As the cryptocurrency’s multi-month downturn accelerated into freefall last week, bulls were frantically latching on to technical signals, or perhaps rumors of a breakout from some leveraged hedge funds, that could signal an eventual bottom for this bear market.
The final sign of a bottom, though, may be the cheers from those who are loyal Bitcoin bears During its 16-year life, its price rose from $0 to over $100,000.
The Financial Times has certainly been above all traditional publications in its staunch opposition to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies over the years. The London newspaper’s truly talented team of writers never seem to waver from their staunch no-coin stance, and this week is their moment.
A Sunday article by Jemima Kelly of the Financial Times, titled “Bitcoin Still High Around $69,000,” brilliantly summarizes Kelly and the Financial Times’ general stance over the past decade or so. [The FT subsequently changed the headline to “$70,000 too high” after bitcoin rose overnight].
“Since its inception, Bitcoin has been on a journey to its end, scattered across the earth,” Kelly wrote. “This week has shown us that the supply of ‘big fools’ that Bitcoin relies on is drying up,” she continued. “The fairy tale that kept cryptocurrencies alive turned out to be just that. People started waking up to the fact that there is no bottom line to the value of something that comes out of thin air.”
Earlier this week, as Bitcoin prices fell below Bitcoin finance giant Strategy’s (MSTR) average cost basis of $76,000, the Financial Times’ Craig Coben published “Strategy’s long road to no end.”
With the stock down about 80% from its all-time high in late 2024, Coburn declared in February 2026 that “management has no safe options, just different paths to destroying shareholder value… It’s hard to see a reason to buy a company that has only managed to break even over five years of investing.”
“It’s like a giant mastodon trapped in the La Brea Tar Pits,” Coburn concluded. “Strategy is finding a way out.”
Peter Schiff joins
As gold continues to be in a major bull cycle despite recent volatility, long-time gold fan and Bitcoin commentator Peter Schiff is feeling his discomfort.
“Bitcoin is the best-performing asset in the world, according to Michael Saylor,” he wrote on Tuesday. “However, Strategy has invested more than $54 billion in Bitcoin over the past five years, and the company’s investment volume is down about 3% so far. I am sure the losses will be even greater in the next five years!”
“Bitcoin, priced below $76,000, is currently worth 15 ounces of gold, down 59% from its November 2021 high,” Schiff continued. “Bitcoin is in a secular bear market priced in gold.”
Other signs
“I refuse to buy the dip,” former hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry once said. “Monkeys spend all their time picking their butts off.”
As Hendry points out, it’s probably a good idea not to be too cutesy about timing your purchases, like the headlines seen in the Financial Times this week. However, it’s fairly safe to say that some kind of bottoming out is underway.
In other news this week that will never appear near the top, investor interest in Tether appears to be fading. At the end of last year, the cryptocurrency market was still active, and there were reports that the stablecoin issuance giant was negotiating to raise US$15 to US$20 billion, with a valuation of up to US$500 billion.
However, investors appear to be resistant to that valuation, with the funding likely to be only around $5 billion, according to a Financial Times report on Tuesday.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino told the Financial Times that initial reports of $15-20 billion in financing were a “misunderstanding” and that Tether had attracted a lot of interest with its $500 billion valuation.
Still, investors are privately concerned about such a high valuation, the report said. The report goes on to say that things are fluid and a rally in cryptocurrencies could quickly change market sentiment.
