In the cryptocurrency market, 2025 was supposed to be the year of Bitcoin (BTC 0.08%). But Bitcoin recently dipped below the all-important $100,000 price level, marking the first time this has happened during the Trump presidency.
Investors new to crypto are understandably concerned. However, for longtime crypto investors, this is nothing new. They know exactly what to do anytime Bitcoin suddenly declines in value. You buy the dip.
Bitcoin below $100,000
So, why did Bitcoin drop below the $100,000 mark? Some think it has to do with the launch of DeepSeek, the new Chinese AI competitor to ChatGPT. According to this narrative, investors now need to revalue all risky tech assets -- and that includes Bitcoin. That's why we're seeing an across-the-board decline both in tech stocks and cryptos.
CRYPTO: BTC
Key Data Points
However, Bitcoin also fell to the $90,000 mark just two weeks earlier. The decline was attributed to macroeconomic weakness in the U.S. economy. There's an old saying: "Anytime the Fed sneezes, the market catches a cold." The new saying might well be, "Anytime the Fed sneezes, Bitcoin catches a cold." It's just an unfortunate reality -- the more that Bitcoin goes mainstream, the more susceptible it is to the macroeconomic factors that impact traditional financial assets.
And don't forget about Bitcoin's weakness immediately after the inauguration. The popular explanation was that investors didn't think the Trump team was doing enough to support Bitcoin and crypto. On Day 1 of the Trump presidency, investors were expecting a raft of new policy changes and initiatives related to Bitcoin. What they got, however, was a Trump meme coin launch.
So, you can see where I'm going with this. Nobody really knows why Bitcoin is falling or how much further it might fall. If you talk to bearish investors, they're convinced that Bitcoin might fall all the way to $75,000 before it recovers. As might be imagined, this lack of clarity over Bitcoin's near-term trajectory is causing a lot of people to lose their faith in crypto.
Bitcoin's future upside potential
But now is no time to panic. The long-term narrative around Bitcoin is not going away. The world's most popular cryptocurrency clearly has the support of the Trump White House. It has the growing support of billionaire hedge fund managers, who increasingly view Bitcoin as "digital gold" and a hedge against economic uncertainty. And Bitcoin now has the support of top investment firms on Wall Street, which are busy launching new investment products such as new ETFs.
Image source: Getty Images.
Keep in mind that Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock (BLK +0.13%), recently came out and said Bitcoin could go to $700,000 if institutional money managers adopt a more crypto-friendly policy. He should know since his asset management firm is among the largest in the world, with $11.5 trillion in assets under management. His firm is also the creator of a phenomenally successful spot Bitcoin ETF that has pulled in more than $60 billion from investors.
If Fink is correct, Bitcoin has the potential to 7x in value, perhaps in the next couple of years. What other asset can you think of with this much upside potential? And please don't say Nvidia (NVDA 0.87%), because this tech darling is also down big after the surprise launch of DeepSeek. In a single day, Nvidia lost $600 billion in market value.
What needs to happen next for Bitcoin?
For more than a decade, retail investors have been the driving force behind Bitcoin's rise. But now, large institutional investors are taking over, and the flow of money from these investors will far surpass anything the crypto market has ever seen. Fink, for example, thinks these large investors, some of them with tens of billions of dollars to put to work, could one day dedicate as much as 5% of their portfolios to Bitcoin.
Moreover, the U.S. now plans to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve, which would likely commit the federal government to buy 1 million Bitcoins over the next five years. Twelve U.S. states also now have plans for similar Bitcoin reserves. And some sovereign nations, including Brazil, are launching plans for Bitcoin reserves of their own.
That's a big reason why I'm buying the dip in Bitcoin. There's a new institutional era for Bitcoin on the horizon, with governments, banks, and large institutions ramping up their buying of Bitcoin. All that buying, obviously, should be good for the price of Bitcoin. So, don't let a short-term drop below the $100,000 level distract you from the long-term outlook for Bitcoin.
