022: $67,542 → $15,758 (~77%)
- 2025-2026: $124,824 → $58,525 (~53%)
After each of the first four crashes, Bitcoin eventually set a new all-time high. That's not a promise about what happens next. It's the historical record.
Show the data as a table
| Date | Close ($) | All-time high close to date ($) | Drawdown (%) | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-12-09 | 0.2 | 0.401 | -50.12 | Cycle low: -50.1% from the 2010-11-06 high |
| 2011-11-18 | 2.11 | 29.03 | -92.75 | Cycle low: -92.7% from the 2011-06-08 high |
| 2013-07-06 | 66.34 | 230.68 | -71.24 | Cycle low: -71.2% from the 2013-04-09 high |
| 2015-01-14 | 175.64 | 1134.93 | -84.52 | Cycle low: -84.5% from the 2013-12-04 high |
| 2018-12-15 | 3185.07 | 19640.51 | -83.78 | Cycle low: -83.8% from the 2017-12-16 high |
| 2021-07-20 | 29766.66 | 63445.64 | -53.08 | Cycle low: -53.1% from the 2021-04-13 high |
| 2022-11-09 | 15758.29 | 67541.76 | -76.67 | Cycle low: -76.7% from the 2021-11-08 high |
| 2026-06-30 | 58525.08 | 124824.45 | -53.11 | Cycle low: -53.1% from the 2025-10-06 high |
| 2026-09-24 | 84386.58 | 124824.45 | -32.4 | Latest close |
Daily closes, charted weekly with each cycle's exact low kept, so intraday extremes such as the $32 and $2 prints of 2011 do not appear. Bitcoin has fallen 50% or more from a high 8 times since July 2010. The 7 before the current cycle all ended at a new all-time high, 0.2 to 3.2 years after the prior peak.
The people who sold at the bottom of each crash turned an unrealized loss into a realized one. The people who held, and especially those who continued DCA-ing, recovered and then some.
The checklist
What not to do
- Don't tell anyone what Bitcoin is "supposed to" do. You don't know. Nobody does. The crash is honest. The certainty people expressed before the crash was not.
- Don't take on debt to "buy the dip." Borrowed money + already volatile asset = margin call risk. The dip can get deeper than your margin. See Financial Mistakes.
- Don't swap to altcoins. "Bitcoin is crashing so I'll move to [altcoin]" is one of the most reliably bad crypto decisions. Altcoins typically crash harder than Bitcoin and recover less reliably.
- Don't watch the news about it. Financial media makes money on volatility. Crash headlines are written to generate clicks, not to inform your decision.
- Don't share your portfolio value with people who will worry about it. Their worry becomes your psychological pressure.
The longer question
If you're in a crash and reconsidering whether you should own Bitcoin at all: that's a legitimate question. The crash is giving you real information about how you feel when money is at risk.
If the answer is: this is too much emotional stress for the potential return, that's valid. Size down to something you can hold through this without it affecting your sleep or your relationships.
If the answer is: I've thought about this, I believe in the thesis, the position size was right, then the crash is noise. Wait.
The data
For every person who asks "has anyone ever held through a crash and come out ahead?" show them the specific data. Pick any 4-year period in Bitcoin history and show what happened to a DCA investor who held through the crash. Run the specific period at Bitcoin DCA Calculator.
Where to go from here
Sources
Verify badges in the text link to these sources. Figures, rates and rules change: check each source’s date before acting on it.
- CoinGecko, CoinGecko BTC historical ↩
Last updated . Not financial advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Disclosures · How pages are reviewed