Bitcoin Slips as Wall Street's AI Wipeout Drags Crypto Down With It

Bitcoin slid Friday, then caught its breath at $76,292, after a deep U.S. equity rout spilled over into crypto trading. The dip came fast once American markets opened, but BTC stopped bleeding and settled near that level. Crypto-linked stocks didn't get off as easy: Coinbase dropped 9.69%, and MSTR fell 9.29%.

The broader tape was ugly. The Nasdaq 100 sank 6.4%, its steepest single-day drop since March 2020, while the S&P 500 lost 4.4%. A semiconductor index plunged 12%, wiping out roughly $2.3 trillion in market value. The VIX volatility gauge spiked 70% as fear tore through the session.

Chip names led the carnage. Nvidia fell 9%, Micron tumbled 17.46%, Sandisk sank 22% and Western Digital shed 17%. Investors treated anything AI-adjacent as a liability, not an opportunity.

The trigger sits in Washington. Democrats swept both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, and markets are now gaming out whether those new majorities will tighten the screws on AI-related spending and data-center construction. That uncertainty hammered the tech complex first — and crypto got hauled down alongside it.

The takeaway from Friday: crypto isn't trading in its own bubble right now. When equities sneeze, coins and crypto equities catch the cold, and this session put Bitcoin squarely in the path of the broader retreat.