What this chart shows
This page tracks Bitcoin's running all-time high and expresses every day's price as a percentage below it. A reading of 0% means price just made a new high; a reading of -80% means price is trading at one-fifth of its peak.
Because drawdown is a percentage rather than a dollar figure, it puts eras with completely different price levels on the same axis — a -80% drawdown in 2015 and a -77% drawdown in 2022 are directly comparable in a way that "$150" and "$15,500" are not.
How to read it
The gauge shows today's drawdown; the chart's bottom pane plots the full history, with the worst drawdown on record marked by a horizontal reference line. Deep drawdowns have historically coincided with the same cyclical floors flagged elsewhere on this site (Realized Price crossing below market price, NUPL turning negative); this page adds no new information beyond price itself, but presents it in the form most people actually mean when they ask "how bad has it gotten."
Limitations
Bitcoin has recovered to new highs after every drawdown in its short history — but that is a track record of roughly four episodes, not a law. Nothing guarantees a new all-time high is reached again after any given drawdown; the historical pattern is real but the sample is small.
Drawdown depth has been shrinking across cycles (roughly -87% in 2014-15, -84% in 2018, -77% in 2022), consistent with the same volatility-compression pattern discussed on the 200-Week MA and Composite pages — but three data points is a trend sketch, not a forecast.
This metric says nothing about duration. A -50% drawdown that recovers in three months and one that takes three years look identical on this chart at their lowest point; check the x-axis, not just the depth.