Total value of cryptocurrencies fell to under $200B, down from its high of $832B in January, as Bitcoin and the largest altcoins see 35%+ drops
Value of cryptocurrencies has slid 76% after exceeding $800 billion earlier this year — The cryptocurrency rout that began early this year …
Context & Ripple Effects
This September 2018 report captured the end of crypto's first full boom-bust cycle: total market value collapsed 76% from January's $832B peak to under $200B, with Bitcoin and the largest altcoins each down 35%+. At the time it was the deepest drawdown the asset class had recorded.
The coverage since then shows the pattern repeating at ever-larger scale — after bitcoin's November 2021 all-time high, roughly $2T of cryptocurrency value was erased, and CoinGecko's data on the October 2025 selloff shows another $1.2T wiped out in weeks. The 2018 rout was the template, not the exception.
First-order effects
- Holders of Bitcoin and the largest altcoins absorb 35%+ losses immediately, and aggregate crypto market value drops below $200B — less than a quarter of its January high.
Second-order effects
- Each subsequent cycle has scaled up the same drawdown: the post-2021-peak crash erased roughly $2T, about ten times the dollar value lost in this 2018 rout, showing that bigger booms produce proportionally bigger busts rather than damping them.
Third-order effects
- Across three documented cycles (2018, 2022, 2025), the crypto market has consistently given back most of its peak value — a structural signature of an asset class priced by speculation rather than cash flows, where every new high has been followed by a two-thirds-plus retrace.
The trend: Cryptocurrency market value moves in recurring boom-bust cycles in which each successive peak is larger in dollars and each bust erases most of the prior run-up.