On March 12, 2020, as Covid-19 shut down the world, bitcoin lost 37% of its value in a single day. That is the biggest one-day move since 2014, up or down. Here are the 25 wildest days, 13 of them rises and 12 falls. Eight came in the mania of 2017.
Pictured: Bloomberg’s report on the Federal Reserve’s emergency cut to near-zero rates on March 15, 2020. It came three days after #1 (a 37.17% fall) and four days before #8 (an 18.19% rebound).
| Rank | Date | Direction | One-day move | Price the day before | Price at day’s end | Change per coin | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mar 12, 2020 | ▼ Fall | −37.17% | $7,911 | $4,971 | $2,941 | 2020 |
| 2 | Dec 7, 2017 | ▲ Rise | +25.25% | $14,292 | $17,900 | $3,608 | 2017 |
| 3 | Jul 20, 2017 | ▲ Rise | +23.94% | $2,273 | $2,818 | $544.17 | 2017 |
| 4 | Jan 14, 2015 | ▼ Fall | −21.14% | $225.86 | $178.10 | $47.76 | 2015 |
| 5 | Dec 6, 2017 | ▲ Rise | +19.93% | $11,917 | $14,292 | $2,375 | 2017 |
| 6 | Feb 8, 2021 | ▲ Rise | +18.75% | $38,903 | $46,196 | $7,293 | 2021 |
| 7 | Sep 14, 2017 | ▼ Fall | −18.74% | $3,883 | $3,155 | $727.64 | 2017 |
| 8 | Mar 19, 2020 | ▲ Rise | +18.19% | $5,238 | $6,191 | $952.75 | 2020 |
| 9 | Aug 18, 2015 | ▼ Fall | −18.18% | $257.98 | $211.08 | $46.90 | 2015 |
| 10 | Jan 15, 2015 | ▲ Rise | +17.82% | $178.10 | $209.84 | $31.74 | 2015 |
| 11 | Apr 2, 2019 | ▲ Rise | +17.36% | $4,158 | $4,880 | $721.69 | 2019 |
| 12 | Jan 16, 2018 | ▼ Fall | −16.85% | $13,820 | $11,490 | $2,329 | 2018 |
| 13 | Jun 13, 2022 | ▼ Fall | −15.97% | $26,763 | $22,487 | $4,275 | 2022 |
| 14 | Feb 5, 2018 | ▼ Fall | −15.97% | $8,277 | $6,955 | $1,322 | 2018 |
| 15 | Jan 13, 2015 | ▼ Fall | −15.66% | $267.80 | $225.86 | $41.93 | 2015 |
| 16 | Oct 25, 2019 | ▲ Rise | +15.58% | $7,493 | $8,661 | $1,167 | 2019 |
| 17 | Jul 17, 2017 | ▲ Rise | +15.47% | $1,930 | $2,228 | $298.59 | 2017 |
| 18 | Jan 15, 2016 | ▼ Fall | −15.33% | $430.31 | $364.33 | $65.98 | 2016 |
| 19 | Sep 15, 2017 | ▲ Rise | +15.30% | $3,155 | $3,638 | $482.57 | 2017 |
| 20 | Nov 12, 2014 | ▲ Rise | +15.19% | $367.70 | $423.56 | $55.87 | 2014 |
| 21 | Dec 26, 2017 | ▲ Rise | +14.78% | $14,027 | $16,100 | $2,073 | 2017 |
| 22 | Feb 28, 2022 | ▲ Rise | +14.54% | $37,710 | $43,193 | $5,483 | 2022 |
| 23 | Nov 9, 2022 | ▼ Fall | −14.35% | $18,541 | $15,881 | $2,660 | 2022 |
| 24 | Jan 11, 2017 | ▼ Fall | −14.31% | $907.68 | $777.76 | $129.92 | 2017 |
| 25 | Feb 5, 2026 | ▼ Fall | −14.13% | $73,020 | $62,702 | $10,318 | 2026 |
No matching rows.
How this list works. Bitcoin trades around the clock, so there is no official closing bell. Each day here runs midnight to midnight UTC, and the move is that day’s closing price against the previous day’s, in US dollars, from Yahoo Finance’s daily history (September 17, 2014 to October 11, 2026).[3] Days are ranked by the size of the move, whichever way it went. Swings within a day are often much bigger and aren’t counted, and a crash that runs across midnight can be split into two smaller days. Figures from other price sources can differ by a few points on some days, most of all on August 18, 2015 (#9). Only one of the 25 days is more recent than 2022: February 5, 2026, when bitcoin fell 14.13%. Where the data comes from: this list combines Bittery’s biggest one-day price drops and biggest one-day price gains, which cross-check every day against Blockchain.com’s exchange-average price.[1][2] RList recomputed the moves from the same Yahoo Finance closes, and every figure matched. This list is for information only, not investment advice.
Crypto traders call it “Black Thursday”. As Covid-19 spread, markets everywhere crashed, and the S&P 500 had its worst day since 1987. Bitcoin fell from $7,911 to $4,971 in a day, nearly twice the size of any other drop on this list.[4] Forced selling of borrowed bets on crypto exchanges made the fall worse.[5] Yet bitcoin had won back all of its losses by May 2020, well before stocks did.[4]
The peak of 2017’s bitcoin mania. Bitcoin jumped from $14,292 to $17,900, and the Coinbase app hit #1 among free apps in Apple’s US App Store for the first time. Coinbase’s website struggled to stay up under the demand.[6] Wall Street was only three days away from its first bitcoin futures contracts.[7] Bitcoin had its highest close of that cycle nine days later.
That summer, bitcoin’s community was fighting over how to upgrade the network, and many feared bitcoin would split in two. On July 20 miners lined up behind BIP 91, a compromise route to the “SegWit” upgrade, and the relief sent bitcoin from $2,273 to $2,818.[8] Three days earlier, on July 17, it had risen 15.47% (#17), as support for the plan grew.
The bottom of bitcoin’s long 2014–15 slump. Bitcoin fell below $200 for the first time in more than a year and closed at $178.10, its lowest close in Yahoo Finance’s data. It came a day after a 15.66% fall (#15). The crash was so deep that the cloud-mining company CEX.IO paused its service because mining cost more than it earned.[9] The next day bitcoin bounced back (#10).
Bitcoin broke through $14,000 for the first time and was up more than 40% in December alone.[10] Together with the next day’s 25% surge (#2), it took bitcoin from $11,917 to $17,900 in two days, a 50% gain.
Tesla’s annual report revealed that it had “invested an aggregate $1.50 billion in bitcoin”. It also said it expected to start accepting bitcoin as payment for its cars.[11] Bitcoin jumped from $38,903 to $46,196, the biggest one-day rise since 2017 at the time.
BTCChina, one of China’s biggest bitcoin exchanges, said it would stop all trading at the end of the month. The announcement came ten days after Chinese regulators banned initial coin offerings.[12] Bitcoin fell from $3,883 to $3,155, then rose 15.30% the very next day (#19).
A week after Black Thursday (#1), and four days after the Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate to 0–0.25% in an emergency move,[13] bitcoin rose from $5,238 to $6,191. It was the start of the climb that took bitcoin from under $5,000 to a record above $60,000 within a year.
A “flash crash” on the Bitfinex exchange, where a wave of borrowed bets being forcibly sold briefly knocked the price down 29% to $179.35.[14] On Yahoo Finance’s figures, bitcoin closed the day 18.18% lower. Measured by Blockchain.com’s average across exchanges, the fall was only about 13.5%, the biggest gap between price sources of any day on this list.[1]
The day after the 2015 bottom (#4), bitcoin bounced from $178.10 to $209.84. Bitcoin’s price swung by more than 15% on each of three days in a row, January 13, 14 and 15, 2015, and all three are on this list (#15, #4 and #10).