Bitcoin Slides Below $60K While AI Stocks Throw a Party Bitcoin Wasn't Invited To

Bitcoin fell below $60,000 on Wednesday for the second time this month, reaching a low of $59,217 before stabilizing near $60,700, according to CoinGecko. The 2.7% 24-hour decline extended a third straight day of losses and marked the asset's lowest point since October 2024. Bitcoin ($BTC) was last reported at $61,196.86, up 1.1% since midnight UTC on Thursday after buyers stepped in.

The sell-off dragged major altcoins lower. Ether ($ETH) dropped as much as 3.1% to $1,610 before recovering to $1,644, while XRP fell 3.1% to $1.07, threatening to slip under $1 for the first time since shortly after President Donald Trump's 2024 reelection. Solana ($SOL) declined 2.6% to $67, briefly touching $64 to complete a 75% slide from its September peak, and Dogecoin fell 4.6% to 7.5 cents, its lowest level since late 2023. Centralized exchanges liquidated nearly $1 billion in crypto futures positions within 24 hours, with longs accounting for the largest share.

The pressure on crypto came even as technology stocks rebounded. South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix filed Wednesday 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. Micron, the largest U.S. maker of memory chips, jumped about 15% after its sales forecast exceeded 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 fall below $73 a barrel as oil flowed back through the Strait of Hormuz. "Days like today are undoubtedly painful," Juan Leon, senior investment strategist at Bitwise, told Decrypt. "But step back. We've seen this movie before."

Billionaire hedge fund manager Philippe Laffont told CNBC he has become "a little bit more worried" about bitcoin's future, arguing investors now have a wider range of opportunities than in previous years. "I don't know what to think about Bitcoin anymore," he said, citing growth stories at companies such as SpaceX ($SPCX) and emerging AI firms, and noting that the rise of stablecoins has reduced bitcoin's uniqueness as an alternative financial asset.

Bitcoin's drop to around $59,100 pushed 10.83 million BTC into a loss, the most on record, according to Glassnode data, exceeding peaks seen during past bear-market bottoms. Long-term holders now control a record 14.8 million BTC, roughly 75% of the 20 million BTC in circulation, with 37% of those coins held at a loss. Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FxPro, said the break below $60,000 reflects continued outflows from U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs, the Federal Reserve's hawkish turn and a U.S. dollar that climbed to a seven-month high. Economists are anticipating the Personal Consumption Expenditures index to show a 4.1% annual increase in consumer prices on Thursday, accelerating for a third consecutive month.

Traders pointed to short-term technical levels rather than longer-term forecasts. Trader Killa said on X that a relief bounce toward $70,000 was due, while RektProof said $60,000 would serve as a floor "for the rest of the month." Bitcoin is hovering near its 200-week moving average, a closely watched long-term trend line, with FxPro noting that past touches of that line were followed by weakness lasting nine months in 2015, six months in 2018 and roughly six quarters after the 2022 collapse. Jasper De Maere, an OTC trader at Wintermute, said flows suggest "traders have started going into summer recess," adding consolidation at current levels was likely.