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Bitcoin, Ether Slide
Crypto markets deepened their downturn as bitcoin traded around $62,500 and had lost more 14.5% since midnight UTC on Monday morning, while ether plunged by more than 17% and dropped 5.5% on Friday alone.
“Why diehard bitcoin purists aren’t sweating the massive price crash that wiped out $200 billion Mati Greenspan, Michael Saylor and Jameson Lopp blamed the AI boom for draining capital from bitcoin”
CoinDesk said ether was at its lowest level since April 2025, when it bounced at $1,420 before rallying to record highs over the subsequent four months, and warned that a break below that level would bring it toward 2022 bear-market levels when it dipped below $900.
CryptoRank said Bitcoin had fallen from $78,000 to around $61,000 and was down 18% over the past week and 26% over the last 30 days, while it flagged the $60,300 level as key support.
CryptoRank also said liquidations were triggered across leveraged trading positions, and it warned that a break below $60,300 may open the door to further declines toward $57,000 and potentially $52,000.
CoinDesk added that one of the worst performers on Friday was zcash (ZEC), which tumbled by more than 30% after a security researcher found an exploit that would have minted "unlimited" tokens in its shielded pool.
Saylor Blames AI
Michael Saylor framed bitcoin’s slide as capital rotation into the artificial intelligence boom rather than weakness in bitcoin, saying on X Thursday that "capital markets had funneled roughly $400 billion into artificial intelligence infrastructure over the past six months".
CoinDesk’s Mati Greenspan similarly told CoinDesk in an interview Friday, "Bitcoin is not facing a bitcoin problem. It's facing a liquidity problem," and argued that AI had become the dominant destination for speculative capital.
CryptoRank’s live market coverage tied the broader crash to leveraged liquidations and volatility, noting that Bitcoin had triggered widespread liquidations across leveraged trading positions.
Yellow also reported that spot Bitcoin ETFs had shed about $4 billion since May 14, pulling price action toward February lows, and it said Strategy sold 32 BTC, its first disposal since 2022, which unsettled investors.
CoinDesk added that Jack Mallers refrained from sharing an outlook but recommended buying the dip, while it described bitcoin maximalists as viewing the slump as a temporary liquidity crunch rather than a loss of faith.
Liquidations, ETFs, Risk
CoinGape said the crash jitters extended as Bitcoin fell below the 200-week moving average, and it reported that over $1.20 billion across Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), XRP, Solana (SOL) and other top altcoins got liquidated in the past 24 hours.
“Will Crypto Market Crash Deeper”
CoinGape also said $350 million got liquidated in just an hour and that Coinglass data showed more than 245K traders were liquidated, with the largest single occurring on Binance as someone liquidated BTCUSDT valued at $13.31 million.
CryptoRank reported that Ethereum faced liquidation risk as more than 343,000 ETH worth approximately $547 million was at risk of liquidation across DeFi lending protocols, with the largest concentration of risk sitting between $1,360 and $1,570.
CryptoRank further specified that around 46,700 ETH could be liquidated at $1,565 and another 58,000 ETH faces liquidation near $1,555, while it flagged clusters at $1,426 and $1,362 representing over $379 million in combined exposure.
CoinDesk added that U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs suffered $3.45 billion in outflows across 11 consecutive sessions, and it said the price of bitcoin was hovering below $60,000, down about 27% over the past month and down by more than 50% from its Oct. 6 all-time high.
