Slump continues: IT stocks in the red, Bitcoin nearing 60,000 US dollars

The slump in IT stocks continues, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index falling for the third consecutive day on Thursday. At the same time, Bitcoin has been unable to end its downward spiral and was briefly worth only 60,000 US dollars on Thursday – hours earlier, the 70,000 US dollar mark had been breached. The day was particularly bad for stocks in the crypto and financial sectors, with Coinbase losing over 13 percent and Robinhood almost 10 percent. But even the heavyweights didn't fare well; Microsoft lost a good five percent again, Amazon five, and Alphabet almost two. Palantir even dropped seven percent.

Many small pinpricks

There is no single reason for the downturn, explains Bloomberg. This distinguishes the current development from the massive price crash triggered by US President Donald Trump last spring with his announcement of numerous tariffs. Instead, a steady stream of news has fueled the sell-off by increasing uncertainty about the valuation of the IT sector, which was already considered too high. At the same time, cryptocurrencies, gold, and silver have not proven to be safe havens this time around, and the slide of Bitcoin, in particular, has accelerated again recently.

After the most important cryptocurrency by far breached the 70,000 US dollar mark on Thursday, it continued to fall steadily. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the price even dropped to just over 60,000 US dollars overnight into Friday before a slight recovery set in. Currently, the price for one Bitcoin is trending around 66,000 US dollars. The price curve for other cryptocurrencies looks almost identical. The market capitalization of all crypto assets has therefore fallen to just over two trillion US dollars; on January 19, it was still over three trillion. No trend reversal is in sight here either.

Despite this development, experts generally speak of a correction rather than a full-blown crisis. Bloomberg quotes an analyst who believes the decline primarily reflects the conviction that some stocks were overvalued. According to Reuters, some analysts now see a good time to buy stocks again. However, it is also admitted there that it is difficult to identify the lowest point of such a price slide while it is happening. After software stocks, in particular, had come under pressure in recent weeks due to fears of AI competition, on Thursday there were increasing voices who considered this to be misguided.

(mho)