Bitcoin and ether rise as AI-linked stocks slide and Brent jumps above $107
BTC held above $77,000 while QQQ fell 1.5% pre-market after renewed calls to slow AI development.
Bitcoin traded above $77,000 and gained about 1% over the past 24 hours to roughly $77,800 even as U.S. AI/tech equities sold off in Monday pre-market trading. Ether also added about 1% to roughly $2,500 as Brent crude climbed more than 3% to $107 a barrel, tightening the macro backdrop.
Crypto Holds Green While AI/Tech Tape Turns Red
Bitcoin traded above $77,000 and was up about 1% over the past 24 hours to roughly $77,800, while ether added about 1% to around $2,500. The notable part of the tape was the divergence: majors were green into the U.S. open while the tech complex was red.
Pre-market equity pricing pointed to a broad hit to AI-linked risk. Invesco QQQ, the ETF that tracks the Nasdaq-100 and serves as a liquid proxy for large-cap U.S. tech, was down 1.5% in pre-market trading. Within the AI-adjacent cohort, Nebius was down 6% and CoreWeave was down 5% pre-market, while chip-linked names Sandisk and Intel were each down 5%.
That split matters for positioning because BTC and ETH have tended to trade as high-beta expressions of the same growth and liquidity impulse that drives the Nasdaq. When they stop doing that for a session, the question becomes whether crypto is catching a bid on its own flows or simply lagging a move that will reassert once cash equities open.
AI-Safety Slowdown Talk Hits Equities as Energy Jumps
The narrative catalyst for the AI/tech weakness was renewed public talk about slowing AI development. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for the industry to slow development so safety measures can catch up, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk voiced agreement.
The risk-off tone was not confined to U.S. pre-market prints. South Korea’s Kospi fell 3% and SK Hynix dropped 6%, extending the pressure into Asia’s AI supply chain.
Macro cross-currents were mixed, with one clean stressor. Brent crude climbed more than 3% to $107 a barrel and WTI, the key U.S. oil benchmark, traded above $103. Higher energy prices feed directly into inflation expectations and can tighten risk conditions even when other inputs look calmer.
Rates and havens did not confirm a full-blown flight to safety. Longer-dated U.S. Treasury yields edged lower, with the 10-year just below 5% and the 30-year at 5.355%, while precious metals fell with gold down almost 1% to around $4,300 an ounce and silver down 1.5%.
Open Questions Into the Cash Session: Correlation, Rates, and the AI IPO Drumbeat
The first test is whether the divergence survives the cash open. BTC holding above $77,000 and ETH holding near $2,500 while QQQ’s 1.5% pre-market drop either confirms or fades will tell traders whether this is real decoupling or just timing.
Energy is the other live wire. Brent holding near or above $107 and WTI staying above $103 keeps the inflation-pressure narrative in play, while a pullback would take the edge off the macro headwind that can bleed into both equities and crypto.
Rates and havens are the check on whether oil is tightening conditions fast enough to matter. Traders will be watching whether the 10-year stays just below 5% and the 30-year stays near 5.355%, and whether gold continues to slide from around $4,300 rather than catching a bid.
The AI corporate calendar is also part of the backdrop. Anthropic reportedly selected Nasdaq for its anticipated IPO, though the packet includes no primary document confirming the venue, and Altman said OpenAI will not go public in 2026.
My Take: This Is a Correlation Test, Not a Clean ‘Risk-On’ Day
The threshold that matters is whether BTC can keep trading above $77,000 while QQQ stays heavy once real liquidity hits the tape. A pre-market divergence is easy to print and hard to sustain, and the oil move is the kind of macro input that can force correlations back together when vol picks up.
If Brent holds above $107 and the AI/tech complex stays under pressure, crypto staying green starts to look like a genuine rotation rather than a delayed reaction. If equities stabilize and crypto gives back the bid, this reads as a brief correlation wobble inside a broader risk-sensitive regime.
