Bitcoin Slips Near $69K as Listed Miners Outpace Broader Crypto Drop

Bitcoin fell to roughly $68,000 on Friday, its lowest level since August, according to BeInCrypto. Live market data placed BTC at $68,860, with the broader crypto market moving lower across a total capitalization of $2.39 trillion. The market also registered a Fear & Greed reading of 20, categorized as Extreme Fear. BeInCrypto reported that US crypto-linked equities weakened alongside Bitcoin, but mining companies bore the sharpest declines. Hut 8 dropped 6%, while Riot Platforms and MARA Holdings each lost 3.9%. Coinbase, identified in the report as the largest US crypto exchange, slipped 0.5%, making its decline notably smaller than those recorded by the three miners. The latest Bitcoin network readings showed hashrate at 934 EH/s and difficulty at 148.4T, according to mempool.space. These figures describe the network’s mining activity and difficulty adjustment at the time of the report, although the supplied data does not establish whether either measure had risen or fallen from a prior reading. The relative performance made miners the central focus of the sell-off: their reported losses ranged from 3.9% to 6%, compared with Coinbase’s 0.5% decline. BTC was down 4.11% over 24 hours and 9.27% over seven days. Attention now centers on whether Bitcoin can hold the approximate $68,000 area and whether mining equities continue to underperform other listed crypto businesses as market sentiment remains in extreme-fear territory.