The world’s largest cryptocurrency is down 24% in a month as investors dump volatile assets and AI stocks unravel alongside crypto
MARKET INSIDER – Bitcoin’s sharp selloff accelerated early Friday, briefly plunging nearly 6% and coming within a razor’s edge of the critical $80,000 support level—a threshold traders view as the last major line before a deeper correction. The token touched $80,548, its lowest price since April 11, before recovering part of its losses to trade down 1.5% near $85,104, according to Coin Metrics.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency has now fallen 10% this week and roughly 24% over the past month, in a downturn that has rattled global markets already strained by rising yields, sliding tech shares, and fears that the AI boom may be overheating. Bitcoin is now 9% lower year-to-date, despite hitting multiple all-time highs earlier in 2025—including a surge past $126,000 in early October fueled by President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance and aggressive deregulation efforts.
This latest decline is deeply intertwined with the U.S. equity pullback. As the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2% on Thursday, the AI rally triggered by Nvidia’s blockbuster earnings evaporated almost as quickly as it began. The fading enthusiasm for AI—one of the year’s most crowded trades—has spilled directly into crypto, given the substantial overlap of investors who allocate to both sectors.
Facing renewed macro pressure, traders are rotating out of risk-on assets and into safe havens, including gold, which has strengthened as bitcoin slips. The shift underscores the destabilizing feedback loop now gripping markets: rising skepticism of lofty tech valuations weighs on equities, which in turn accelerates selling in crypto.
With bitcoin hovering dangerously close to the $80,000 floor and momentum deteriorating, investors are watching for signs of capitulation—or a rebound that would reaffirm longer-term bullish conviction. The next decisive move will determine whether this is a healthy shakeout or the start of a deeper unwind of 2025’s speculative excesses.
Either way, markets appear united around one truth: the crypto-AI risk complex is under pressure, and bitcoin’s next leg will set the tone for all of it.
