Bitcoin’s sharp selloff this week has emboldened some of the asset’s most persistent critics, even as market participants debate whether the latest leg lower marks the final stage of the current downturn.

The slide accelerated a multi-month decline into near-capitulation, prompting bulls to search for bottoming signals — from technical indicators to speculation around the failure of leveraged hedge funds. Historically, however, one of the more reliable markers of a market low has been the renewed confidence of bitcoin’s longtime skeptics.

Few mainstream outlets have been as consistently critical of bitcoin as the Financial Times. Despite bitcoin’s rise from zero to six figures over its 16-year history, the paper’s editorial tone has remained firmly negative. That stance was perhaps best captured in 2025, when columnist Katie Martin remarked that her teeth should be worth billions, given that they are scarcer than bitcoin.

The paper returned to familiar ground over the weekend. In a Sunday column, FT writer Jemima Kelly argued that “Bitcoin is still about $69,000 too high,” a headline later amended to “$70,000 too high” after a modest overnight rebound. Kelly wrote that bitcoin’s trajectory would ultimately end “splattered on the ground,” contending that the pool of “greater fools” supporting the asset is shrinking and that recent price action shows investors recognizing the lack of any intrinsic valuation floor.

Earlier in the week, as bitcoin slipped below the roughly $76,000 average cost basis of Strategy’s bitcoin holdings, the FT also trained its focus on the company formerly known as MicroStrategy. In an article titled “Strategy’s long road to nowhere,” columnist Craig Coben argued that management faces no safe options, only “different paths to destroying shareholder value.” With Strategy shares down around 80% from their late-2024 peak, he compared the firm to “a gigantic mastodon stuck in the La Brea tar pits.”

Gold proponent and longtime bitcoin critic Peter Schiff added to the chorus. As gold continues to trend higher despite market volatility, Schiff challenged claims that bitcoin remains the world’s best-performing asset. He noted that Strategy has spent more than $54 billion accumulating bitcoin over the past five years and is currently slightly underwater on that investment. In gold terms, Schiff argued, bitcoin is down nearly 60% from its 2021 highs, placing it firmly in a long-term bear market.

Former hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry once warned against attempting to call exact market bottoms, saying that “monkeys spend all their time picking bottoms.” Even so, the growing assertiveness of entrenched bitcoin bears has historically appeared closer to market troughs than peaks.

Other developments this week reinforce that sense of caution. Investor enthusiasm surrounding Tether appears to be fading. Late last year, reports suggested the stablecoin issuer was exploring a capital raise of $15 billion to $20 billion at valuations approaching $500 billion. According to a Financial Times report this week, investor pushback has since scaled those expectations back to roughly $5 billion.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino told the FT that reports of a larger capital raise were a “misconception” and said the company has seen strong interest at the higher valuation. Still, the report noted that private concerns over valuation persist, even as sentiment could quickly shift if crypto markets rebound.