Bitcoin's worst month since 2022: down 47% from its highs, impacted by Trump tariffs.

Updated as of February 25, 2026.The Bitcoin February 2026 crash exceeded all negative expectations: below $63,000 on February 24th, the worst month since June 2022: -24% in February, -47% from the all-time high in October 2025. The market has been in the red for five consecutive months — the longest negative streak since 2018 — and sentiment has reached levels of “extreme fear” not seen in years.

Bitcoin February 2026: The Crash in Numbers

Since October 2025, when Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $126,100, the decline has been constant. By the end of 2025, the loss was already in the order of 30%; February accelerated the decline, with a monthly drop of 24%, a drop not seen since June 2022 — the worst period of the crypto winter triggered by the collapse of LUNA and Three Arrows Capital.In the first 50 days of 2026, Bitcoin lost 23%: the worst start to the year in the history of the cryptocurrency, since systematic price tracking began. The Fear & Greed Index fell to 8, the lowest level of “extreme fear” recorded since the post-FTX crash of 2022 — and Google searches for “Bitcoin going to zero” reached five-year highs.

The Catalyst: Trump’s 15% Tariffs

The acceleration on February 24th had a specific cause. The day before, on Saturday, February 22nd, Trump announced on Truth Social an increase in global tariffs to 15% — up from a previous 10%, which the Supreme Court had already rejected. The reaction was immediate: Bitcoin lost 5% in a few hours, dragging Ethereum down by 5% and Solana by 6.5%.This is not the first blow dealt to the crypto market by tariffs in 2026. On October 2025, the announcement of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports triggered over $19 billion in forced liquidations — the worst event of its kind ever recorded by CoinGlass. That flash crash effectively marked the beginning of the current bear market.

ETFs Fail to Provide Support: $4.5 Billion in Outflows Since January

One of the factors that was supposed to protect the market — the arrival of spot Bitcoin ETFs approved by the SEC in 2024 — turned into an amplifier of the downturn. Since the beginning of 2026, the funds have recorded net outflows of $4.5 billion, with five consecutive weeks in the red: the longest streak since February 2025. BlackRock, with its IBIT, accumulated $2.13 billion in redemptions during the period.Just on February 25th, the spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded further outflows of $200 million. Institutional capital, which entered in large numbers at the end of 2024, is exiting in an orderly fashion — not in a panic, but without buying the dips.

Comparison with June 2022

The most frequently cited comparison by analysts is June 2022, when Bitcoin lost 37% in a month during the crypto winter. At that time, there was a specific systemic event: the collapse of the algorithmic stablecoin LUNA/UST triggered a cascade — Three Arrows Capital, BlockFi, Celsius, FTX. The structure was flawed.Today, the situation is different: there are no collapsed exchanges, no depegged stablecoins, no insolvent crypto banks. The downturn is driven by macroeconomic factors — US trade policy, uncertainty about the Federal Reserve with Kevin Warsh as a potential new chairman, increasing correlation between crypto and risky tech assets. “We are certainly in a Crypto Winter,” said Danny Nelson of Bitwise. “You can tell by how investors react to good news. They don’t react.”

Gold and S&P500 Go in the Opposite Direction

The contrast with other assets is stark. Since the beginning of 2026, the S&P 500 has gained 0.4%, and the Dow Jones has gained 2.3%. Gold has risen by 17%, and silver has risen by 14%. Bitcoin, which for years has been sold as “digital gold” and a hedge against inflation, in this phase was losing its narrative: investors prefer physical metal as a hedge, while stablecoins dominate payments and markets are speculating.The only positive note on the institutional front: despite outflows from US ETFs, Intesa Sanpaolo reported $96 million in positions in spot Bitcoin ETFs, and BlackRock issued 340,000 new shares of its fund on the London Stock Exchange — signals that long-term capital has not yet withdrawn.

What to Expect

Historically, bear market cycles for Bitcoin in February 2026 and in the following months have had durations ranging from 12 to 18 months from the peak. The current peak was in October 2025, so we are about four months in. The most optimistic analysts, such as Nelson of Bitwise, remember that “the reality of Crypto is strengthening” — institutional adoption, regulatory clarity, improved infrastructure — and that the fundamentals do not justify a structural collapse.For those with open positions, risk management in periods of high volatility and the psychology of decision-making in extreme fear remain the most useful tools — along with avoiding leverage in a market where

Bitcoin’s worst month since 2022: down 47% from its highs, impacted by Trump tariffs.