Bitcoin wipes out the year’s gains

On 18 November 2025, bitcoin fell below 90,000 dollars, for the first time since April. With that drop, from the October high, the gains accumulated so far in 2025 evaporated. Only weeks earlier the asset had hit a peak; now it was giving back the whole advance of the year, a path that shows clearly how fast things can change in this market. With the price at those levels, it is easy to forget that only a few months earlier enthusiasm was the dominant mood.

For someone holding a position in crypto-assets, watching a year’s gains disappear in weeks is a hard experience. For someone looking on from outside, it is a demonstration of the volatility of this kind of asset. And for someone working in mining, it is a sign that the business’s margins depend on something it does not control: the price of what it produces. Each of these situations calls, for different reasons, for talking about risk calmly.

A fall that erases the year

The fall below 90,000 dollars, after the October high, was enough to wipe out the year’s gains: a reminder of how fast a whole year of rises can reverse.

Sharp falls have a psychological effect as well as a financial one. After an all-time high, many participants are tempted to buy, and when the price falls, the temptation reverses and the urge to sell appears. That sequence, repeated many times, explains part of the market’s volatility and tends to hurt whoever acts on emotion. A simple rule is to decide the conditions for entry and exit when the market is calm and to respect them afterwards.

Volatility in both directions

Volatility is part of the asset, in both directions. The same mechanisms that drive rapid rises, such as enthusiasm and leverage, feed rapid falls, and that is why any decision on this kind of asset should be taken on the assumption that both scenarios are possible.

One way to think about risk is to ask what would happen to one’s wealth if the value of that position fell by half or more. If the answer is that life plans would be compromised, the position is too large for the personal situation. It is not a recommendation to buy or sell, but a criterion of proportion. That criterion also works for any other asset with very erratic behaviour.

For mining

For mining, price cycles demand operating with low energy costs and sufficient reserves to get through the falls. An activity whose income depends on the price of the asset needs margin for the bad months, prudent management of debt and planning that does not presuppose the price only rises. The sector’s experience shows that whoever survives the cycles is not always the largest, but the best prepared.

In practice, this means knowing precisely the cost of producing each unit, keeping cash that covers fixed costs for several months and avoiding financing commitments that depend on a minimum price. It is also wise to be clear about the price at which the operation stops being profitable and what decisions would be taken in that case, before that point is reached. A sensitivity analysis, with several hypothetical prices, shows clearly how much margin exists.

Hard cycles are survived with low costs and cash, not with optimism.

This article is general information. It is not legal, tax or investment advice, and it does not take anyone’s particular circumstances into account.