Bitcoin Dips Below $81,000 as Global Markets Face a Selloff

Bitcoin (BTC) briefly fell below $81,000 after an earlier advance as stocks and precious metals sold off, while several crypto market figures argued that the pullback had not undercut bullish signals.

The declines reached U.S. technology stocks and Asian equities. The Nasdaq fell 2.6% Thursday, its steepest one-day decline since June. A semiconductor index dropped 6.72%, and CoreWeave fell another 10%. South Korea’s KOSPI was down more than 20% over the past month.

Gold sank to its lowest level since early August and was down about 6% over the past month. Silver fell more than 15% during the same period. Brent crude, by contrast, rose to a five-month high amid continuing concerns about conflict and supply disruptions in the Middle East. Doubts about returns on artificial intelligence investments and inflation pressure from energy prices added to market concerns.

Coinbase Institutional said chip stocks had fallen by double-digit percentages over the past two weeks, their second pronounced decline since June. The firm assessed that Bitcoin held up better during both periods and said markets no longer treated it as a leveraged proxy for technology stocks.

Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of CryptoQuant, said Bitcoin’s hashrate had returned to an upward trend and mining companies were operating at full capacity. He described those conditions as strengthening the network’s security and store-of-value fundamentals. Ju also characterized traditional finance backing for publicly listed miners as an indirect bullish signal from institutional investors.

Chris Burniske, co-founder of Placeholder, said Bitcoin’s relative resilience had prompted substantial adjustments in assets with weaker risk appetite. He viewed the market conditions as more consistent with an early bull-market opportunity than a warning of a bull trap.