Bitcoin Slides Below $80,000 as Oil Jumps, Yields Spike — SkimNews
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- Bitcoin broke below $80,000 on Thursday, down more than 8% from near $87,000 four days earlier and 4% over 24 hours, as the anniversary of the October 10, 2025 flash crash (when BTC fell from $122,000 to $105,000 in minutes) weighed on sentiment.
- Former bitcoin miners turned AI data-center names plunged in U.S. trade: Hut 8 -10.7%, Cipher Mining -9.1%, Riot Platforms -8.8%, IREN -7.6%, and TeraWulf -6.4%, rattled by concerns that Nvidia-backed Firmus Grid's up-to-$5.5 billion Australian IPO could be pulled amid weak demand.
- WTI crude jumped 5.5% to roughly $93 per barrel and Brent climbed to $105.65 after a tanker attack off Qatar's coast, pushing the Brent-WTI spread to about $12.50 — a historically elevated premium reflecting supply and shipping pressure.
- U.S. Treasury yields climbed with the 10-year touching 5.36% and 30-year above 5.73%, after Fed Governor Chris Waller made hawkish remarks signaling 75 basis points in rate hikes ahead, though not necessarily at consecutive meetings.
- Bitcoin's drop below $81,000 pushed roughly 6.4 million BTC underwater, the highest loss-side supply since Sept. 18, while about 13.7 million BTC remain in profit — more than double the underwater amount.
- Coinbase cryptography chief Yehuda Lindell publicly rebutted a viral 'bunker mode' post by Justin Drake warning that AI could break elliptic-curve cryptography, calling the claim 'fear mongering' and FUD with 'zero evidence.'
- Despite the sell-off, a State Street survey of 300 institutional investors found 51% expect digital assets to become mainstream within five years, up from 11% in 2024, with institutions holding an average 11% of portfolios in crypto.
Why it matters: The sell-off is hitting crypto-adjacent equities especially hard: five former-mining companies now marketed as AI data-center plays lost between 6.4% and 10.7% in a single session, exposing how thin the 'pivot to AI' narrative has become when macro headwinds — a 5%-plus oil spike after a Qatar tanker attack, 30-year yields above 5.73%, and Waller's hawkish signals — converge against risk assets. For bitcoin holders, the re-test of $80,000 with 6.4 million coins now underwater marks the sharpest loss-side expansion since mid-September, even as institutional survey data points to growing long-term allocation.
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