Bitcoin advocates have expressed confidence in the leading cryptocurrency despite a sharp 17 percent slide over the past week. This downturn, marked as the steepest weekly fall since July 2024, erased roughly $200 billion in total market capitalization. According to CoinDesk data, Bitcoin is currently trading below $60,000, having declined approximately 27 percent in the past month and over 50 percent from its peak on October 6.
Key statements amid selling pressure
One of the most prominent views in the market attributes this weakness not to Bitcoin itself, but rather to shifts in global liquidity. Bitcoin maximalists—those who see Bitcoin as the only cryptocurrency capable of achieving lasting global adoption—argue that speculative capital has exited the crypto market and moved toward the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. They view the current landscape as a temporary liquidity crunch rather than a genuine loss of underlying confidence.
Mati Greenspan, founder of Quantum Economics and a market analyst, asserted that the downward trend in Bitcoin prices is not a sign of eroding investor faith but stems from AI emerging as a dominant magnet for speculative capital.
Greenspan said that Bitcoin faces no intrinsic problem of its own; the real issue, he indicated, is on the liquidity side. He noted that AI has become the market’s latest obsession but cautioned that these cyclical trends are unlikely to last forever.
Outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US have fueled the ongoing debate. Over 11 consecutive trading sessions, these funds saw a cumulative net outflow of $3.45 billion. During the same period, investor interest in Wall Street tech stocks remained robust. Over the past year, the Nasdaq advanced by 34 percent while the S&P 500 rose nearly 24 percent.
AI IPOs and eye-catching capital flows
Greenspan also pointed to one of the clearest signs of shifting liquidity: AI companies like Anthropic are preparing for a $50 billion public offering and aiming for a valuation close to $1 trillion. Upcoming IPOs for OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX could collectively attract over $200 billion, further drawing investor attention to AI and tech sectors.
Mini glossary: A spot Bitcoin ETF is an exchange-traded fund that directly tracks Bitcoin’s price. An IPO refers to the first time a company’s shares are offered to the public.
Jameson Lopp, a core developer for Bitcoin, observed that in times of declines, investors often seek simple explanations. He emphasized that both the impact of bear market sentiment and the rally in traditional finance’s AI-driven stocks should be considered together.
Not everyone agrees
However, some market watchers believe Bitcoin’s weakness cannot be attributed solely to the AI theme. Jason Fernandes, co-founder of AdLunam, emphasized that the pressure on Bitcoin is multifaceted. ETF outflows, persistent high interest rates, sticky inflation, increased rotation into tech stocks, and broader macroeconomic uncertainties all play concurrent roles.
Fernandes explained that BTC is currently under pressure from every angle, citing ETF outflows, high rates, rising inflation, a shift in investment toward tech stocks, and the psychological impact triggered by Michael Saylor’s recent sale through Strategy.
Strategy, the largest publicly listed institutional holder of Bitcoin, has also been at the center of recent debates. At the end of May, the company sold 32 bitcoins for $2.5 million—its first sale in four years. The transaction was reportedly carried out to fund dividend payments for STRC, a perpetual preferred share known as Stretch.
Greenspan, though, believes the impact of this sale has been overstated. He noted that compared to a balance sheet with over 843,000 BTC, the sale of just 32 BTC is negligible. Still, a quick recovery for the crypto market seems unlikely in the short term; experts warn that even a cooling off in AI-related stocks could first dampen overall risk appetite.
Some Bitcoin supporters maintain that the network’s long-term fundamentals remain intact, viewing the current sideways movement as an accumulation phase. However, Greenspan cautioned investors against assuming that the market bottom has definitively been reached.
