Bitcoin Takes the 59K Express as AI Stocks Steal the Capital Train 🚂

Bitcoin slipped below $60,000 on Wednesday for the second time this month, trading as low as $59,217 before recovering toward $60,700, a 2.7% decline over 24 hours and a 5.4% drop on the week, according to CoinGecko and CoinDesk data. The pullback extended a three-day losing streak for BTC $59,464.98 and pushed the leading digital asset to its lowest level in 21 months. The decline came as the so-called debasement trade unwound: gold fell below $4,000 per ounce and oil slipped under $70 a barrel, while AI-linked equities continued to absorb investor capital. South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix filed to raise nearly $30 billion in a U.S. share offering on Wednesday, the largest overseas capital raise since Saudi Aramco's $26 billion sale in 2019, underscoring where the marginal dollar is headed.

Major altcoins tracked bitcoin lower. Ethereum $ETH fell 3.1% to $1,610 and was down 7.9% on the week, while XRP dropped 3.1% to $1.07, threatening to slide under $1 for the first time since shortly after President Donald Trump's 2024 reelection. Solana fell 2.6% to $67, and dogecoin lost 4.6% to 7.5 cents, a level last seen in late 2023. The losses spanned nearly every large-cap token, with tron the lone major to gain, rising 1.9% over the week, while dogecoin and Hyperliquid's HYPE led declines at 11.9% and 11.7%, respectively, over seven days.

Market participants attributed the move to outflows from U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs, a more hawkish Federal Reserve and a U.S. dollar that climbed to a seven-month high, according to Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FxPro. Hawkish remarks from Fed Chair Kevin Warsh a week earlier had prompted investors to price in tighter monetary policy, with CME Watch projecting a rate hike at the September meeting. Economists expect Thursday's Personal Consumption Expenditures index to show a 4.1% annual increase in consumer prices, accelerating for a third straight month. "Days like today are undoubtedly painful," Juan Leon, senior investment strategist at Bitwise, told Decrypt. "But step back. We've seen this movie before. This bear market shall pass, and crypto will come out stronger on the other side." Billionaire hedge fund manager Philippe Laffont told CNBC he has become "a little bit more worried" about bitcoin's future, adding, "I don't know what to think about Bitcoin anymore," citing competition from companies such as SpaceX (SPCX), emerging AI firms and the rise of stablecoins.

By Thursday, bitcoin had reclaimed the $60,000 level as AI stocks staged a rebound. Micron, the largest U.S. maker of memory chips, jumped about 15% after issuing a sales forecast that topped Wall Street estimates, lifting Nasdaq 100 futures 1.8% and South Korea's Kospi as much as 6%. Brent crude erased its wartime gains to trade below $73 a barrel as oil resumed transit through the Strait of Hormuz following a U.S.-Iran peace announcement from President Donald Trump, who said on Truth Social that there would be "no tolls, no insurance costs, & no other charges of any kind being sought or received by Iran on ships traveling" via the route. Despite the equity rebound, crypto did not fully participate, with traders pointing to thinner summer order books. "Flows are suggesting traders have started going into summer recess," Jasper De Maere, an OTC trader at Wintermute, wrote. "It's possible we'll consolidate at these levels, at the mercy of the equity market which has the potential to pull crypto down alongside it in case of a further risk-off rotation."

Technical analysts saw a near-term floor forming. Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD dropping below $60,000 for the first time since June 10, with trader Killa writing on X that "It's time to start bouncing soon on the LTF" and projecting a relief move toward $70,000. Fellow trader RektProof described $60,000 as the month's range floor, targeting "poor highs + 70k." 21Shares, which had predicted in January that bitcoin would break from its four-year cycle in 2026, conceded on Wednesday that the call had not aged well. "Heading into 2026, we believed that Bitcoin's four-year cycle could be finished," the firm wrote in its latest "State of the Market" report. "Six months in, we have to be honest: price action still looks famil…" Bitcoin remains near its 200-week moving average, a level at which prior drawdowns in 2015, 2018 and 2022 lasted roughly nine months, six months and six quarters, respectively, according to FxPro.