In Brief
- Nike closed at $39.09 Monday, its weakest close since September 2014.
- Nike sits 78% below its 2021 peak, Bitcoin 50% below its record.
- Nike bought NFT studio RTFKT five weeks after its stock peaked.
Nike (NKE) closed at $39.09 on Monday. That is its weakest close since September 2014. The stock sits about 78% below its 2021 record. Bitcoin has not fallen that far in this bear market.
Nike is a Dow Jones Industrial Average stock. Investors buy that index for safety. The chart no longer looks safe.
A Dow Stock Falls Further Than Bitcoin
Nike lost 4.03% on Monday, nearly 80% below its record close of $169.74 recorded on November 5, 2021. The damage since then is easy to size. Nike is now worth about $58 billion.
$NKE – NIKE SINKS TO 12-YEAR LOWNike fell 3.2% to $39.42, putting shares on track for their lowest close since September 2014.The stock is now down 38% YTD, 5.5% in August, and nearly 78% from its 2021 all-time high.Nike is also the worst performer in the Dow today and is…
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) August 17, 2026
Apply today’s share count to the record price, and the peak value was near $255 billion.
Bitcoin’s fall is the smaller one. BTC changed hands near $64,325 on Monday, up 2% in 24 hours. Bitcoin’s record was $126,080, set on October 6, 2025. So Bitcoin’s price action sits close to 50% below the top, or roughly half of Nike’s decline.
Now compare the clocks. Bitcoin gave up half its value in 10 months. Nike has been sliding for 57.
The years erased matter more than the speed. Bitcoin is trading back at levels last seen in 2024. Nike is trading back at 2014 prices.
Bitcoin at least has a cycle to blame. Nike does not. Its decline runs through a bull market in US equities.
Nike Bought Crypto Near the Top and Buried It Near the Bottom
The digital detour comes with a date. On December 13, 2021, five weeks after that record close, Nike bought RTFKT.
RTFKT is now a part of the NIKE, Inc. family. 🌐👁🗨 pic.twitter.com/5egNk9d8wA
— RTFKT (@RTFKT) December 13, 2021
RTFKT was a small studio. It sold sneakers and avatars that existed only as NFTs on Ethereum.
Then-CEO John Donahoe sold the deal as proof Nike could own digital culture.
“This acquisition is another step that accelerates Nike’s digital transformation and allows us to serve athletes and creators at the intersection of sport, creativity, gaming and culture,” John Donahoe, then Nike CEO, in the company’s December 2021 release.
Nike shut the RTFKT studio in early 2025. Collectors then sued for $5 million, arguing the company had sold unregistered securities and walked away.
Plenty of consumer brands quit NFTs in the same window, as BeInCrypto reported when brands retreated from NFTs. Nike’s version stands out for one reason. The purchase marked the top of its own stock.
The Turnaround Still Has No Revenue Line
Elliott Hill returned as chief executive in October 2024. He spent 32 years at Nike before retiring, then came back to fix it.
Almost two years on, the numbers have not turned. Fiscal 2026 revenue was $46.4 billion, flat as reported and 2% lower currency-neutral. Earnings slipped 3% to $2.10 a share.
The mix is the problem. Wholesale, meaning shoes sold through other retailers, rose 6% to $27.5 billion.
Nike Direct, its own stores and apps, fell 6% to $17.7 billion. Direct sales earn more per shoe, so the profitable channel is the shrinking one. Converse dropped 31% to $1.2 billion.
China is the deepest wound. Greater China revenue fell 11% to $5.85 billion, and profit in the region fell 20% to $1.28 billion.
The fourth-quarter gross margin of 49.2% looked like a win. However, $986 million of expected tariff refunds were delivered. Strip that out, and margins barely moved.
“No hints yet that revenues can turn positive in the foreseeable future … we don’t see a clear reason to expand the P/E [ratio] from here (from 22x FY27 consensus EPS),” Evercore ISI analyst Michael Binetti stayed unconvinced in a research note.
What Comes Next
Monday brought one more twist. David Denton started as Nike’s chief financial officer on the same day the stock hit its 12-year low. Matthew Friend, his predecessor, leaves on September 4.
Wall Street still expects a bounce. The average target is $50.66, roughly 30% above Monday’s close, per Stock Analysis data. JPMorgan sits lowest at $40, and Nike closed below even that.
The dividend pays $1.64 per year, yielding over 4%. That is the strongest card bulls hold. First-quarter results are due in late September.
Bitcoin holders spent a decade hearing that their asset was reckless. Nike holders bought the safe label and are 78% poorer since 2021. So, which chart belonged to the speculative asset?