Bitcoin retreated below the $90,000 level on Thursday, extending a broader cryptocurrency sell-off as fresh concerns over the profitability of artificial intelligence investments weighed on technology stocks and dampened investor appetite for risk.
The leading digital currency was last down 2.5% at $90,056, while Ethereum fell 4.3% to $3,196, erasing gains from the previous two sessions. The move lower followed weakness in U.S. trading on Wednesday, which continued after the Federal Reserve's latest interest rate cut failed to sustain momentum.
Market sentiment turned cautious after Oracle, a major U.S. cloud-computing firm, issued a profit and revenue outlook that fell short of expectations. Company executives also signaled higher spending ahead—a sign that heavy investments in AI infrastructure are not translating into profits as quickly as investors had hoped.
The downdraft in crypto coincided with declines in Asian equities and pointed to a lower open for European and U.S. stock markets.
"What we saw last night was even though risk assets were doing well, crypto didn't really want to know about it," said Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG in Sydney. "The crypto space really needs to see more convincing evidence that the washout we saw from the October 10 selloff is complete, and at this point in time it just doesn't look like it's there."
In a note released earlier this week, Standard Chartered lowered its year-end 2025 price target for Bitcoin from $200,000 to $100,000. Geoff Kendrick, the bank's global head of digital assets research, noted that buying by corporate digital asset treasuries has likely concluded, meaning future price support "will effectively be driven by one leg only—ETF buying."
The above content was completed with the assistance of AI and has been reviewed by an editor.
