Bitcoin fell 23.3% from its January 20, 2025 intraday high to its February 26 low, as crypto investors confronted a gap between expectations for rapid federal support and what the Trump administration had announced by then. That price move is a historical snapshot, not a current quote, and it does not establish that Trump’s actions alone caused the decline.
How far Bitcoin fell in February 2025
Bitcoin reached an intraday high of $109,114.88 on January 20, 2025, and dropped to $83,741.94 during trading on February 26. Ars Technica calculated the decline from that high to that low at 23.3%. The price had been above $100,000 as recently as February 7 and above $96,000 on the Monday before the February 26 article was published; it was back above $84,000 when the article was written. These are dated market figures, not live prices. Ars Technica’s February 26, 2025 report gives the original snapshot.
Why some crypto investors were disappointed
After Donald Trump won the 2024 election, crypto markets rallied amid expectations of a more supportive federal approach. Bitcoin set a then-record in November and first moved above $100,000 in early December, after Trump announced his planned nomination of Paul Atkins as SEC chair. The administration also took actions viewed as favorable to the industry, including rescinding an SEC accounting rule that had made it harder for banks to hold crypto assets for clients.
By late February, however, some investors expected more direct measures: federal purchases of Bitcoin and fast-moving rules that would encourage large financial institutions to buy crypto. The January executive order did not promise either immediate open-market purchases or an immediate regulatory overhaul. It called for a working group to recommend regulatory and legislative proposals and assess whether a national digital-asset stockpile should be created.
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Market participants described a reset in expectations. Xapo Bank investment manager Gadi Chait said there had been “a recalibration of expectations regarding the Trump administration’s crypto stance.” Compound managing partner Michael Dempsey said many enthusiasts “materially overestimated [Trump’s] positive impact on the space.” These are the speakers’ assessments, not proof that policy expectations explain the whole market decline.
Sean McNulty, head of APAC derivatives at digital-asset prime brokerage FalconX, said that “90 percent” of what the market wanted had arrived in executive orders but was mostly priced in; he added that anything short of a stockpile plan that immediately started buying Bitcoin would disappoint. That was one market participant’s interpretation of investor positioning, not a measurement of how all crypto investors felt.
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What the January 23 order actually did
The January 23, 2025 order, “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology,” created a President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets. It directed the group to recommend regulatory and legislative proposals and, among other tasks, to evaluate the potential creation and maintenance of a national digital-asset stockpile and propose criteria for one.
The order said a stockpile could potentially be derived from cryptocurrency lawfully seized by the federal government. It also directed agencies to identify digital-asset rules and guidance for possible rescission or modification. The crucial distinction is that this was an instruction to evaluate and recommend—not an order to establish a Bitcoin reserve or begin buying Bitcoin on the open market.
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What changed with the March 6 reserve order
On March 6, 2025, a later order established the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a separate U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile. Its chronology matters: this was a development after the February 26 market report, not a policy investors had already received by that article’s publication date.
The March 6 order provided that the reserve would be capitalized with Bitcoin held by the Treasury that had been finally forfeited through criminal or civil proceedings or certain civil penalties, subject to statutory exceptions. It directed Treasury and Commerce to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional government Bitcoin, with no incremental taxpayer costs. For non-Bitcoin assets, the order said the government would not acquire additional stockpile assets without further executive or legislative action, apart from assets obtained through specified forfeiture or penalty processes.
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That later reserve was a concrete policy step, but it should not be mistaken for the immediate, direct federal buying some investors had wanted in February. The order’s stated basis and acquisition conditions differ from an unrestricted purchase program.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.The decline was part of a broader crypto downturn
Bitcoin’s drop occurred alongside weakness elsewhere in crypto. Ars Technica relayed a Financial Times estimate that more than $800 billion in nominal value had been wiped from global crypto markets in recent weeks. The report also described pressure from the fading memecoin boom and concerns after a reported $1.5 billion Ethereum theft. It said Ethereum had fallen 23% and Solana 42% over the preceding month. Those estimates and percentage changes are figures attributed in the February 26 article and its cited reporting, not independent calculations or current market data.
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The timing of a price drop and a political announcement can help explain market sentiment, but it cannot by itself establish cause. The February figures show a sharp decline during a period when expectations and policy statements diverged; they do not isolate Trump’s actions from other market pressures or prove that one announcement triggered the move.
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