SINGAPORE/LONDON: After a bruising week that rattled risk assets, bitcoin staged a tentative rebound on February 6, climbing back above the US$65,000 mark as a global selloff in technology stocks showed signs of slowing.

Even with the bounce, the world's largest cryptocurrency remains on track for its worst weekly performance since late 2022. Bitcoin has struggled for months following a sharp crash last October that sent prices tumbling from an all-time high and cooled investor appetite for digital assets.

Bitcoin was last up 4.4 percent at $65,894.20, paring losses after sliding as much as 5 percent earlier in the session to a low of $60,008.52. Despite the recovery, it is down nearly 14 percent for the week — its steepest weekly fall since November 2022. Prices are still hovering around their weakest levels since early October 2024.

That earlier period marked the start of a rally that accelerated as Donald Trump neared victory in the U.S. presidential election, after signalling support for cryptocurrencies during the campaign.

"Bitcoin's been going down since October (2025), maybe you could ask if it was the canary in the coalmine, or a coincidence," said Chris Weston, head of research at brokerage Pepperstone in Melbourne.

"A lot of these big crowded positions are being unwound very, very quickly."

Ether also rebounded, rising about four percent to $1,921 after earlier falling to a near 10-month low of $1,751.94. The second-largest cryptocurrency is headed for a weekly drop of almost 16 percent and a year-to-date decline of roughly 35 percent.

Across the sector, the selloff has been severe. The total cryptocurrency market has shed around $2 trillion in value since peaking at $4.379 trillion in early October, according to CoinGecko data. More than $1 trillion of that loss has occurred in the past month alone.

Broader market weakness has weighed on sentiment. Recent selling pressure in precious metals and equities has added to volatility, with gold and silver also swinging sharply amid leveraged trades and speculative flows.

Bitcoin has increasingly traded in step with technology stocks in recent years, often benefiting from enthusiasm around artificial intelligence. That correlation has hurt during the latest rout, with bitcoin slipping below the key $70,000 level on February 5, marking its weakest showing since November 2024.

"Bitcoin drifting back toward $60,000 is not crypto dying, it is the bill coming due for Treasuries and funds that treated bitcoin as a one-way asset without real risk controls, just as we have seen sharp corrections in self-proclaimed safe-haven assets like gold and silver when leverage and narrative ran ahead of reality," said Joshua Chu, co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 Association.

"Those who bet too big, borrowed too much, or assumed prices only go up are now finding out the hard way what real market volatility and risk management look like."

Pressure has also come from investment flows. Analysts at Deutsche Bank said U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds saw outflows of more than $3 billion in January, following withdrawals of about $2 billion in December and $7 billion in November.

"February is not panning out well for stock market bulls so far, we shall have to see if bitcoin's recovery above $65,000 is a sign that a deeper recovery is on the cards," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.