Bitcoin volatility has stayed below 50% on 60-day measures since early 2023, extending through 2025.
According to Kaiko, the drawdown in realized volatility has persisted even as liquidity conditions and market participation changed, placing the asset in its longest low-vol regime on record.
Price appreciation has occurred alongside that compression
Bitcoin price delivered a steep increase in 2023 while realized volatility fell roughly 20%, a pattern that extended through 2024 into Q1 2025 as market cap grew.
That mix of higher market value and lower measured volatility is drawing closer comparisons to large, liquid risk assets, even if the absolute level of Bitcoin’s swings remains elevated.
The gap between traditional assets continues to narrow. Last year, iShares put Bitcoin’s annualized volatility at around 54%, compared with roughly 15.1% for gold and 10.5% for global equities. According to iShares, the multi-year downtrend is intact, though spot markets still move more than stocks and bullion on a like-for-like basis.
| Asset | Annualized volatility | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | ~54% | iShares |
| Gold | ~15.1% | iShares |
| Global equities | ~10.5% | iShares |
Shorter-term gauges back the picture. BitBo’s volatility dashboard shows 30- and 60-day readings tracking at or near cycle lows, while historical bull-market peaks often topped 150% annualized. The change reflects deeper derivatives liquidity, more systematic trading, and the growth of volatility-selling strategies that dampen realized moves.
Low volatility did not remove drawdown risk
The September 2025 risk-off episode erased about $162 billion from the total crypto market value in days, yet Bitcoin’s percentage decline was smaller than that of many large altcoins, a pattern that has repeated across recent corrections.
Broader review of cross-market swings finds altcoin and DeFi tokens often run at more than triple Bitcoin’s volatility, which can feed back into BTC through liquidity shocks. Dispersion remains a defining feature of the asset class.
Forward-looking metrics focus attention on two tracks, structural positioning and event risk. Fidelity’s work points to options markets that priced a higher volatility term structure into late 2024 and early 2025 around ETF flows and macro catalysts, even as realized prints stayed muted. Per Fidelity, that gap between implied and realized can close abruptly if flows accelerate, particularly around large expiries and funding spikes.
At the micro level, miner economics have acted as a toggle for volatility bursts. The Puell Multiple, a revenue-to-issuance ratio, has tended to align with miner distribution and accumulation phases.
According to Amberdata, readings above roughly 1.2 can accompany miner selling, adding to downside pressure, while sub-0.9 levels often emerge during quieter accumulation windows. Halving-cycle dynamics and energy cost moves feed directly into that range.
Price-path models that lean on a network effects structure where a low-volatility advance could travel. Power-law frameworks based on Metcalfe-style scaling, cited by market research, map interim waypoints around $130,000 and $163,000 with a late-2025 target near $200,000.
These trajectories see the present regime as a transition that can precede forceful trend extensions when liquidity thickens and marginal buyers return. Such models are sensitive to inputs, so the track will depend on realized network activity, capital flows, and macro policy outcomes.
The macro overlay that matters most to volatility remains straightforward
Dollar strength, global rate paths, and regulatory clarity continue to shape participation, with institutional adoption drawing on expanding market infrastructure. According to Kaiko, derivatives depth and on-exchange liquidity have grown, and that depth helps keep realized swings muted until a shock forces repricing.
From here, two broad scenarios frame expectations.
If regulatory outcomes, institutional allocation, and steady liquidity persist, annualized prints under 50 percent could accompany new highs, a profile closer to mid-cap technology shares. If macro tightens again or legal uncertainty returns, realized volatility could reset toward prior cycle levels, including 80 percent or higher on sharp downtrends with forced deleveraging.
These ranges are consistent with case studies summarized by Fidelity and event-driven drawdowns.
For now, the data shows a maturing volatility profile. Realized measures sit near cycle lows while options returns have room to expand if catalysts arrive.
Market participants are watching miner profitability bands, ETF-driven flows and the policy calendar for the next break in the regime.
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