Winning the White House was supposed to transform the crypto sector, but for much of this year, it hasn’t paid off for long-term holders of leading cryptocurrencies.
Sure, Bitcoin and other top tokens hit record highs when the industry’s preferred candidate, Donald Trump, beat Kamala Harris and concluded the Biden administration’s era of close oversight and crackdowns. Yet, the prices of Bitcoin, Ether, and Ripple’s XRP have mostly sagged in 2025, save for fleeting rallies, including subsequent highs that coincided with Trump’s inauguration.
Bitcoin momentarily popped again along with the stock market on Wednesday, after the president hit pause on some tariff hikes, but the token’s latest appearance above $80,000 turned out to be temporary. In the past day, BTC slipped 3.6% to about $79,608 as of 3:54 p.m. ET. It’s fallen more than 14.8% to date in 2025 — often trailing the stock-market swings that have come to define the early days of the second Trump administration.
The second-leading token by market cap, Ether, has seen far worse. ETC fell 8.8% in the past 24 hours to around $1,523; so far this year, it’s tanked about 54.3%. XRP, meanwhile, shed 4.4% over the past day to $1.96; it’s slipped about 6.6% since January 1.
Publicly traded crypto stocks also wilted on Thursday; top U.S. crypto exchange operator Coinbase (COIN) fell 5.5%, leading corporate Bitcoin holder MicroStrategy (MSTR) sank about 9.9%, and bitcoin mining company MARA Holdings (MARA) fell 6.9%.
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