Bitcoin's Below $60K Again — AI Stocks Didn't Get the Memo 📉

Bitcoin dropped below $60,000 on Wednesday for the second time this month, sliding as low as $59,217 before firming to $60,700, a 2.7% decline over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. The decline extended into Thursday, with $BTC hitting about $59,200 late Wednesday before buyers lifted it back toward $60,700, leaving it down 2.9% over 24 hours and 5.4% on the week, per CoinDesk data. The price marked bitcoin's lowest level in 21 months, last seen in October 2024. The largest cryptocurrency was recently trading at $61,196.86, up 1.1% since midnight UTC Thursday.

Major altcoins tracked the slide. Ethereum fell 3.1% to $1,610, then dropped as low as $1,550 around 17:00 UTC on Wednesday before recovering 1.5% to $1,644. XRP declined 3.1% to $1.07, threatening to break below $1 for the first time since shortly after President Donald Trump's 2024 reelection win. Solana fell 2.6% to $67 and later slid to $68, touching $64 and completing a 75% drawdown from its September peak, with a break below $60 threatening its lowest level since December 2023. Dogecoin dropped 4.6% to 7.5 cents, hitting its weakest level since late 2023, and was down 11.9% on the week. Hyperliquid's HYPE lost 11.7% over seven days. Tron was the only major token higher on the week, up 1.9%. Centralized exchanges liquidated nearly $1 billion in crypto futures positions within 24 hours, with longs accounting for the largest share.

The pullback coincided with declines in gold and oil, each slipping below key levels — gold under $4,000 per ounce and oil under $70 a barrel — undermining the 2025 "debasement trade." The U.S. dollar climbed to a seven-month high, and traders digested expectations of tighter monetary policy following hawkish remarks from Fed Chair Kevin Warsh a week earlier, with the Federal Reserve projected to raise rates at its September meeting, per CME Watch. Economists anticipated the Personal Consumption Expenditures index to show a 4.1% annual increase in consumer prices when the figure is released on Thursday, accelerating for a third straight month. South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix on Wednesday filed to raise nearly $30 billion in a U.S. share offering, the largest overseas company capital raise since Saudi Aramco's $26 billion sale in 2019. The Nasdaq was up 0.8% at midday Wednesday against bitcoin's 3.2% slump.

The same AI trade that had weighed on crypto rebounded overnight. Micron, the largest U.S. memory chip maker, jumped about 15% after a sales forecast that exceeded Wall Street estimates. Nasdaq 100 futures rose 1.8%, South Korea's Kospi surged as much as 6%, and Brent crude erased wartime gains to fall below $73 a barrel as oil flowed back through the Strait of Hormuz following U.S.-Iran peace progress. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were 0.7% and 2.2% higher, respectively, on Thursday, though bitcoin has not fully tracked the equity recovery.

Analysts described the move in guarded terms. "Days like today are undoubtedly painful," Juan Leon, senior investment strategist at Bitwise, told Decrypt. "But step back. We've seen this movie before." Leon said a risk-off rotation hitting AI and semiconductor stocks was pressuring a digital asset market that is already depressed, adding, "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, arguing that companies such as SpaceX (SPCX) and emerging AI firms offer growth stories that are easier to evaluate over long time horizons, while the rise of stablecoins has reduced bitcoin's uniqueness as an alternative financial asset, adding, "I don't know what to think about Bitcoin anymore." 21Shares conceded in a Wednesday "State of the Market" report that bitcoin's four-year cycle is still intact. FxPro flagged that bitcoin is hovering near its 200-week moving average, a level that preceded prolonged weakness in 2015, 2018 and after the 2022 collapse. Derivatives data showed annualized funding rates flipped negative for bitcoin, futures open interest climbed to 763K BTC, and put-call skew remained extreme — signs that downside positioning persists despite the relief bounce.