Bitcoin Drops Below $70K; Ether Falls Under $2,000
Bitcoin dropped below $70,000 for the first time since early April as ether slipped under $2,000 after spot bitcoin ETFs were approved and spot ether ETFs launched.
Bitcoin fell below $70,000 on recent trading, its weakest level since early April, while ether declined under $2,000. The moves followed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds on Jan. 10, 2024, and the launch of several spot ether ETFs on July 23, 2024.
Market data show bitcoin is down about 24% year-to-date and ether is down about 37% year-to-date. Relative to their recent peaks, bitcoin is trading about 47% below its October 2025 record close, and ether is about 62% below its August 2025 high.
The approved spot bitcoin ETFs included products from issuers such as Grayscale, iShares, Fidelity, ARK 21Shares, Bitwise and CoinShares Valkyrie. Spot ether ETFs that began trading came from issuers including Grayscale, Franklin, Bitwise, iShares and Fidelity.
An index tracking bitcoin, ether and XRP uses a logarithmic scale to compare percentage changes since Nov. 9, 2017. The scale is intended to show relative long-term price moves across assets with different price levels. Over the period covered by the index, each token has led performance at various times; at the time of writing, bitcoin ranks highest on that indexed measure.
Trading records show notable swings in prices as ETF products became available, and the latest declines reduced the year-to-date gains previously recorded for both tokens. The data presented reflect market prices and ETF launch dates; they do not assign causation between product launches and price changes.
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