Bitcoin dips below US$90,000 as AI worries dent risk appetite

Cryptocurrencies tumbled on Thursday and bitcoin fell back below the US$90,000 (HK$702,000) threshold in a renewed signal of market jitters as fresh concerns about artificial intelligence profits weighed on technology stocks.

Risk sentiment turned sour after US cloud firm Oracle's profit and revenue outlook missed forecasts and executives flagged higher spending - a sign AI infrastructure outlays are not turning profits as quickly as investors had hoped.

Bitcoin was last down 2.5 percent at US$90,056.24, while ether tumbled 4.3 percent to US$3,196.62, erasing the past two days of gains, extending weakness that began in the U.S. trading session on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates.

Stocks in Asia fell and futures pointed to lower openings in Europe and the United States.

"What we saw last night was even though risk assets were doing well, crypto didn't really want to know about it," said Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG in Sydney. "The crypto space really needs to see more convincing evidence that the washout we saw from that October 10 selloff is complete, and at this point in time it just doesn't look like it's there."

Standard Chartered on Tuesday slashed its expectations that bitcoin would hit US$200,000 by the end of 2025, lowering its forecast to US$100,000.

"We think buying by Bitcoin digital asset treasury companies is likely over," said Geoff Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered. "As a result, we now think future Bitcoin price increases will effectively be driven by one leg only – ETF buying."

Reuters