Bitcoin slides toward last week’s lows as tech stocks falter on AI concerns and gold and silver drop.

Bitcoin Slides as Tech Stocks and Precious Metals Plunge

The close link between cryptocurrencies and the software sector re-emerged on Wednesday, sending bitcoin (BTC $70,086.22) back toward last week’s lows. After briefly climbing above $70,000, bitcoin has surrendered nearly all of its recent gains, trading around $65,000 as weakness in the broader tech sector weighed on the market.

Bitcoin fell roughly 2% over the past 24 hours, with ether (ETH $2,093.00) and solana (SOL $86.67) posting similar declines.

The pullback mirrored broader losses in the Nasdaq, which dropped 2% on Wednesday. The software-heavy iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) led the slump, tumbling 3% as investors reassessed the sector’s high valuations amid the rapid rise of AI coding capabilities. Year-to-date, the IGV is down 21%.

“Software stocks are struggling again today. IGV is essentially back to last week’s panic lows,” noted macro strategist Jim Bianco. “Don’t forget there’s another type of software, ‘programmable money’ — crypto. They are the same thing.”

Meanwhile, precious metals suffered sharp mid-afternoon declines. Silver plunged 10.3% to $75.08 per ounce, while gold dropped 3.1% to $4,938, erasing earlier modest gains.