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Every Major Bitcoin Crash, Ranked by Depth and Recovery Time
Bitcoin's two deepest drawdowns on record — -83.4% into December 2018 and -76.6% into November 2022 — both took over a year just to bottom, and well over a year more to fully recover; the most recent major drawdown, down 53.1% from October 2025's peak, hasn't recovered yet.
Computed from real daily BTC/USD closes (Yahoo Finance), Sept 2014 onward — every peak-to-trough drawdown of 30% or more, ranked by depth.
Ranked by depth
| Peak | Trough | Depth | Days to bottom | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 16, 2017 ($19,497) | Dec 15, 2018 ($3,237) | -83.4% | 364 days | 716 days (Nov 2020) |
| Nov 8, 2021 ($67,567) | Nov 21, 2022 ($15,787) | -76.6% | 378 days | 469 days (Mar 2024) |
| Apr 13, 2021 ($63,503) | Jul 20, 2021 ($29,807) | -53.1% | 98 days | 91 days (Oct 2021) |
| Oct 6, 2025 ($124,753) | Jun 30, 2026 ($58,559) | -53.1% | 267 days | Not yet recovered |
| Sep 1, 2017 ($4,892) | Sep 14, 2017 ($3,155) | -35.5% | 13 days | 28 days |
| Jun 11, 2017 ($2,958) | Jul 16, 2017 ($1,930) | -34.8% | 35 days | 20 days |
| Jan 4, 2017 ($1,155) | Jan 11, 2017 ($778) | -32.6% | 7 days | 43 days |
What "recovery" means here
Recovery is defined strictly: the date price first closes back at a new all-time high, not just a partial bounce. By that bar, the two largest crashes both took roughly two years from peak to full recovery — the 2018 crash bottomed in a year, then needed another two years on top of that before a new high was set in November 2020.
The pattern across cycles
The deepest crashes (-83%, -77%) both followed the most parabolic run-ups — 2017's and 2021's cycle tops — and both took the better part of a year just to find a bottom. The shallower ones (-33% to -35%, all in 2017) were faster in both directions: days to bottom, weeks to recover, inside a single ongoing bull run rather than a full cycle reset.
The most recent entry — a 53.1% drawdown from October 2025's $124,753 peak — is still open as of this writing. Its 267 days to bottom already sits between the fast 2017-style corrections and the year-plus grind of 2018 and 2022, and whether it resolves like the former or the latter isn't knowable in advance.
Limitations
Reliable daily BTC/USD pricing only goes back to September 2014, so the widely-reported 2013–2015 crash (from Bitcoin's first major bull run) isn't independently verified in this table. Figures use daily closes, not intraday extremes, so the true peak and trough on any given day may have been slightly more extreme than shown.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the biggest Bitcoin crash ever?
- The deepest verified drawdown is -83.4%, from $19,497 on 16 December 2017 to $3,237 on 15 December 2018. It took 364 days to reach the bottom and a further 716 days — until November 2020 — to recover the prior peak.
- How long does Bitcoin take to recover from a crash?
- It varies enormously with depth. The two deepest drawdowns took 716 days and 469 days to recover after bottoming, while shallower 30-35% corrections in 2017 recovered in 20 to 43 days. As a rough pattern, the deeper the drawdown the longer both the decline and the recovery.
- How many times has Bitcoin fallen more than 50%?
- Four times in verifiable daily history since September 2014: -83.4% into December 2018, -76.6% into November 2022, -53.1% between April and July 2021, and -53.1% from October 2025's peak of $124,753 to $58,559 on 30 June 2026.
- Has Bitcoin recovered from its most recent crash?
- Not yet. The drawdown from October 2025's peak of $124,753 reached its low of $58,559 on 30 June 2026 — 267 days from peak to trough — and had not regained the prior high as of this page's last update.
- How long do Bitcoin bear markets last?
- The two full bear markets in this dataset took 364 and 378 days to reach their bottoms — both a little over a year. That consistency is worth noting, but two observations are not enough to treat roughly twelve months as a rule.
- What counts as a Bitcoin crash in this data?
- Every peak-to-trough drawdown of 30% or more, computed from real daily BTC/USD closes from September 2014 onward. Because the figures use daily closes rather than intraday extremes, the true peak and trough on any given day may have been slightly more extreme than shown, and the widely-reported 2013-2015 crash predates reliable daily pricing so it is not independently verified here.
Educational content, not financial advice. See the disclosure.