Market News

Bitcoin suffered its steepest one-day collapse on record after $200bn was wiped off the cryptocurrency following a Wall Street rout.

The digital currency plunged as much as 14pc late Thursday after it was swept up in a tech sell-off triggered by artificial intelligence (AI) fears.

In carnage for investors, the cryptocurrency fell below $64,000 for the first time since September 2024, below any point since the election of Donald Trump, who had campaigned to support cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin’s $200bn plunge is the sharpest decline in dollar terms seen for the cryptocurrency since it was invented. It means the world’s biggest digital asset is now about 50pc below the $126,198 record high reached in October 2025.

It came after tech stocks suffered a sell-off for the third day in a row as investors fret about disruption to the AI market.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell by about 1.6pc on Thursday, extending losses over the past five trading sessions to more than 4pc.

On Wednesday, the index lost as much as $800bn (£586bn) of its total value.

Software giants have slumped in recent days after the launch of Claude, an AI tool by Anthropic which threatens to upend their businesses.

The arrival of the bot, which can automates tasks in sectors including law and finance, has fuelled concerns that AI could cannibalise the work of traditional providers and professional services firms.

On Thursday, Anthropic launched a new Claude chatbot, which the group called “much more capable for everyday work” than the older model.

The bot, Opus 4.6, is intended to conduct financial research, triggering fears for stocks which track markets.

Shares in a number of financial services firms slipped after the launch was announced, with FactSet Research Systems, Nasdaq and S&P Global all down.

Concerns about demand for microchips also triggered a further drop in semiconductor shares with AMD falling almost 3pc and Qualcomm plunging more than 7pc.

The sell-off spread to the rest of Wall Street on Thursday, with the S&P 500 losing 1.2pc of its value and the Dow Jones slipping 1.2pc.