Bitcoin Drawdown from ATH Chart

How the Bitcoin Drawdown from ATH Chart works

This chart shows how far Bitcoin has traded below its running all-time high at every point, so you can compare the depth and length of past bear markets with today. It is meant for investors sizing risk or putting a current decline in historical context.

What you enter

• None; it uses BTC weekly closes from the site’s price history feed.

What it shows

• Drawdown line (%) with shaded bands: 0 to −20% Normal reset, −20% to −55% Bear stress, −55% to −90% Deep capitulation
• Current drawdown (turns red below −50%)
• Deepest observed drawdown and its year
• Running ATH close and its date

How to use it

1. Find today’s value at the right edge of the chart.
2. Read the Current drawdown card.
3. Compare it with Deepest observed and with the shaded bands.
4. Trace past troughs to see how long each recovery took to return to 0%.
5. Check the running ATH close and its date, the peak being measured against.

Formula

Drawdown_t = close_t ÷ max(close_0 ... close_t) − 1, using weekly closes (monthly anchors before 2017, exchange weekly closes after).

Worked example

If the highest weekly close so far is $60,000 and the latest weekly close is $42,000: 42,000 ÷ 60,000 − 1 = −30%, which falls in the Bear stress band (−20% to −55%).

How to read the result

• Depth, duration and the slope of recovery describe a bear market better than the low alone.
• A drawdown near 0% means price is at or close to a new weekly closing high.
• You can compare recent cycles with earlier ones, but the sample is small.

Limits and cautions

• Weekly closes understate intraday drawdowns, which can be deeper.
• Early history uses sparse monthly anchors, so the earliest troughs are approximate.
• Past drawdown depth does not cap future drawdowns.

Common questions

How is Bitcoin’s drawdown from its all-time high calculated?

Each weekly close is divided by the highest weekly close up to that date, minus one. Zero means a new high; −50% means half the peak value.

Why doesn’t this chart match intraday ATH figures?

It uses weekly closing prices, so both the reference peak and the troughs are less extreme than intraday records.

What do the colored bands mean?

They group drawdowns into 0 to −20% (normal reset), −20% to −55% (bear stress) and −55% to −90% (deep capitulation) for quick reading.