Bitcoin price news: BTC falls back to $85,200 alongside selloffs in stocks and precious me

January 29, 2026

Why is Bitcoin down today: BTC falls back to $85,200 alongside selloffs in stocks and precious metals

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Soaring to $5,600 at one point earlier on Thursday, gold quickly pulled back to below the $5,200 level in U.S. morning trade.

By Krisztian Sandor|Edited by Stephen Alpher

Updated Jan 29, 2026, 4:18 p.m. Published Jan 29, 2026, 3:39 p.m.

Bitcoin (BTC) price Jan. 29 (CoinDesk)
  • Already sitting on overnight losses, bitcoin’s decline accelerated in U.S. morning trade, with the price falling back to $85,200, a new low for 2026.
  • The quick selloff came amid a reversal in gold’s breathtaking rally, which had sent the yellow metal soaring above $5,600 at one point Thursday before quickly falling back to $5,200.
  • The Nasdaq was also sharply lower, falling 1.5%, as Microsoft declined more than 11% following its fourth-quarter earnings report.

Bitcoin BTC$88,336.23 tumbled Thursday to its weakest level since mid-December, shedding nearly $3,000 within hours as gold’s massive rally abruptly turned.

Soaring above $5,600 per ounce at one point Thursday (gold prior to Sunday night had never been above $5,000), gold in the space of a few minutes in morning U.S. trade plunged nearly 10% to back below $5,200.

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The price action in silver followed a similar path, with that metal falling from $121 per ounce to $108.

Adding fuel to the selloff was Microsoft (MSFT), whose shares collapsed more than 11% — potentially their worst day since March 2020 — after the company reported slowing growth in its cloud business. The tech giant’s stumble dragged the Nasdaq lower by around 1.5%, deepening the risk-off tone.

Crypto markets followed suit. Trading above $88,000 earlier in the session, bitcoin fell precipitously to $85,200, its lowest level in more than a month. The largest crypto was down 4.5% over the past 24 hours.

Ethereum’s ether ETH$2,961.90, Solana SOL$121.10, DOGE$0.1193 and ADA$0.3409 lost 5%-6% during the same period as altcoins were hit harder in the sell-off.

Looking at crypto stocks, the largest corporate bitcoin holder Strategy (MSTR) is down 8%, its worst day since Dec. 12, hitting 52-week lows and trading back at September 2024 levels.

Other names posting big losses include Bullish (BLSH), Twenty One Capital (XXI). Circle (CRCL) and Coinbase (COIN) — all down 4%-8%.

The S&P 500 Volatility Index has jumped more than 16% to 19, its second-highest level since the end of November, while the DXY index has rebounded to 96.6 from a Wednesday low of 95.5, also potentially putting renewed pressure on risk assets.

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Gold (Unsplash/Zlataky/Modified by CoinDesk)

Bullion ripped past $5,500 and sentiment gauges hit “extreme greed,” while bitcoin stayed pinned below $90K — a split that’s getting harder to ignore.

What to know:

  • Gold’s surge above $5,500 an ounce has taken on the feel of a crowded trade, with its notional value jumping about $1.6 trillion in a single day.
  • Sentiment gauges such as JM Bullion’s Gold Fear & Greed Index are signaling extreme bullishness in precious metals, even as similar crypto indicators remain stuck in fear.
  • Bitcoin is lagging despite the “hard assets” narrative, trading like a high-beta risk asset while investors seeking a store of value are favoring physical gold and silver over digital tokens.

 

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