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Digital asset-focused stocks plummeted on Wednesday as Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies extended their recent slump, even as tech stocks steadied.
Stablecoin issuer Circle closed at $69.72, down nearly 9% after recovering ground lost earlier in the day when it fell below $69, its lowest level since debutick Eng on the New York Stoxchange.
The world's largest crypto treasury, Strategy, topped a short list of hard-hit companies in the sector, plunging close to 10%, while Ethereum-focused Bitmine Immersion fell 9.6%. Ethereum-tracking Sharplink Gaming sank more than 6%.
Circle, Strategy, and Bitmine rose in after-hours trading after artificial intelligence chip giant Nvidia reported strong third-quarter earnings, quelling recent concerns about AI firms' valuations that had dragged down risk-on markets.
Bitcoin was recently trading at about $92,000, down 2.7% over the past 24 hours, CoinGecko data shows.
But during trading hours, the leading crypto by market cap fell below $88,600 for the first time since late April. Bitcoin's price is now down 4% for the year, just six weeks after hitting its record high above $126,000.
Ethereum was recently down 2%. XRP and Solana dropped 4% and 2%, respectively, despite the success of exchange-traded funds based on those tokens and the upcoming listing of three ETFs tracking those assets.
Bitcoin miners were also hard-hit with MARA Holdings, Riot Platforms, and CleanSpark plunging between 4% and 6.5%.
Those firms, which have been shifting resources to address demand for the robust computing networks needed by AI systems, also rose after the Nvidia report, although their share prices have plummeted more than 40% during the past month.
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Posts Record $523 Million Daily Loss as BTC Price Slump Worsens
Coinbase fell 1.8%. On Wednesday, the exchange giant seemed to tease the introduction of a prediction market in an X post heralding a "new era" for the firm.
Robinhood Markets offered a rare bright spot for the day, rising 3.3%, while Galaxy Digital ticked up 0.7%.
Amid the recent carnage, confidence in crypto markets has sunk, with a Myriad prediction market showing nearly 70% of respondents who expect Bitcoin to fall to $85,000, with the remainder forecasting a move to $115,000–reversing a trendline established just a week ago.
Przemysław Kral, CEO of crypto exchange Zondacrypto, told Decrypt in an email that Bitcoin has the "potential to decrease further," amid the widening "economic uncertainty," including "diminishing hopes for interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve."
Myriad is a unit of Dastan, the parent company of an editorially independent Decrypt.
