Bitcoin Falls Into $80,000 Range as Fear Batters Stocks and Crypto

Bitcoin fell into the $80,000 range and Ether dropped more than 5%, as major cryptocurrencies came under broad pressure. Higher-than-expected US inflation and anxiety over artificial intelligence spending weighed on sentiment in digital assets, extending a selloff already gripping equities.

On Oct. 14, Bitcoin traded at $81,325.85 on Binance's Tether market, down 2.70% from a day earlier. It fell as low as $80,000 during the session and at one point risked slipping into the $79,000 range for the first time in more than a month. Ether dropped 5.48% to $2,373. While both assets declined, Ether's loss was roughly double Bitcoin's.

Other major cryptocurrencies also moved lower. Solana fell 4.6% to $103, while XRP dropped 4.3% to $1.3. BNB and Hyperliquid fell 3.5% and 3.7%, respectively, to $719 and $79.

Zcash posted a double-digit decline, tumbling about 13% from 24 hours earlier to the $1,109 level. Dogecoin also fell 5.7% to $0.08.

Pressure across risk assets was driven by an inflation surprise out of the US. The September US consumer price index, released on Oct. 14, rose 3.7% from a year earlier, topping the market forecast of 3.6%. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, climbed 2.6%, also above expectations of 2.5%. Persistent inflation heightened concerns that the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates again.

Worries over how AI companies are financing investment added to the pressure. AI cloud company CoreWeave sank 15.46% overnight as concern over its debt burden came to the fore. Doubts over funding for data-center expansion and profitability spread selling across technology shares. On Wall Street, the Nasdaq fell 1.88% and the S&P 500 dropped 1.11%. Hankyung and Yonhap reported.

South Korean stocks were not spared. As of 12 p.m., the Kospi had fallen 7.64% from the previous session to 5,549.61. The Kosdaq was down 7.68% at 760.58 as of 11:55 a.m. Earlier, sell-side sidecars were triggered for program sell orders for five minutes at 9:07 a.m. on the benchmark stock market and at 9:12 a.m. on the Kosdaq market.

Heavy selling also hit large semiconductor stocks. At the same time, Samsung Electronics fell 9.27% to 210,500 won ($152), while SK Hynix dropped 10.92% to 1,264,000 won ($915). With rate concerns and anxiety over AI investment hitting at once, both stocks and cryptocurrencies weakened, freezing sentiment across risk assets.