rewrite this title Bitcoin Has Dumped All of Its Gains Since Trump Was Reelected—And Then Some – Decrypt

Demand for Bitcoin in the wake of the 2024 reelection of President Donald Trump was dubbed part of the “Trump Trade”—a way to describe the top crypto asset’s alignment with Trump and expectations of a more crypto-friendly administration and favorable policies.

Those who tagged along, made out quite well—for a time.

But nearly two years later, crypto traders find themselves even below where they started, as Bitcoin trades at a discount to its election day marker. It recently changed hands at $60,619—about 12.6% below its closing price around $69,355 on November 5, 2024, the day ballots were cast. 

A day prior to election day, BTC closed around $67,793, according to data from CoinGecko. The next day, it soared to a new all-time high above $75,000, and analysts predicted even higher marks in the months to follow, ultimately being proven right as President Trump was inaugurated for the second time and BTC hit even higher marks around $109,000 in January. 

Insatiable demand from Bitcoin ETFs, which grew from around $37 billion in assets under management in January 2025 to more than $62 billion at its peak in 2025, helped push BTC even further throughout the first year of Trump’s second term.



The growing digital asset treasury (DAT) trend, spurred by Michael Saylor’s Strategy, also created billions of dollars in demand as publicly traded firms raced to add Bitcoin to their balance sheets. Those firms included Trump’s own Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT), which added $2 billion in BTC and Bitcoin-related securities in July, just a few months before the top crypto asset ultimately reached a high point of $126,080. 

But Bitcoin has not been able to maintain the enormous surge of momentum that carried it from November 2024 to October 2025. Just days after Bitcoin hit that October high, it fell victim to the $19 billion record-breaking liquidation spree that began a spiral for crypto markets, falling from above $121,000 to $106,000 in the process.

Bitcoin briefly rebounded, but maintained weakness as the year concluded, falling further to around $88,000 as the calendar turned. In January 2026, institutional investors fueled the weakness, pulling funds from Bitcoin ETFs that had grown steadily throughout 2025, racking up more than $1.5 billion in net outflows in January alone, according to data from Farside.

Following that, macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical risks from the Iran War began to mount in February and still linger to present day, increasing the likelihood of rate hikes—not the cuts that investors had previously expected, propelling interest in risk assets. 

Even Strategy co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, who previously told investors to “sell a kidney” before Bitcoin, relented at the end of May, parting ways with 32 BTC from his firm’s treasury for about $2.5 million. 

The move, telegraphed by Saylor but still seen as a hit to perceptions around the leading cryptocurrency, preceded an even more significant drawdown that sent BTC below $60,000 on Friday for the first time since 2024. 

Though Saylor did not comment on whether his firm played a role in the downturn, he did cite what he described as a “historical” capital rotation out of crypto and into AI—evidenced by more than $4 billion in ETF outflows in less than a month—as a key reason that BTC has fallen.

As it stands, Bitcoin sits nearly 52% down from its all-time mark as it changes hands on Saturday, leaving investors wondering about its short-term prospects—and whether Trump’s influence on the crypto market has waned.

Under Trump, who recently posted that he would “never let crypto down,” the GENIUS Act was signed into law last year, providing regulatory clarity for stablecoin adoption. But the Bitcoin reserve is moving at a “deliberate” pace, and the Clarity Act—a wider-ranging piece of crypto regulation that the industry has aggressively pushed for—still remains far from the finish line after passing a committee vote in May.