By Vicky Ge Huang
One investment left behind in markets' recent record run: bitcoin.
The world's biggest cryptocurrency fell for a fourth straight day on Wednesday, trading at around $65,380 as of 4 p.m. ET. The token has shed 25% this year, erasing about half of its value since reaching a peak above $126,000 in early October.
For months, bitcoin had been holding its ground in a fairly narrow trading range after tumbling from its highs. Then one of bitcoin's biggest evangelists blinked. Strategy, the largest corporate accumulator of the digital token, sold a portion of its massive holdings for the first time since the depths of the crypto winter in 2022.
The next day, bitcoin fell below $70,000 for the first time since early April.
Michael Saylor, Strategy's executive chairman, had famously urged his followers to never sell their bitcoin. The company said Monday that it sold 32 bitcoin last week for roughly $2.5 million and intends to use the proceeds to fund distributions on its preferred stock. Shares of Strategy dropped 7% Wednesday.
Bitcoin's recent slide marks a stark departure from its historical relationship with tech stocks, which have surged to send the S&P 500 to new highs. The digital currency has traditionally traded in tandem with riskier assets, and led the market's declines during the AI-driven tech rout late last year . Some worry that suggests crypto's slump could be presaging a broader market decline.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.7% from its record high after the latest skirmish between the U.S. and Iran sent oil prices higher. Tech stocks led the declines, with the sector falling 1.5%. Shares of Nvidia fell 3.6%, while Microsoft dropped 3.1%. The Dow industrials slid 1.2%, or 621 points, weighed down by declines in IBM.
Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, rose 1.9% to $97.81 a barrel.
Strategy's surprise sale has also left investors and analysts wondering if more pain could be on the way. Additional sales by the company could send bitcoin plunging.
"It might be early innings for this change in strategy from Strategy," said Joshua Lim, global co-head of markets at crypto trading firm FalconX. "Most buyers of bitcoin are on pause until we are past some of the major unresolved catalysts this summer."
Many others are fleeing. A dozen spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds launched by Wall Street firms such as BlackRock and Fidelity Investments in 2024 have been on a 12-day streak of outflows totaling about $4 billion, according to James Seyffart, ETF research analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
"Things have mostly gone sideways since October but this is the first true bitcoin bear market we've seen since the ETFs launched," said Seyffart.
Meanwhile, many of the individual traders who long powered crypto's wildest bull runs have gotten swept up in the excitement around artificial-intelligence stocks. The PHLX Semiconductor Index, stuffed with highfliers such as Nvidia, Intel and Micron, last week posted its strongest performance through the first 100 trading days of any year on record.
"What we need to get people interested in crypto and bitcoin again is probably some of the air coming out of the AI trade," said Jake Ostrovskis, head of OTC trading at crypto trading firm Wintermute.
AI stocks are likely to continue dominating the spotlight as investors brace for a wave of blockbuster initial public offerings, headlined by Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX and AI giant Anthropic.
Some bitcoin die-hards are holding out hope that the potential passage of the Clarity Act, which establishes a regulatory framework for all digital assets, will unlock a wave of new institutional capital for crypto and lift bitcoin from its slump. Skeptics doubt the bill will trigger a major price rally, and say the regulatory environment under the Trump administration is already about as crypto-friendly as it gets.
"While people are just chasing everything else, it's very hard to get any sort of catalyst strong enough to turn this market," Ostrovskis said.
Write to Vicky Ge Huang at vicky.huang@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 03, 2026 16:40 ET (20:40 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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