Bitcoin Steady Near $65,000 Even as Tech Megacaps Shed $800 Billion

Bitcoin held near $65,000 in Asian trading hours on Friday, barely moving as nearly $800 billion evaporated from the biggest U.S. technology stocks a day earlier. The move came in a divergence from the pattern Bitcoin has followed for most of the month, when it tracked movements in AI-linked stocks closely.

The largest cryptocurrency traded at about $65,400, down less than 1% on the day and up 3% on the week. Ether slipped 3% to $1,879, and most other major tokens declined. Dogecoin led losses among the majors, falling 5% on the day to $0.069 and 4% on the week. XRP fell 2% to $1.11, Solana lost 3% to $76, and Hyperliquid’s HYPE dropped to $58, down 4% over seven sessions. The declines were modest set against the scale of the move in equities.

Tech Megacaps Post Worst Day Since April 2025

The Magnificent Seven, the group of megacap technology stocks that has driven U.S. equity gains for three years, fell 4.8% on Thursday and shed $797 billion in market value. It was the group’s worst single-day decline since the tariff-driven selloff of April 2025.

The drop dragged the S&P 500 down 1.2% and the Nasdaq 100 down 1.9% for the session. The selloff also left the Magnificent Seven 11% below its late-May record high, erasing roughly $2 trillion in value from the peak.

AI Spending Concerns Triggered The Decline

A key trigger for Thursday’s selloff was renewed concern over artificial-intelligence spending. Alphabet raised its capital expenditure forecast to as much as $205 billion for the year, and Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk called 2026 “a massive capex year” as the company reported profits well below analyst expectations.

Both disclosures came after Wednesday’s market close and hardened a worry that had been building for weeks: that major technology companies are directing hundreds of billions of dollars toward AI infrastructure faster than the resulting returns can justify the spending.

Bitcoin’s Reaction Diverges From Monthly Pattern

That same AI-spending concern has driven much of crypto’s price action this month, and it has typically moved Bitcoin sharply. The token has risen when chip and AI-linked stocks rallied and fallen when they wobbled, trading largely as a proxy for sentiment around the AI capital cycle rather than moving on catalysts specific to crypto markets.

Whether Thursday’s muted reaction signals a genuine break from that pattern or reflects a single unusual session remains an open question. Bitcoin mining companies have converted portions of their operations into AI data-center infrastructure in recent quarters, tying a portion of miner revenue to AI compute demand. It’s unclear if a sustained pullback in AI spending would reach that segment of the market, and any effect would likely take longer to appear than the earlier rally did.

A Single Data Point, Not A Confirmed Shift

After a month in which crypto prices took their direction largely from movements in semiconductor and AI-adjacent equities, Thursday’s session marked a divergence: the AI trade fell sharply while Bitcoin held steady. It was the first session this month in which the two moved independently of each other.

It’s uncertain whether one session of divergence is enough to establish a durable decoupling between crypto and the AI equity trade. Whether Bitcoin continues holding steady if AI-related selling extends into further sessions would offer a clearer signal than Friday’s early, limited move.

The muted reaction also comes at a moment when Bitcoin has posted a strong month overall, up sharply from its lows in recent weeks. The token’s strong monthly performance is a separate factor from the question of whether its correlation to AI-linked stocks has weakened.