Bitcoin Struggles Near US$80K as AI Sell-Off Hits Markets and ETFs Lose US$636 Million

After topping out at US$84,835 (AU$121,066) in early trading yesterday, Bitcoin (BTC) is clinging to the US$80K (AU$114K) mark. Earlier this morning, Australian time, it dropped as low as US$80,958 (AU$115,533), according to data from CoinMarketCap.

At the time of writing, BTC trades at US$81,626 (AU$116,499), a drop of 1.36% over the past 24 hours and 3.78% from yesterday’s high.

Altcoins have also come under pressure, with DeFi tokens such as Curve DAO and ether.fi losing over 7% in the past 24 hours. Stacks, LayerZero and several other major altcoins have also recorded substantial losses.

Read more: Standard Chartered Moves to Acquire Crypto Custodian with Australian Operations

AI Worries and Geopolitical Tensions Hit Global Stocks

Concerns about AI spending, rising oil prices and geopolitical tensions have also weighed on equity markets across the Asia-Pacific region.

Losses started on Thursday and carried into Friday trading. South Korea’s KOSPI lost 2.4%, China’s Shanghai Composite 1.3%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 1.7% and Australia’s ASX 200 0.2%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng recovered slightly from Thursday’s 3% loss and was trading 0.2% higher on Friday.

Thursday trading also saw US stocks tumble as the Nasdaq dropped 2.6% – its steepest daily slide since June – while the S&P 500 lost 1.21% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 6.7%. Meta fell approximately 7% as investors questioned the costs of expanding AI infrastructure.

Investors also sought safety in US government bonds, with Treasuries recording their biggest daily rally in over a year, according to Bloomberg.

Markets are also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve’s 27–28 October meeting, with renewed inflation concerns adding uncertainty over the central bank’s next move.

Read also: ASIC Investigates Australian Financial Firm Amid Fears Investors Lost AU$138 Million

ETFs Bleed, Reversing Almost 60% of US$1 Billion in Inflows

Meanwhile, US spot Bitcoin ETFs are reporting heavy outflows. After the first three trading days of the week brought net inflows of US$1.075 billion (AU$1.54 billion), Thursday offset almost 60% of these gains. 

Five funds, including BlackRock’s IBIT, Fidelity’s FBTC, Bitwise’s BITB, ARK’s ARKB and Grayscale’s GBTC, posted a combined US$637.9 million (AU$910.5 million) in outflows, only partially offset by US$2.3 million (AU$3.28 million) in inflows into Morgan Stanley’s MSBT.

The two largest losers, IBIT and FBTC, saw US$254.1 million (AU$362.6 million) and US$217.5 million (AU$310.4 million) in net outflows, respectively.

That leaves the funds with approximately US$439 million (AU$626.5 million) in net inflows for the week, despite Thursday’s heavy withdrawals.