The Obituary Archive

Bitcoin is Dead
…again.

Every cycle, the headlines write its obituary. Bitcoin has crashed up to 93% — and recovered to new all-time highs every single time. Here is the history the doomsayers keep forgetting.

Read the obituaries Start tracking free
5
Major crashes
−93%
Worst drawdown
~130×
Best rebound
100%
Recovery rate
BTC / USD
Fifteen years of “fatal” crashes
Still alive
’11−93%’15−86%’18−84%’20−50%’22−77%New all-time highs
’11
−93%
20mo
’15
−86%
48mo
’18
−84%
36mo
’20
−50%+
3mo
’22
−77%
24mo
The Death Cycles

A Timeline of Premature Burials

Five obituaries, zero funerals. Pick a cycle to read the full story.

June 2011Liquidity shock

The Mt. Gox Flash Crash

“So, that's that. Bitcoin is dead.”

$32
All-time high
−93%
Drawdown
$2.14
Bottom
20 months
To recover
Peak-to-trough−93%

The Crash

Bitcoin suffered its first severe liquidity shock when hackers compromised Mt. Gox, the dominant exchange at the time. The price plummeted from roughly $32 down to just $0.01 in minutes on the exchange, while broader market tracking settled from $31.50 down to around $2.14 over the subsequent months.

The Rebound

Because Bitcoin was completely experimental, many assumed it was dead. However, the network stabilized, and it took about 20 months for the price to fully recover and breach its previous peak.

Still here. Still climbing.

The Trend

Each bear market bites a little less

Across every macro cycle, the peak-to-trough drawdown has steadily shrunk — a signature of deeper liquidity, maturing infrastructure, and stickier institutional ownership.

−93%
2011
−86%
2015
−84%
2018
−77%
2022
The Playbook

Consistent Patterns Across Every Cycle

The Velocity of the Drop

The initial crash almost always happens fast, driven by panic and cascading liquidations of overleveraged traders. The slow grind to the absolute floor, however, is what typically breaks investor sentiment.

The Scale of Rebounds

Buying near the structural bottom of these cycles has historically yielded massive asymmetrical returns — roughly 130× from the 2015 bottom to the 2017 peak, and ~22× from the 2018 bottom to the 2021 peak.

Maturing Bottoms

With each successive cycle, the drawdown of the macro bear market has lessened (93% → 86% → 84% → 77%), pointing toward deeper liquidity and broader, stickier institutional ownership.

Don't trade the panic — track the cycle

Watch every cycle unfold from one dashboard

Track Bitcoin across 14 exchanges, set price alerts at the levels that matter, run AI analysis, and learn the market in our Academy — all in one non-custodial command hub.

Start tracking free Explore features

Historical performance and drawdown figures are approximate and provided for educational purposes only. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Nothing on this page constitutes financial, investment, or trading advice. Cryptocurrencies are volatile and you may lose your entire investment.