A week before year’s end, estimates for Bitcoin’s closing price ranged from $85,000 to $111,000, creating a $26,000 gap that could have pushed 2025 into either positive or deeper negative territory.
In the end, the world’s largest cryptocurrency closed the year at $87,100, 5.9% below its price in January 2025.
While this decline may seem surprising following Bitcoin’s all-time high of $126,000 in early October, the truth is that BTC losing years are quite rare. So far, Bitcoin has had only four such years, and 2025 is by far the mildest.
According to data presented by Bestwallet.com, Bitcoin’s 5.9% decline in 2025 is at least ten times smaller than the losses seen in the other three losing years since 2010.
Bitcoin price drop came early
While institutional demand through spot ETFs and corporate and government treasuries has been a major driver of Bitcoin’s recent growth, pulling it deeper into traditional financial markets, 2025 has still been a rollercoaster ride for the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency.
After ending its second-worst Q1 in a decade, dragged down by weak economic data and investor doubts, BTC made a strong comeback in the summer, reaching $112,500 in May and then soaring over $123,000 in mid-August. By early October, it set a new all-time high of just over $126,000, followed by a considerable 23% plunge in Q4.
With a trading price of $87,134 at the end of 2025, Bitcoin was far from the $200,000 bullish price targets set earlier last year, yet only 5.9% below its value on January 1. This mild decline actually made 2025 the best of Bitcoin’s only four losing years since 2010, and CoinMarketCap data backs this up.
The only times BTC posted annual declines, aside from 2025, were in 2014, 2018 and 2022, all triggered by major collapses, speculative bubbles bursting, and tighter market liquidity.
In 2014, its price plunged 63%, or eleven times more than this year, following the Mt. Gox exchange collapse, which broke market trust and triggered a long sell-off.
Four years later, in 2018, BTC declined 72%, twelve times more than this year, as the ICO bubble burst after extreme speculation during the 2017 bull run.
Four years later, in 2022, another decline: BTC fell 56% amid the collapse of Terra and FTX and aggressive interest-rate hikes, representing a loss ten times larger than this year’s decline. Interestingly, all three BTC price drops followed a four-year pattern, while the one in 2025 came a year early.
BTC dominance at 10-month low
Bitcoin’s price growth usually aligns with changes in its market dominance, but the two don’t always move in the same direction.
During bull runs, money typically flows into Bitcoin first, which in turn lifts both its price and market share. However, periods of price weakness can change that dynamic.
As CoinMarketCap data shows, with Bitcoin’s price falling 19% in Q4, investors shifted toward Ethereum and altcoins, pushing BTC market dominance to a 10-month low.
After reaching over 64% in July, BTC market dominance stood at 59% in late December, the lowest level since February. On the other hand, Ethereum market dominance rose from 9.2% to 12.1% in this period, while altcoins accounted for 28.9% of the market, up from 26.3% in July.
