Bitcoin falls below $98,000 as Nasdaq shares crash

Cryptocurrencies tumbled to start the last week of January, after a run to new record highs and a sell-off in technology stocks driven by DeepSeek amid a market slowdown.

Price of bitcoin It fell 5% to $98,432.54, according to CoinMetrics. Earlier, it was lowered to $97,750.00. The broader cryptocurrency market is down about 10% as measured by the CoinDesk 20 Index.

Nasdaq futures were down about 4% in early trading.

Shares of Coinbase And Micro strategy It fell 6% and 5% in premarket trading. Bitcoin miners powering AI ventures have suffered deep cuts. Core scientific Slide 18.5%, while Teraulf 14% lost and IronPreviously known as Iris Energy, it has decreased by 10%.

Crypto has been under pressure amid a surge in tech stocks. Chinese startup DeepSeek claims it has created a competitive artificial intelligence model for a fraction of the cost, raising concerns about US dominance in AI and huge technology spending on AI models and data centers.

“Today’s 3% drop in Nasdaq futures (via Dipsec news) has led to the digital asset’s biggest overnight unwind so far,” Standard Chartered’s Geoff Kendrick wrote in a Monday note. “This relationship highlights the continued strong (and strengthening) relationship between digital assets and the technology sector.[Bitcoin]is strongly linked to the Nasdaq, much more so than gold.”

Bitcoin has seen more than $250 million in long liquidity in the past 24 hours; According to CoinGeckoTraders who use bitcoin to bet on the price have been forced to sell their assets to cover their losses.

The sell-off comes down to President Donald Trump’s widely expected executive order on crypto, which was issued late Thursday afternoon and followed a lack of news. Some crypto traders were disappointed. ordering It did not fully promise to establish a reserve, and some did not care for the language of “reserve” with a reserve. (While the latter involves actively buying bitcoin in its regular units, inventory does not sell any bitcoin currently held by the U.S. government.) Bitcoin hit a new record high of more than $109,000 last week in anticipation of the executive order.

“Ultimately, this sets up digital assets whether or not the sell driver comes from digital assets (in this case, the Nasdaq) to be more vulnerable to a higher selloff risk,” Kendrick said of the market’s initial reaction to the order. . However, at least the news of the Trump administration is there, so the frustration/confusion and therefore the ‘level of hope’ is over.

Investors may also be scoffing ahead of this week’s Federal Reserve meeting, which is scheduled to end on Wednesday.

“Investors are hoping the Fed will be more accommodative, but fear the Fed won’t be as hawkish as the market would like to see,” said Joel Kruger, market strategist at LMAX. “The most important takeaway right now is to see the forest for the trees. Looking at the bitcoin chart, there is no problem with the price action.”

—CNBC’s Michael Bloom reports.