BlackRock calls Bitcoin’s 50% pullback a positioning correction, not a structural break

Bitcoin shed roughly half its value between October 2025 and mid-2026, dropping from a peak of $126,000 to lows near $60,000. BlackRock’s response framed the correction as a market mechanics story, not a fundamental one: the price fell because of how people were positioned, not because Bitcoin stopped being Bitcoin. What actually caused the drop BlackRock pointed to three interlocking forces behind the decline. First, perpetual futures markets had accumulated excessive leverage, the kind that unwinds fast and ugly when sentiment turns. Second, long-term holders began rebalancing around the psychologically loaded $100,000 mark. Third, shifting expectations around Federal Reserve interest rate policy altered the macro backdrop that had supported risk assets through late 2025. A December 2025 report from the firm tied an earlier phase of the drawdown specifically to rising real yields, leverage unwinds, and a flash crash that wiped out more than 30% of futures open interest in a single event. Cooling enthusiasm around corporate digital asset treasury strategies added further selling pressure as that narrative lost momentum. The case BlackRock is still making The firm’s investment thes...